The seventh annual Greg Whitehead Fishing Challenge kicked off on Friday morning at Reflections Holiday Parks, Burrinjuck Waters.
The three-day event held between Friday the 19th and Sunday the 21st of August raises critical money for the Mark Hughes Foundation, a charity for brain cancer research. Hughes was firmly entrenched in the rugby league landscape, playing for the Newcastle Knights, before being diagnosed with brain cancer and starting his own foundation.
The Greg Whitehead Fishing Challenge, which is held annually on the second last weekend of August, was created to honour Greg who passed away on November 8th, 2014, to brain cancer. Greg’s passion was fishing and any spare moment he had, he would be wetting a line. Whether it was the Northern Territory, NSW South Coast or any of the inland dams or rivers around his hometown of Harden. “
[Greg Whitehead] is a local legend. He was a top bloke and one of my best mates. It was a great loss to us which is why we have the comp,” Stuart Cattanach said.
“There’s that many sponsors for the comp. I would imagine 70 per cent of the sponsors are from Harden and that they were on board from day one and that shows the respect they had for him.” There were 173 teams, made up of 433 entrants in this year’s Greg Whitehead Fishing Challenge which was an overwhelming success. Michael Cross was the lucky winner of the major prize which was a F390 Quintrex Outback boat with a 25 horsepower Yahama 4 stroke engine.
Seven limited edition lures kindly donated by Last cast Spinnerbaits will be auctioned on their Facebook page this week, as well as a signed 2022 Newcastle Knights XL jersey. The first nine lures have raised $7,825 and include red and blue plastics, and a MHF and Greg Whitehead tag.
Well done to all involved in the seventh annual Greg Whitehead Fishing Challenge last weekend at Burrinjuck Dam. A lot of fun and money was raised for a fantastic cause. More to come next week, including total figures raised.
Tim Warren
