Foot on the Gas for Q4 of The Export NZ Fishing Comp

Entries accelerating

Late summer and autumn are busy times in The Export NZ Fishing Competition with more settled weather. Inshore fish are accessible in good numbers as they look to put on condition before the winter sets in, and anglers will capitalise on these opportunities. With a stack of awesome prizes from Shimano, Desolve Supply Co., Mariner Insurance, Yamaha, and YETI drawn in early March and early May, it makes plenty of sense to take an approved fishing measure with you whenever you’re heading out to wet a line.

And we can’t forget to congratulate Kyle Smith, who won himself a trip for two to Samoa at the end of the first half of the season. The good news is we have another international trip for two to Niue to give away at the end of the season!

Leading the pack

Summer saw plenty of changes to The 2024-2025 Export NZ Fishing Competition leaderboards with half a dozen new names. Jamie White’s 68cm Northland trevally jumped ahead of the second-place fish, while the lower North Island fired with Jack Ogden (kahawai), Rodney Niven (tarakihi), and Robert Falconer (john dory) entering top catches from Taranaki and Wellington.

Dominant angler Jesse Crasborn also staked a claim for a ‘three-peat’ of the YETI Angler Trifecta with a cumulative length of 276cm. Jesse’s 90cm snapper caught in November is now first equal with Geoff Preston atop the Furuno Snapper World Cup leaderboard. Keep an eye on the leaderboards to see if anyone can unseat these guys in the next few months!

Insights to help you catch a big one

With over 40,000 catches submitted since the inception of The Export NZ Fishing Competition, we’re continuing with our deep dive into the data to help you catch a winning fish and secure those bragging rights.
We’ve reviewed the top catches from our Hall of Fame to let you know where you should be heading to target the big ones.

Across the Hall of Fame catches reviewed, 90% were caught from a boat. If you’re not bothered by the species and simply want the bragging rights from our Hall of Fame leaderboards, towing the boat to Wellington would seem to provide the best and most varied opportunities.

See how anglers were catching their fish during the 2023-2024 season:

Congrats to all of the prize winners so far this season, and for everyone else it’s far from too late to get lucky. If you’re wetting a line, make sure you have an approved measure handy and head to fishingcomp.co.nz to get all the details!

- NZ Fishing News

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