Furuno Results 2001

Nearly three thousand anglers took part in this years Lion Red Furuno tournament, held at Pah Farm on Kawau Island between the 22^nd and the 24^th of March. The countries biggest fishing tournament is now in it’s 16^th year and, as always, the comradery and atmosphere was fantastic. 

The winner of this year’s Snapper World Cup went to Peter McMillan of Glenfield who caught a monster 14.58kg (32lb) snapper (see photo above), which netted him a total prize package totalling almost $10,000.  

He caught the fish drifting over foul in 50m of water at the Mokohinau Islands on Friday. Fishing onboard RNR charters, with Mokes specialist Wayne Radford, Peter caught the fish on a whole pilchard and heavy-duty 24kg line. 

“Good gear made all the difference. If the gear wasn’t right I wouldn’t have landed it.” He said. “I didn’t realise how big the snapper was until we weighed it. We had a celebration on the boat but today I was nervous that someone would beat the fish.” 

The kingfish section was won by Eben Sinclair of Papakura with a magnificent 30.7kg fish taken off the rocks at the northwest end of Great Barrier. The big fish took a kahawai live bait and took 20 minutes to land. 

The lucky draw prize this year of a Haines Hunter Boat with Yamaha 90hp and DMW trailer was won by an ecstatic Chris Hepworth of South Auckland. Chris could not believe his luck when he heard the announcement he had won the single biggest prize of the tournament valued at $36,000. “My legs are shaking and won’t stop,” He said. “It’s my lucky week and I’m very happy.” 

The weather was perfect this year, so with calm seas the contestants were able to head to the islands of the outer gulf and target the really big fish.  

Other prize winners were Mike Smith with a 2.43kg john dory, Ian Small with a 0.89kg gurnard, Ross Jurgeleit with a 6kg trevally and Murray Smith who took out the biggest kahawai with a 3.17kg fish.