A 21 st is a special celebration and the 21 st Gary Parlour game-fishing tournament in Rarotonga August 4 th /5 th was no exception. The tournament alternates between Aitutaki and Rarotonga and with support for the Aitutaki team from Air Rarotonga there was an excellent turnout from the northerners to continue the friendly rivalry between the two islands.

Briefing night was a kaleidoscope of island culture, wonderful food, amazing hospitality and a few rules from Peter Etches, the weighmaster, just in case anyone had forgotten why they were there! Principle sponsor, Gary Parlour provides a $1,000 prize for a wahoo over a minimum weight which decreases by 5kg the following year if it’s not won, which unfortunately it wasn’t this year.

Gary Parlour, a New Zealander from Kaitaia has been a great supporter of the tournament since inception. No stranger to catching the big ones, Gary won the NZSFC Lord Norrie cup for the heaviest stripey in 1967 – a very respectable 184.6kg!

The only thing that couldn’t be well organised in advance was the weather and while the conditions over the two-day event were less than ideal, it didn’t dampen the spirits of the 62 anglers fishing from 32 boats who managed to land over 1000kg of wahoo, yellowfin tuna, mahi-mahi and skipjack..

Wahoo:

1 Paku Polia (Raro) - Manakia 27.4 kg

2 Clive Baxter (Aitu) – Anne Tearoa 21.1 kg

3 Geoff Wood (o/seas) – Pearly Shell 16.0 kg

Mystery Weight wahoo:

Andrew Bullen (Raro) – Pearly Shell

Tuna

1 Paku Polia (Raro) - Manakia 26.5 kg

2= Paku Polia (Raro) - Manakia 15.4 kg

2= Mike Maggot (o/seas) – Hot Chilli Mae 15.4kg

Maimai

1 Paku Polia (Raro) - Manakia 17.0 kg

2 Barry Ray (o/seas) - Marlin Queen 16.3kg

Other Species

1 Buckley Junior (Raro) – Vaine Moana 11.4kg Skipjack

2 Tom Vea – Strike Time 8.2kg Skipjack

Aggregate Weight:

1 Buckley Junior – Vaine Moana 133.6kg

2 Paku Poila - Manakia 116.6kg

3 Buckley Senior- Matangaro 109.0kg

Acknowledgements

We travelled to Rarotonga with the support of the Cook Islands Tourism Corporation, stayed at White Sands resort thanks to Don Beer, the Club Vice President and Wayne at Raro Rentals supplied the transport. Special thanks to George and his team on ‘Akura’ charters for some great on-water action during the tournament.