Fish’n SIPS Tagged Fish Comp is a winner In mid-December 2022, Queensland’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries launched the Fish’n SIPS tagged fish competition. The competition has a $50,000 prize pool and is open to all SIPS permit holders. Five impoundments in the Wide Bay Burnett, Central and North Queensland regions (see fact box on this page) have
had 20 legal fish tagged and released in each, so anglers have the opportunity to win part of the prize pool if they are one of the first 15 to recapture one of the tagged fish. The competition will run until 31 October 2023, or until all 15 prizes have been claimed. For more details and the terms and conditions you can go to the DAF website at www. daf.qld.gov.au.
Billy receiving his $20,000 cheque from Fisheries Minister Mark Furner (left) and Rod Thompson from FFSAQ (right).
This fishing road trip was all about catching a few iconic northern bucket list species for Billy, including fish like this jungle perch.
FIRST PRIZE, $20,000 HAS BEEN WON No sooner had the Fish’n SIPS competition begun than Maleny angler Billy Perske caught a fish of a lifetime and a $20,000 windfall to go with it. Fishing Tinaroo Dam in North Queensland with good mate Tom Hallam, as part of a trip that had been planned for several years, not only did Billy catch a metre long barramundi, he had also recaptured one of the 20 green tagged fish released in Tinaroo as part of the competition. THE STORY BEHIND THE CAPTURE There is no doubt that
When this photo was taken, Billy had no idea that this fish was worth $20,000 to him in the Fish’n SIPS competition. 44 MARCH 2023
Billy Perske and Tom Hallam will have a fishing story to tell for the rest of their lives. They had COMPETITION LOCATIONS Tinaroo Dam Lake Proserpine (Peter Faust Dam) Kinchant Dam Callide Dam Cania Dam been planning that fishing road trip for many years, with three goals in mind. First, they wanted to catch a metre barramundi, second, a mangrove jack, and lastly, a jungle perch. The final destination was to be Tinaroo Dam (to catch the barra), with the other two species hopefully ticked off along the way as they drove north from Maleny on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. By the time they arrived at Tinaroo, a tick had been placed in the boxes next to the mangrove jack and jungle perch on their list, and they hoped that Tinaroo would also be kind to them. On the first couple of days they had no success, but that just made the boys keener to get their metre barramundi. They decided to fish with live baits at night as a last-ditch effort to put the final tick onto their checklist. This proved to be the winning approach, with Billy bagging a 1.07m barra (the winning tagged fish) at 2am, and Tom getting a 1.14m fish a little later that morning. Neither angler was aware of the Fish’n SIPS
Tom Hallam, who Billy split the winnings with, caught his own metre plus barramundi later that morning. Unfortunately, no tag in this one. competition, but luckily, they did notice a yellow SUNTAG tag on Billy’s fish. Then, just as they were about to release the fish, they spotted the green competition tag as well. The next day the pair made some investigations, and they discovered that Billy may well have caught a fish worth $20,000 in the competition. After several phone calls, they found that
this was indeed the case. Billy was $20,000 richer (he decided to split the money with Tom, $10,000 each). THERE IS STILL TIME Although the second prize has also been claimed (another Tinaroo fish), there is still money up for grabs in the Fish’n SIPS competition, so check the details out on the DAF website and go and give it a try yourself.
