By the end of the weekend, the 63 teams fishing had caught around 450 flathead, measuring, photographing and releasing them.

The winning team was Team Bunnies from Junee consisting of Brodie Guthrie, Terry Douglas, Barry Jones and Mick Guthrie, who scored 1061 points.

The team got an amazing 17 fish on the first day, 14 of which came in the morning without them even leaving the starting point. Their biggest fish was 65cm.

Team captain Mick Guthrie said his boys were pretty much locals as they had on-site caravans in the Narooma Flat caravan park that they visited as many as five times a year and had fished in the challenge every year.

His only disappointment was that he had always wanted to win an electric trolling motor, but this year the top prizes were changed to fishing sounders.

The Narooma Flathead Challenge was started six years ago by publican Paul O’Brien as a way of attracting visitors to town after Christmas

The competition was also a chance to donate funds to the Starlight Foundation and the event raised $3500.