NZBGFC Nationals Round-up

Total fish landed and weighed 754, of which there were; 2 black marlin, 15 blue marlin 52 Striped marlin. Tagged and released there were; 473 fish including 4 blue marlin and 259 Striped Marlin a grand total of 1229 fish or better than 1 per angler entered. The best shark was a cool 173 kg Mako caught by Pam Davis from Ngawi and on 10kg line just missed the world record by ~8kg. Top tuna were 61.5kg caught on 24kg and second was 61.0kg caught on 10kg line.

Those fishing the West Coast of the upper North Island enjoyed several days of smooth seas and plenty of marlin and yellowfin action. As the week progressed fishing seemed to be quite localised with plenty of water between the hot spots. Reports filtered through of massive work-ups and multiple catches occurring off Baileys Beach area Dargaville, the Hokianga – Ahipara waters, Whangaroa, almost anywhere in the Bay of Plenty, Waihau Bay, New Plymouth – Cape Egmont and Gisborne.

As usual the teams from the Mainland did well on the sharks and the Chalmers Recreational Sportfishing club cleaned up the Interclub shark category. Houhora took the top club for striped marlin, Waihau Bay the blue marlin section, Whakatane the tuna section and Auckland won the yellowtail section. The land-based teams did well in the snapper with NZ Land-based Gamefishing Club taking first and third places in the team section, snapper category. The Christchurch boys fishing on ‘Striker’ for The BOI club pipped the Primetime team in the last couple of days to take the top Striped Marlin team. Carmen McIntyre from the Primetime team took out the most tagged striped marlin category with 14 tagged fish over the week. In the junior section Dan Pole was the NZ Junior champion with a 31.4kg yellowfin on 15kg and Guy Sutherland from The BOI club landed a 97.8Kg Striped marlin to win the NZ Junior Champion striped marlin category.

The Houhora Club won the Varta Cup (Northern) and The Chalmers Recreational Sportfishing club winning the Varta Cup (Overall)

Top teams (for a full list of species click here)