21 January 2019
– by Paul Batten
“Baby, I’m tired of toeing the line”. Whoa who said that, I haven’t even got a line wet! Huh wishful thinking I think not!
WOW !! What a start to the 2019 Whangarei Deep Sea Anglers Club’s tournament season! A grand total of 75 Junior and Small Fry anglers joined the Arthurs Emporium Tutukaka Junior Tournament on 12th & 13th January. Boy did the Kids show us all how it’s done – with new records galore; and an awesome overall tally of 5 tagged Yellowtail Kingfish, 15 tagged Shark (including 1 Bronzewhaler, 3 Blue and 11 Mako Shark), 6 Shortbill Spearfish, 2 landed Striped Marlin, 2 tagged Striped Marlin and 2 landed Blue Marlin; not to mention the “drops” and the fish that unfortunately did not qualify for the tournament.
FANTASTIC EFFORT!! Congratulations to Madison Ross!! Fishing on GPS in the Arthurs Emporium Tutukaka Junior Tournament; Madison landed a mighty Blue Marlin weighing in at 302kg on just 15kg line – a pending Junior Club, NZ & World Record and a pending Women’s World record fish. Madison took home an Apple Iphone8+ so kindly donated by Arthurs Emporium and was also awarded the Barbara & Fred Cotterill Trophy for the most meritorious catch!! Awesome effort Madi!
Well done to Kurtis Bot in the Arthurs Emporium Tutukaka Junior Tournament. Fishing on GPS; Kurtis landed a nice 97kg Striped marlin and a Shortbill Spearfish weighing in at 17.8kg – a pending Junior Club record on 15kg line. The tag and release Marlin section was won jointly by Junior Anglers Jacob Lowther fishing on Ngaio and Layne Collinson on Ikanui – each tagging one Striped Marlin.
Mercury Bay Game Fishing Club Some very excited guys on vessel Hook Em Up. Congratulations on your amazing fish. Angler Daniel Kelly fishing aboard the “Hook Em Up” hooked a big eye tuna weighing 73.66kg caught on 37kg line. Also Congratulations to Nathanael Brown on his pending Junior Record for club and NZ. He caught an Albacore weighing in at 13.01kg caught on 37kg line aboard the “Seaquil.
Counties Sport Fishing Club Well done to Kelly Littlewood, 16 kg shortbill north of cape Brett
Bay of Islands Swordfish Club (Inc) Congratulations to angler Ian and the Hook n Bull team – 312kg!
Whakatane Sport Fishing Club N.Z A nice 24kg Shortbill Spearfish was caught on the 28th December, angler Dennis Davey aboard his boat L.A. caught in Sponsors Grid Simplex Electrical. Congrats Dennis.
Whangaroa Sport Fishing Club (Inc) A striped marlin has just been boated by Kuri II who are also in the DTF Lures marlin jackpot. Ann Candy has weighed in a striped marlin of 99kg from Kuri II. She has won the DTF Lures Marlin Jackpot. She used a Ghost lure at the Garden Patch and the fish struck three times before it stuck! Brian and Ann report 22 degrees water out there, but no skippies, but they did see a huge manta ray. There will be a presentation for them at the clubrooms at 7pm on Friday evening.
Mount Maunganui, Good fishing recently for large snapper and trevally on the light line classes, bodes well for the Nationals in 8 weeks’ time. Recent trevally record claim by Hayden Speed with a magnificent 4.866kg fish caught on 8kg line, 60.8 points if caught in the nationals. Dad, not to be shown up, caught his 5.546kg trevally on 6kg line, 92.43 points and possibly a line class champion for both anglers.
Clevedon Game Fishing Club – Anne Sharples, a staunch member of the Clevedon Game Fishing Club went out and smashed their club record by weighing her 10.30kg snapper caught on 2kg line. This is also a pending NZ record line class claim. This fish would have scored in the Nationals 515 points and a possible line class champion, interclub snapper trophy, big kudos for the angler, team and club. Well done Anne.
Reminder Tag card report – please include the entire alpha-numeric sequence to aid recording, e.g. H12345
Hokianga Big Game and Sports Fishing Club Inc Just so all our members know the Opononi Garage has now re opened under new owners and the fuel is way cheaper than before.
News from Houhora – Love it or hate it – the gate is up, and it is already proving an asset for those boaties launching and retrieving at the club jetty. For those heading up this way for the holidays, you will need GOLD coins. Cost $5 per launch & $5 per retrieval, No eftpos available! · To pick up tag please contact the club, 09 4097 7755 or email: fish.houhora@xtra.co.nz. Casual users: Will need to insert $5 in coins to open the barrier arm, no change is given. (Gold coins only) There is no charge to exit the ramp and wharf area, the arm will open automatically when leaving these areas. BE AWARE SECURITY CAMERAS ARE IN OPERATION AT ALL TIMES.
2019 sees the running of the 47th NZSFC NATIONALS, (the last international was 1972 with this event morphing into the Nationals that we know today); the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council National Tournament, which starts on the 16th of February and ends on the 23rd of February 2019. Entry forms and rules are available on the NZSFC webpage. Just click the following link
www.nzsportfishing.co.nz/our-events/2019-nationals
The Tournament runs a point system which gives anglers the opportunity to fish for line weight records and tag and release. The tournament starts with most anglers registering and attending a briefing at their Clubs before the tournament, then they’re off with some choosing to do multiple day trips in trailer boats from various ports depending on the results available each evening, while larger boats will disappear for up to the entire eight days until they have a fish to weigh. Anglers of all ages fish hard for 8 days for 32 National Trophies for teams and individual anglers. Mate versus mate, team versus team and club against club. It’s an amazing week of Fishing in New Zealand which results in some outstanding captures and New Zealand records.
A reminder from MPI Fisheries a ban on gathering shell fish in the Bay of Islands in the area from Cape Brett to Cape Wikiwiki to the north, and we issued a public health warning advising the public not to collect or consume shellfish harvested from parts of Northland. That area has now been extended. The warning is now in place from North Cape (Outo), down to Cape Karikari (Whakapouaka). It includes Parengarenga, Houhoura and Rangaunu Harbours. Routine tests on shellfish samples taken from this region have shown levels of Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) toxins above the safe limit of 0.8 mg/kg set by MPI. Anyone eating shellfish from this area is potentially at risk of illness. For more information, visit our website: www.mpi.govt.nz/travel-and-re…/…/shellfish-biotoxin-alerts/…
Tight lines and Carpe` diem.