The competition will run from midday on Friday to midday Sunday with titles in the sub-junior, junior, and senior men and women's divisions for longest carp, longest golden perch and longest cod caught.

“We have over 150 online entrants, around fifty more than last year, we had 500 competitors tun up last year so hopefully judging by the number of online entrants we can more this year,” said competition president Matthew Lashbrook. 

To improve the survival rate of fish caught, the competition will be a fully photographed competition, with fishing to be photographed against a ruler supplied. 

This year a new rule has also been introduced stipulating that only circle hooks can be used to catch the fish, with those hooks being more likely to hook a fishes mouth rather than their intestines. 

All the proceeds from the competition will be given to Rural Outreach Counselling a not for profit, community funded mental health counselling support service for individuals and families having started in the Riverina. 

Competition organizer Chris Sutton said the contest will be held across 30 km of the Murrumbidgee with competitors being permitted to fish as far upstream as Cooba Pump Station and as far down stream as the Uri Creek off-take. 

“I saw some bardi-grubs used and some very healthy fish were being caught, shrimp and cheese also works, I think the theory is that because it’s fatty cheese attracts a lot of shrimp in the water with cod eating the shrimp and the cheese,” Mr Sutton said. 

Mr Sutton said in previous year the proceeds of the contest have gone into funding Can Assist, Professor Dominic Rowe’s research into motor neurone disease, and charities involved in prostate cancer in 2016 and 2015. 

“It's raised roughly 20 grand a year, if we have a successful year this year it could be 100 grand raised for local charities, it’s not possible without our sponsors.”