It has been ten years coming, but Australia's coarse anglers have finally clipped the Kiwis at the Trans-Tasman cup, with Lake Forbes in central NSW serving as the unlikely venue for one of the country's longest-running fishing rivalries.
The contest, run annually by the Australian Federation of Coarse Angling Associations, was held in tandem with the Australian Team Nationals over the ANZAC Day long weekend. Competitors travelled in from Melbourne, Adelaide, Auckland and Christchurch to fish long poles and small floats from the manicured banks of the in-town lake, returning week after week to weigh-ins built around modest carp, redfin and small native species.
For Australian captain Howard Johns, the scoreline finally swung the right way.
"It's the first time we've won since 2016 - we're very happy," Johns said.
The individual standings underlined how tight the home side was at the top. Melbourne angler Chris Bevis was crowned national champion after putting more than 52kg of fish on the boards across the event, the kind of consistent multi-day total that often decides international team sport. Adelaide's Stewart Eason placed second, with Auckland-based Paul Harris taking third.
In the Team Nationals, the Aussie quartet of Allan Webb, Martyn Rymer, Glenn Nicholls and Gary Dallimore (technically based in Christchurch but fishing in colours) lifted the team title to round out the weekend. Webb was unusually warm about the location chosen by the federation.
"Forbes as a town is beautiful: it's one of the prettiest towns and the cleanest towns," Webb said.
Coarse angling sits well outside the mainstream Australian recreational fishing picture, and Johns took the chance to lay out the basics for the wider audience the event was attracting.
"We use fine lines, small hooks, and very long poles - up to about 14m long," Johns said.
Those 14-metre poles, often elasticated and assembled section by section, allow anglers to drop a small hook bait at fixed range without ever casting. The technique was imported from the UK and continental Europe, where competition coarse angling is a long-established sport, and Australia's stronghold remains a small but committed network of clubs spread across Victoria, NSW and South Australia.
The town of Forbes itself leaned into hosting duties, with the Amazing Forbes NSW visitor program staging formal welcomes for visiting competitors. Lake Forbes, the centrally located man-made waterway, is well stocked with the bait fish targets that suit the discipline.
The cup now stays on the Australian side until at least 2027, when New Zealand is due to host the next leg. That anniversary will also mark 40 years since the first Trans-Tasman fixture in 1987, an event that began with a handful of Australian and New Zealand sides comparing notes on a still-foreign technique.