Recreational fishing has been a favoured pastime for generations, and across Eyre Peninsula fishers are heading out and reeling in to raise funds and awareness for the positive mental health benefits fishing can bring.
Tumby Bay fisher Mick McCallum has been participating in the Bayer Big Fish Challenge for about five years, where a dollar is donated for every centimetre of the largest species of fish he catches.
The same goes for all participants in the challenge across the country.
Each year winning teams also have an opportunity to take part in the Rural Angler of the Year challenge.
Mick has caught the largest catch fish for a few species in the challenge over the years and won Angler of the Year back in 2023.
“I won it against all other state leaders in the challenge,” he said.
“I actually started this when I went into Bawden’s Ag store in Tumby years ago, one of the staff gave me a flier for it, so one night I thought I might look into this – and I set up a team and that team was successful in taking out the top honours. We had Mark Wilkins, he joined my team, and then I had other mates from around Australia join my team.
“After winning that trip to Tasmania, I think other Eyre Peninsula rural people saw that and started joining up, so this year we’ve got five teams; EP Fishing, Horse Kings of the Sea, Wilko’s Anglers, Lincoln Rural Sharks, and my team, Tumby Bayers.”
Bayer Big Fish Challenge donates money raised to The Fly Program, a not-for-profit event seeking to raise awareness and combat the impacts of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide in the Australian adult male community.
Each year, together they hold the AgSpirit Retreats and participants in the challenge can nominate rural men and women they think could use some time away to take a break, rest and recuperate in the Blue Mountains.
“That’s an all-expenses-paid trip from your local airport, and this year there’s a few people from the Eyre Peninsula that have been picked for this retreat,” Mick explained.
“You spent two to three days doing activities at the retreat with a little bit of fishing thrown in and that’s all out of The Fly Program and Bayer’s pocket.”
Lincoln Rural Sharks team member Jacob Giles has won the biggest catch for a species on his team before as well, a 190-centimetre, 115-kilogram tuna.
He was also lucky enough to tag along with a mate he nominated for The Fly Program retreat.
“We got to spend a great couple of days with other blokes from around the country,” he said.
“The focus is the opportunity for the guys to have a break and step outside of what they do day in and day out.”
On the Bayer Big Fish Challenge, Jacob said fishing was a way to improve your mental health.
“When you look at different ways to improve your own mental health, physical exercise is one, good social interactions too and that’s a part of fishing I would say, and time out, so time out and time with friends is the mentally beneficial part of fishing,” he said.
The Bayer Big Fish Challenge runs throughout the calendar year and was created as a friendly fishing challenge by Bayer Crop Science, to support rural mental wellbeing through a partnership with The Fly Program.
For support, contact Lifeline at 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue at 1300 224 636.
