Whangaroa Big Gamefish Club Tournaments and Contests
Light Tackle Battles at Whangaroa
For competition spirit the Queen’s Birthday Light Tackle Contest is arguably the best of the season. The competition between the launches ‘Diomedea’ and ‘Kahlua II’ for the honour of holding the ‘Diomedea Cup’ for a year, is fierce and friendly.
This competition is specifically for our light tackle enthusiasts which at this time of year also encompasses some good battles on light lines with the big green yellowtail kingfish. These fish fought on light lines produce some spectacular battles over hours of skilful manoeuvring by anglers and skippers alike; a true team effort. Battles are also fought with 1 and 2kg line with kahawai and snapper, skill indeed when you think of the delicacy of these lines.
This year 17 teams and 45 anglers took part, vying with each other for prizes and trophies for fish caught on 10kg line or less. Anglers managed to land 37 kingfish, 54 snapper, 12 kahawai, 7 trevally and a mako shark. The weather was fair on the first day of competition, and got better and better over the next two days. In the Diomedea Cup challenge for the team with most points from landed kingfish, the ‘Kahlua II’ team managed to get ahead in the points on the first day, with a fish of 17kg caught on 6kg line and 7.4kg caught on 4kg line. The action was in the Cavalli Islands and after the second days fishing the ‘Diomedea’ team had hit back to be ahead in the points and the final day was a desperate fish-off between the two boats, with the ‘Diomedea’ team triumphing and gaining the cup. Battles were also fought between resident and visiting experts on very light tackle, those skilled in the art of fishing with 1 and 2kg lines for snapper and kahawai. The cheerful team of ‘Sammy’ who came up from Auckland and Whitianga clubs did well on the first day, trying for kahawai on 1kg, snapper on 4kg and kingfish on 6kg line. Alwin Haagner from that team caught a beautiful snapper of 7.2kg on 4kg line which went through to be a 2nd place fish on prize giving night. Another team that did exceedingly well was the team of adults and juniors aboard Hori Ratcliffe’s boat ‘Masquerade’. Between them they landed 28 snapper and 2 trevally, with the juniors Luke and Cody Crayford playing no small part in the tally. There were 8 junior anglers altogether who all caught fish and had a great time. Brief results are as follows: Kingfish:1st- Anna Smith, 17.1kg, 2nd- Hillary Sheard, 17kg, 3rd- John Matthewson, 15.9kg, 4th- Malcolm Warwick, 15.3kg, 5th- Ben Corbin, 15.2kg. Diomedea Cup – Diomedea. Snapper: 1st- Kelvin Mowat, 8.7kg, 2nd- Alwin Haagner, 7.2kg. Full results and photographs can be seen on our web site at www.whangaroabiggamefishclub.co.nz. As ever, thanks go to our sponsors who included: Youngman Richardson & Co. Ltd who provided a Tanaka weed-eater for the skipper with the heaviest gamefish, ATL, Kilwell Sports, the Marlin Hotel, Wet & Forget, Lion Nathan, Kahlua II, Reel Rods, Liquorworld Waipapa, NZ Fishing News, Carters and Hooker Lures. Thanks also go to our organisers and helpers, and bar and kitchen staff, and of course to our anglers and skippers who participated. Our next competition is the Kingfish Contest on 5-6th July, which is also the first competition in the new fishing season which starts on 1st July.
Warren Hay Marine’s Great Snapper Classic at Whangaroa
Over the weekend the Whangaroa Big Gamefish Club held its annual Great Snapper Classic fishing contest, which was sponsored by Warren Hay Marine of Whangarei. Warren Hay Marine are dealers of new and used boats, boat outfitters, outboard stockists and also have a large range of fishing tackle. They also service boats and motors and the staff are very helpful and knowledgeable in all aspects of fishing and boating. From their range of items they furnished the club with prizes for the contest, both for adult and junior sections, and generously provided a 5hp Mercury outboard for a lucky angler draw. Other prizes included rod and reel boat sets, coolers, sleeping bags, reels, chairs and lanterns.
This competition had previously been cancelled due to bad weather, but this new date provided much better weather, even better than predicted, and the snapper were there in force, with most anglers catching some decent sized fish. 34 fish were weighed in on the first day, with a good number of them in the 5kg size range. The biggest fish of the day was caught by Ken Frear of Totara North, from his boat ‘Just Us’, which weighed in at 9.7kg. The favourite places to fish were off Cone Rock, in the Cavalli Islands and off Stephenson’s Island. The junior anglers also did well on the first day with the heaviest fish going to Austin Bosch fishing from ‘Pipihura’ landing a fish of 2.66kg on 6kg line.
Day 2 the weather was even better and the anglers went off on a mission, knowing what they had to beat from yesterdays tally. The adults landed 19 fish, with the heaviest being another superb fish of 9.7kg for the Auckland angler Derek Shorter fishing from ‘Diomedea’. Again lots of fish were in the 5-6kg size range. The junior anglers did better than yesterday, with 6 fish landed, 4 to the twins Zane and Vincent Rutledge aboard ‘Fusion’ and 2 to small fry angler Baily McIntyre aboard ‘Popgun’. The competition was close but the winners were:
ADULTS:1st – Ken Frear, 9.7kg, 2nd – Derek Shorter, 9.7kg, 3rd – Darryl Bradley, 6.6kg, 4th – Derek Shorter, 6.46kg, 5th – Ken Frear, 6.42kg. JUNIORS:1st – Zane Rutledge, 5.46kg, 2nd – Vincent Rutledge, 4.58kg, 3rd – Vincent Rutledge, 4.14kg, 4th – Zane Rutledge, 3.8kg, 5th – Baily McIntyre, 3.04kg. Av. Weight – Sally Lay, 4kg. Most IGFA pts.: Chris Mills, 2.56kg on 1kg.
