The competitive juices run deep in elite athletes. It doesn’t matter what they do, it’s a contest.

Take the West Coast Eagles players for instance. After a tough day on the sand, working through an exhaustive early morning training session at Eco Beach, about 150km south of Broome, they were soon ready for the next battle.

The playing squad is in the Kimberley on a community/training camp, greeting and mingling with locals, as well as fitting in some important conditioning training for the fast approaching 2012 season.

Between community appearances and gruelling training sessions, they also availed themselves of an opportunity to drop a line in the water. After all, if you are going to venture to these tranquil parts, it would almost be criminal to forgo such a chance.

And if you’re around a group of elite sportsmen, the leisurely piscatorial pursuit will always become competitive. So, it was in this instance.

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Three boats pulled into the bay of the Eco Beach Resort, players were ferried out to mooring in an inflatable dinghy and they then headed out to sea to test their angling skills. Meanwhile, a large party remained on land and the players were couriered to a creek, doing their best to land a prized catch.

It was strictly a catch-and-release exercise, with the skippers of the boats relaying back to base the deeds of the Eagles players, while similar reports were conveyed by the drivers on land.

At the creek, rookie Anton Hamp landed a 1.2-metre shark, while Jeremy McGovern caught a couple of smaller black tip reef sharks and a blue-nosed salmon.

Chris Masten was also among the action, but out at sea the boys were doing even better, with Mark LeCras, a skilful angler enjoying a great day with others aboard Boat 3.

LeCras caught about 75kg of fish on his own, ranging from golden trevally and queen snapper to mackerel and he was the eventual winner of the best angler award. Not far behind was Shannon Hurn, but almost everyone on the boat trip had their moment of excitement before the fish were returned to the sea.

Day four of the Eco Beach experience began with another beach run, laced with a few fun activities, and will follow with a leadership development session and a visit to a remote aboriginal settlement.