Matthew Maurice Million Dollar Fish win in Darwin, Australia, Digi Mart USA News (Darwin, Australia): A fish that makes you a millionaire in one catch sounds almost too good to be true. Yet that is exactly what happened to 26-year-old Matthew Maurice, an Australian.
According to the Australian broadcaster ABC News, he landed a remarkable catch during an evening of fishing that earned him one million Australian dollars.
Maurice was fishing with his younger brother at Corroboree Billabong, near Darwin, on Thursday, October 29. When he hooked a barramundi of just over 80 centimeters, he noticed something almost immediately.
“Within ten seconds I saw the fish jump out of the water and discovered a bright red label,” he told ABC News.
The red label turned out to be worth a fortune. Maurice had entered Million Dollar Fish, an Australian fishing competition in which participants can win cash prizes by catching specially tagged fish.
This season, 101 prize fish are swimming in the water, with one hundred worth 10,000 Australian dollars each. Only one fish carries the top prize of one million.
The realization that he might have a fortune on his line caused considerable tension. “It was about two minutes of complete panic.
I can’t even remember how I got the fish into the net,” Maurice recalled. “They were probably the two most stressful minutes of my life.”
Only after an official check did the Australian receive confirmation of his catch. It was indeed the fish with the top prize.
Maurice is only the second winner of the million-dollar prize in the competition’s twelve-year history. The newly minted millionaire, who wanted to share the news with his family immediately, was disbelieving.
A phone call to his mother was a particularly special moment. “I’m a millionaire, Mum,” he told her in disbelief.
Maurice has already given some thought to what he would do with such a large sum. “I don’t think I’m allowed to touch the money myself.
Maybe someone else should manage it for me,” he joked. More seriously, he added: “But I’ll probably handle it sensibly: buy a house, pay off what I still owe, and then treat myself a little.”
