Onslow fishing club ready to hook members

Fishing in Onslow is set to take off with the creation of the town’s first club dedicated to the sport.

The Ashburton Anglers fishing club was set up about a month ago by a group of Onslow locals keen to grow the sport locally and promote its offerings to tourists.

Despite being based in Onslow, the club will cover the whole Shire of Ashburton area, including Tom Price, Paraburdoo and Pannawonica.

Club chairman Cam McGurk said the idea for the club had grown out of the strong interest he had seen for the annual Onslow fishing competition in his three years as organiser.

“Fishing is probably the favourite pastime for the locals in Onslow, and we also get a lot of tourists coming to town from across the Pilbara to fish,” he said.

“There’s excellent fishing here — you can catch all the same sort of species as in Karratha and Exmouth, including all the bottom-bouncing species, red emperor, coral trout, snapper, rankin cod, a lot of Spanish mackerel, and you can also get some game species such as billfish and marlin.”

“There’s also creek fishing for mud crabs and blue swimmer crabs, mangrove jacks, and barramundi in the Ashburton River, so we have it all here.”

He said the club had already attracted 42 members, including some from the inland Pilbara, and was likely to grow.

The club committee is also aiming to work with other fishing clubs in the North West.

Mr McGurk said the club planned to hold three major events a year, including the annual Onslow fishing competition which it would take over from Onslow Sports Club, a Mackerel 10K event and a new year-long competition that would only be open to members.

“The vision for the club is to promote recreational fishing and sporting endeavour in the community and encourage junior participation in recreational fishing,” he said. “We really want to bring the Ashburton community together through fishing, and others in the greater region as well.”

For more information, go to the Ashburton Anglers Facebook page.