Lucky 13: Local angler catches his third $10,000 Million Dollar Fish

A local fisherman has struck gold yet again, reeling in his third $10,000 fish in Australis’s richest fishing competition. This remarkable catch adds to his impressive tally and solidifies his reputation as one of the leading winning anglers over the ten years of Million Dollar Fish competition.

While fishing at Browns Fish for a bit late on Monday, October 21, George Voukolus found the experience average and considered heading to the crossing. Instead, he stopped at Bamboo to check it out. At 8:45pm, after an hour of fishing there, he landed a 68cm red-tagged fish worth $10,000.

While fishing from the bank, he hooked his fish using a fizzer and instantly recognised it as a barra when it jumped three or four times before landing in the mud. After pushing it back into the water to rinse off the mud, he spotted the red tag and quickly dragged it back to the bank.

George is delighted to be up on the leaderboard of Million Dollar Fish.

“Happy as Chappy, this is the second one from Bamboo. I’ve been doing it all my life now, 54 years fishing for barra, born and bred here I love it.

“Three now so this is good.”

The local Territorian has claimed three $10,000 prizes in the Million Dollar Fish competition, having reeled in six fish in total, three of which were eligible for the cash prizes, while the other three were out of season.

The Daly River has proven to be George’s lucky fishing grounds, with all his winning barramundi caught just 140 km south of Darwin. His success began in Season 2 when he landed his first red-tagged $10,000 fish—a 64 cm barra. He followed that up in Season 3 with another victory, reeling in a 70 cm barra as his second winning catch.

SportsBet NT Operations and Partnerships Manager Thijs Bors is excited to see lucky 13 reeled in.

“Congratulations to George on winning another $10,00, this is his third time reeling in a red-tagged 10k fish over ten seasons. So, he is on to something.

“We’re still less than a month into Season 10 and records are starting to fall. We can’t wait to see who is next and how big their barra is, a lot is happening with Australia’s richest fishing competition.”

There are now 86 red-tagged $10,000 fish and 10 fish with a million-dollar tag for Season 10. Each season the competition sees red-tagged barramundi released in Darwin, Katherine, Arnhem Land, Kakadu and Tiwi Islands waterways.

As the official charity partner, Cancer Council NT receives $1000 for every $10,000 tagged fish caught, bringing the total contribution to the charity to $13,000 so far. A total of $143,000 has been paid out since the launch of Season 10, marking a promising start to the season.

Million Dollar Fish Season 10 runs until 31 March 2025. Delivered by Northern Territory Major Events Company and supported by Sportsbet the competition is open to people aged over 18, with free registration. Simply by registering you are entered into the monthly prize draw valued at $79,000.