NZ Softbait Contest - Coromandel 2012

The first FC Boats NZ Softbait fishing champs were held in Coromandel at the Admirals Arms hotel last weekend

Unfortunately the weather was far from perfect with 25 knots gusting 35 from the NE on Friday and the same from the Sou west on the Saturday.

The idea of the tournament came from Bass style fishing from the USA, the fish were measured not weighed, and the upper limit for snapper was 600mm.

This was done to protect the big breeding fish which are everywhere in April in Coromandel, and over the two days of the tournament nearly 40 were released by competing anglers which was great to see, and there were anecdotally about that many bust offs as well, although half a dozen fish too big to measure were presented by anglers who hadn’t read the rules.

The NZ Champion softbait Angler was going to be the angler that measured 4 snapper per day as close to 600mm as possible There were also good prizes for kingfish, kahawai, trevally and cod, with one of these per day measured.

The idea was to reward consistency, over two days some tournaments are won when an Angler gets lucky when a 20lber swims past, to win this tournament and the $10,000 first prize you had to fish consistently well and about 10 anglers really did in the snapper section, and several others targeted other species and two kingfish were landed just over a metre, These guys were questioned closely by myself and were legit I believe they had it on video and were using 14lb braid, it was great to see a couple of kingfish landed.

The tournament had some really good sponsors thank you all, FC Boats, Fin-Nor reels, Ocean Angler rods by Paul Senior, as well as Gulp and Black Magic, Radio Hauraki, Supreme sheet metals made the measuring boards and the trophy, and most of the sponsors fished the tournament as well which was really good to see.

Just over 200 anglers competed and the fishing was pretty good for some despite the weather, the MC was Nick Trott the breakfast host of Radio Hauraki and he was pretty funny and kept the prize giving moving along nicely. Several thousand dollars worth of spot prizes were handed out on Friday night with $28,000 worth including fishing prizes on Saturday night and it was all over at 7.35 just in time for the Chiefs victory over the Hurricanes on the big screens in the pub.

We had designed an electronic leader board, so that when your fish were measured each one came up instantly on a screen at the measure table and the leader board was updated in real time, so on the Friday night everyone knew where they were for the 2nd day, which was commented favourably on.

The crowd were all really nice people there were no idiots or bad behaviour the Hotel did a great job and put on a spit roast meal for just $10.00 which was ideal for anglers after a big day on the water.

On the First day the leader was Jason Delany from Turangi who was ahead by 1mm in overall length from Pete (PJ) Jones a kayak angler, with both anglers averaging 4 snapper of 558mm, and several others really close, so it was all to play for on the Saturday.
The measuring on Friday closed at 9pm to allow for an evening fish, which the two leading anglers took advantage of, and the same two measured their fish at about twenty to 5pm on the Saturday.

PJ had a real hard luck story, his kayak was rolled by a 3 metre wind wave and he lost a 55cm snapper, he tried hard to replace it but only managed a 351mm snapper just over the lower limit as his fourth fish which dropped him out of the top 10 (it was that close) and enabled Jason to come through and claim the trophy and the $10,000 first prize.

The tournament is on next year three weeks earlier at a good moon phase April the 5th and 6th 2013, the weekend after Easter.

Joe Dennehy - Organiser.
www.softbaitchamps.co.nz

Snapper:
1st – Jason Delany 4278mm
2nd – Peter Harper 4175mm
3rd – Lesley Pritchard 4162mm
4th – Jim Nicholson 4149mm
5th – Michael Nicholson 3966mm
6th – Phil Josephs 3865mm
7th – Lisa Macdonald 3811mm
8th – Kevin Taylor 3730mm
9th – Tyrone Visser 3717mm
10th – Laurie Pottinger 3699mm
 
Kingfish:
1st – David Nicholls 1022mm
2nd – Brett Riley 1016mm
 
Trevally:
1st – Cam Brider 778mm
2nd – Chris Murdoch 596mm
3rd – Bob Medlock 526mm
4th – Greg McKinney 515mm
5th – Jim Nicholson 492mm
6th= – Ian Groube 489mm
6th= – Craig Johnson 489mm
8th – Jason Delany 485mm
9th – Greg Gourley 483mm
10th – Phil Josephs 476mm
 
Kahawai:
1st – Shane Baker 1157mm
2nd – Todd Davis 1138mm
3rd – Nigel Ramsden 1135mm
4th – Owen Wills 1112mm
5th – Aaron Haddon 1105mm
6th= – Kent Fife 1103mm
6th= – Jason Garmonsway 1103mm
8th – Bevan Gedye 1098mm
9th – Jason Delany 1095mm
10th – Peter Sander 1081mm
 
Cod:
1st – Cam Brider 350mm
2nd – Grant Van Driel 342mm
3rd – Aaron Haddon 340mm
4th= – Craig Macdonald 330mm
4th= – Mark Bridger 330mm
6th – Joe Bourke 321mm
 
Team Total:
1st – FC Boats 12564mm
2nd – Tin Lizzy 10484mm
3rd – Outta Here 8607mm
4th – Black Magic 8131mm
5th – Just Cruizin 7964mm
6th – Admirals Arms 7630mm
7th – Sanity 7542mm
8th – Dee Cee 6886mm
9th – Softtouch 6708mm
10th – Pastime 6659mm
 
Team Average:
1st – Tin Lizzy 5242mm
2nd – Outta Here 4303mm
3rd – Just Cruzin 3982mm
4th – Sanity 3771mm
5th – Dee Cee 3443mm
6th – Pastime 3329mm
7th – Burn Bruid 3296mm
8th – Aporo 3261mm
9th – Electric Blue 3126mm
10th – Tristram 3007mm
 

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