Catch of the day lands teen fisherman life-changing cash prize

There’s fishing yarns*, and then there’s Keegan Payne’s fishing yarn.

The 19-year-old is possibly Australia’s newest millionaire and surely one of its youngest, after hooking* a barramundi* worth $1 million on Sunday morning.

The teen, from Katherine in the Northern Territory, caught the 67cm barra while on a fishing trip with his family in the Katherine River, 317km south of Darwin. The fish had been tagged as part of the annual Million Dollar Fish angling* competition, now in its ninth year.

Keegan detailed his plans for the major cash win, including helping his family out with their mortgages.

“This is crazy for us, we’re a big family, there’s eight of us,” he said.

“This is more money than we could ever ask for. This is just great. It means so much.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me. I’m happy, really happy.

“I can buy what I want, maybe help Dad and Mum out with the home loans.”

Keegan called the competition’s hotline in the early hours of Sunday morning and was invited, along with his family, to collect his prize.

The competition had been running since 2015, but no one had caught the million-dollar barramundi until now.

Every season, more than a hundred fish are tagged* with unique markings before being released into various waterways throughout the Northern Territory.

Organisers revealed on Tuesday they had indeed released the prize in the Katherine River, through barramundi, which can live for more than 20 years and have been known to travel 622km between research tags.

During “Season 9” of the competition, 80 million-dollar fish were released, though organisers say the remainders will now be worth $10,000.

Additionally, 103 “$10,000 Red-Tagged Fish” were released, with just eight caught so far.

Keegan selected Cancer Council NT as the recipient of an additional $10,000 donation from the competition sponsor.

And Keegan landed the bountiful* barra just in time, with Season 9 ending at midnight Tuesday night.

POLL

GLOSSARY

• yarn: story, tale
• hooking: catching a fish using a sharp hook, especially one with a barb
• barramundi: large, edible Australian river and lake fish
• angling: sport of trying to catch a fish using a rod
• tagged: labelled, marked, something attached or imprinted on a person, animal or object
• bountiful: abundant, plentiful, ample

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QUICK QUIZ

1. How long was Keegan’s winning fish?
2. What kind of fish was it?
3. Which river held the winning fish and how far was it from Darwin?
4. This is the ninth season of the competition – how many $1 million fish have been caught?
5. How many million-dollar fish was released during Season 9 and what are they worth now that Keegan has claimed the million dollar major prize?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. The ones that got away
Imagine that you are one of the Million Dollar Barramundi that were never caught. How did you avoid being caught? Write a story based on this idea. Your story should be as adventurous and exciting as possible.

Time: allow at least 25 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English

2. Extension
Why do you think that it has taken so long for someone to win the Million Dollar Fish competition? Use information in the story to help you to write paragraphs explaining why.

Time: allow at least 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Science

VCOP ACTIVITY
Exercise the body and the mind
Exercise is not only important for the body, but it’s a lot of fun as well. Let’s bring more exercise into classroom learning by creating a VCOP PE game.

You can add a VCOP challenge to pretty much any game, and it’s a great way to encourage the teacher to let the class play more games.

Here is an example to get you started, then you create one of your own.

VCOP dodgeball
The normal rules of dodgeball apply. Two teams throw soft balls at each other and if you get hit, you have to sit out. The team who knocks out all the players on the other team, wins.

VCOP challenge: when you get eliminated, collect a mini-whiteboard and a basic clause from the sidelines. Up-level the sentence (make it better) by adding VCOP. When you show the teacher your completed sentence, you can return to the game.

Play for a set amount of time and the team with the most players left on the court wins.

Support: use the “Up-Level It” card set – players have to complete one card from the set instead of completing all VCOP challenges.
What can you come up with?