Will Your Fish Measure Up?

The days of ‘big kill’ fishing tournaments are a thing of the past, say the hosts of the Century Batteries Reel Legends Fishing Tournament, Jodi and Brent Wilson.

“With the technology available to us today, anglers and tournament organisers no longer have to have fish at the weigh station to enjoy and run a successful tournament,” they say.

One of the key selling points for the Wilsons when deciding to get involved in the Century Batteries Reel Legends event was that it had to be based on measurement rather than weight to determine the prizewinners.

“Let’s face it, there is always a bit of competition around fishing, even if it is only among a crew for the best fish of the day or a weekend away. That best fish is now more likely to be decided in centimetres rather than kilograms,” Brent says.

To be run out of Marsden Cove 16-18 February, the Wilsons say that as the event is measure-based, the impact of the event on the local fishery will be greatly reduced.

“While the tournament boundaries are extensive, if you get a thousand plus anglers all attempting to extract their limit of fish, it has to be detrimental. Reel Legends restricts anglers to entering just one fish for each of the tournament’s five target species for each day of the tournament.

“While it is not compulsory for anglers to release their fish after measuring them, we encourage it.” Judging by the steady flow of entries, anglers are voting with their feet, giving tacit approval to the measure concept.

“The system is far from complicated. Anglers place their fish against an official tournament measure mat, take a clear photo, which is then posted to a website. Officials behind the scenes as the new look ‘weighmasters’, or should that be ‘measure masters’, who check to see that each catch has been properly entered and can be validated. When it has, the angler is notified the fish has been accepted.”

The tournament is based on the NZ Fishing Media’s platform, which kicked in over nine or so years ago with the first of the NZ-wide Export Fishing Competitions run over 12 months, involving 10 different species. They are seeing a large uptake in the number of clubs and organisations turning to the tape rather than the scales when running their events, based on that model.

The Century Batteries Reel Legends event will be based at the Marsden Cove ‘events centre’, a large marquee permanently erected at the southern end of the marina.

The competition has already had its first winner, without a bait even being dropped.

Mangawhai’s Lance Nepia’s name was drawn as the ‘not so early’ early bird entry prizewinner. Lance purchased his ticket just before the close-off date of November 30 and was rewarded with a Lowrance HDS Live 12 fish finder/chart plotter courtesy of electronics sponsor Lowrance.

To keep the ticket sales flowing, two adult ticket holders who have purchased their entries before December 20 will walk away with one of two Multi Kai Cookers thanks to legend Doug Andrews and his team.