The finale for the prize-giving evening was the lucky draw for the fantastic prize of the 5hp Mercury outboard from Warren Hay Marine, which was presented by Warren to the lucky angler Anne Gates from the boat ‘Reflections’.
A BIG THANKYOU to our major sponsor Warren Hay Marine, and further sponsors NZ Fishing News, Roadrunner Tavern & Wholesalers, ATL, Hunting & Fishing, and Kilwell Sports, and everyone who helped to organise the competition.
Full details and photographs of the competition can be seen on our website at: www.whangaroabiggamefishclub.co.nz. The next contest is the Kingfish Contest on 5-6th July.
W.S. Laurie & Co. Classic Boats Tournament Raises Funds for Whangaroa Health Services
W.S. Laurie & Co. has been associated with the fishing industry of New Zealand since 1865, and as such are a perfect sponsor for the Classic Boats Tournament fished out of Whangaroa. The company, which is based in Westhaven in Auckland, originally exported grain and seed, but soon diversified into chandlery, ropes, netting, commercial fishing equipment and then salt water game fishing tackle. In 2002 Jon Terrell bought the company which is now a market leader in salt water fishing tackle. As the Managing Director of this successful company, Jon generously sponsors the Classic Boats Tournament which is run every year specifically to raise funds for the Whangaroa Health Service.
This year the weather was not kind to the classic boats taking part in the contest with the first day of the competition being especially rough outside the harbour entrance. Despite the weather forecast 15 classic boats; older than 40 years, entered the competition with some new boats to the contest taking part. The oldest boat was ‘Little Hinemoa’ at 105 years old, and the new entrants ranged from ‘Ilex’ at 98 years old, ‘Leah’ at 78 years to relatively new boat ‘Voyageur’ at 43 years old. In a few years time boats constructed through the seventies will be eligible to participate and hopefully the older boats will still be able to take part.
In the gamefish section, W.S. Laurie & Co. (2002) Ltd. supplied a trophy for the heaviest gamefish of the competition, and heaps of fantastic prizes from their range of goods stocked in their tackle shop. Unfortunately due to the weather conditions, no fish were caught for this section; although yellowtail kingfish were included in this section as well as the line-fishing section, to hopefully give anglers a chance to catch something. Jon was happy for all the prizes in this section be to given out as lucky draws and lots of anglers were happy to win big bags of fishing tackle.
The line-fishing section was also generously supplied with an array of tackle bags filled with fishing tackle from the W.S. Laurie shop and the line-fishers did a lot better, landing 11 kahawai, 9 snapper, tagging and releasing 3 kingfish, and landing some John Dory, mahimahi and skipjack tuna. The 2 heaviest snapper were caught by Ray Peat from the boat ‘Celine’ using kahawai cut bait and fishing off Frear’s Point, and weighing in at 3.88kg and 2kg.
On a sad note we heard that classic boat enthusiast and club member Vern Tonks died a few weeks prior to the competition. The club first came across Vern acting as MC for the Ecolab Contest several years ago, and he used to be on the radio with regular morning fishing reports. Vern bought and restored the classic boat ‘Lone Star’ which was part of the very early history of chartering launches out of Whangaroa. Last year he was due to bring her up to compete in the Classic Boats contest but she was holed and sunk on her mooring in Whangaruru, just prior to the competition but Vern carried on regardless and fished with his friends from ‘Lamorna’. Vern had also restored another classic boat called ‘Sea Devil’ which he hoped would have its maiden voyage to the competition this year. For about 40 years Vern trolled the oceans of the world for his first marlin and in March this year he managed to catch and land his first ever marlin; a stripy of 85kg from ‘Lamorna’ from the Nine Pin. A few weeks later he became ill and died but was again present for the Classic Boats Competition this year as his ashes were aboard ‘Lamorna’. The skipper Ron Riddle even said that he had his turn at the wheel! It seems hopeful that ‘Lone Star’ will be salvaged and restored again, and possibly make its way back to Whangaroa in the future.
As always, the entry fees, donations, and proceeds from raffles and auctions are to be donated to the Whangaroa Health Services based in Kaeo who this year are putting the money towards an extra treadmill for their Cardio Room. The extra treadmill should encourage couples to exercise together who have been prescribed exercise and activities under the Green Prescription Programme. The Whangaroa Health Services are developing a Healthy Eating Healthy Action programme which takes referrals from GPs prescribing exercise and activities under the “Green Prescription Programme”. Individual training programmes are developed which includes resistance training, home activities and exercises on the machines in the Cardio Room, of which the treadmill is the favourite piece of equipment. Last years proceeds went to help refurbish their mobile clinic and plans for the refurbishment are now with a contractor.
This fund-raising would not be possible without the generous donation of prizes from our major sponsor W.S. Laurie & Co. of Auckland, Kilwell Sports, NZ Fishing News and other local businesses which included: New World in Kerikeri, Kaeo 4 Square, Hilary Sheard, Leigh Street Hair Salon, Kaeo Pharmacy, Roadrunner Tavern & Wholesale and Sand’s Marine. A big thank you goes to all the people who helped to organise the event along with the club. Full details of the results, and photographs of fish, boats and winners, can be seen on our website at: www.whangaroabiggamefishclub.co.nz.
