A dedicated fisherman has raised a huge amount of money to buy fish to stock Lake Wyangan and bring fishing back earlier than planned.
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Tom Armstrong has been fishing since he was young, and was inspired to fill the lake with larger fish after missing seeing families and fishers out on the lake on weekends.
He quickly started asking around to local businesses to scope out interest and raised $10,000 in weeks. He partnered with Oz-Fish Australia to fill the lake with cod between 20 and 60 centimetres long.
He then approached Griffith City Council, who have agreed to match the money raised dollar-for-dollar and giving Oz-Fish and Mr Armstrong over $20,000 to purchase the cod.
"I decided to do a self-funded project and basically, it's me going around town asking companies for money to put large-bodied species back in the lake... not fingerlings, these ones can be caught straight away," Mr Armstrong explained.
A few years ago, you had families and young people catching fish and releasing them... it's amazing to see what this lake means to the local community
- Tom Armstrong
"It was disappointing to see people not out there fishing. A few years ago, you had families and young people catching fish and releasing them. It's amazing to see what this lake means to the local community ... I've got a young family and I want them to be able to catch decent-sized fish."
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While he wasn't sure exactly how many fish it will provide, he estimated it will be well over 1000 and provide fishing for a healthy number of months as the fingerlings grow.
Mayor John Dal Broi was pleased to see Mr Armstrong take the initiative and was pleased to have council backing the effort.
"It's great to see that somebody saw a problem and is doing something about it rather than complain ... With that sort of involvement, I see it going forward that Tom can be part of our committee," he said.
"It's important that we have people who know about fishing and are involved, and council will support them."
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