Big Four Fishing Tournament 2012
The inaugural Big Four tournament was run over the weekend of May 11-13th. The idea was for anglers to register at Top Catch last Thursday night and then head to where ever they wanted in NZ waters to catch Snapper, Kahawai, Trevally and Kingfish, bring the heaviest of each back to the clubrooms this afternoon and weigh one fish per species per angler.
Little did we realise when we booked the tournament dates that we’d be competing with Saturday morning Kids winter sports, Mothers Day (we thought it was the first weekend of May not the second) , Duck Shooting season (well we knew about that, but overlooked the fact that duck hunters commit to the season not just opening day), the Chiefs playing on Sunday Avo, and of course, the Weather!
The weather forecast for the weekend as most will know by now, was atrocious with 30 knot Westerlys predicted for everywhere, save for a window of 15 knots predicted for Saturday avo and Sunday morning. There’s no doubt that put many anglers off the idea of fishing for the weekend.
Fortunately 29 hardy anglers registered and turned up for the briefing on Thursday night at Top Catch in Kahikatea Drive then departed for points mostly in an easterly direction around the Coromandel peninsula.
The club had booked a half day trip on Soprano out of Te Kouma on Saturday. We met Soprano and skipper Darryn at Hannafords wharf at 7:00 am and we headed off to bounce our way out through the Waimate channel. We pulled into the mussel farm at Rat Island off Papa aroha, in glass calm conditions and proceeded to enjoy some very good fishing with Trevally up to 2.6 kg and some very nice snapper & Kahawai coming over the side, and the odd decent sized kingie swimming through and giving everybody a thrill.
Almost all anglers weighed in fish for their weekend’s efforts. Longtime Waikato Sport Fishing club stalwart, Rob Page, was the only angler to weigh one fish of each species. We had prizes for heaviest, second and third heaviest fish for overall, Women, Junior and Small-fry so we ended up with way more prizes than anglers. The best thing about that was that we were able to make sure all small-fry and juniors took home prizes.
The best story of all was Scott Pritchard who had planned to take his 41/2 year daughter, Rebecca, on the Soprano charter but pulled her out at the last minute because of the weather. He took her to the Raglan wharf Sunday morning and they caught a Kahawai smaller than our arbitrary 25 cm minimum size limit. They didn’t weigh it but no other small-fry caught any Kahawai so when we drew the heaviest small-fry Kahawai guess who’s name got drawn? Yup another very happy customer.
The fact that my own 7 year old daughter, Sarah Gutsell caught her first limit of snapper on the charter and went on to win the small-fry snapper section was pretty cool as well!
We’ve all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, hopefully more of Waikatoites can join in next year. Thanks to Top Catch, Shimano, Ricoh, Power Tools and Abrasives, and Eftpos Specialists for helping make it all happen through their support and also from Tony at Protech stainless for printing the entry forms and rules.
We’ll be running the tournament bigger and better again in 2013 on April 19th 20th and 21st.
Our next event is our annual AGM and prize giving in August, see our website for details. For all queries please contact Bob Gutsell, President, 021 750562, president@waikatosportfishing.co.nz
Yours faithfully
Waikato Sport Fishing Club
Bob Gutsell
Club President
Category |
Category |
Place |
Name |
Weight (kg) |
Snapper |
Overall |
1 |
Ant Higgs |
3.48 |
Snapper |
Overall |
2 |
Bob Gutsell |
2.59 |
Snapper |
Overall |
3 |
Rob Page |
2.42 |
|
|
|
|
|
Snapper |
Average weight |
1.64 |
Tony Brinkworth |
1.84 |
|
|
|
|
|
Snapper |
Junior |
1 |
Nick Bright |
1.38 |
Snapper |
Junior |
2 |
Matthew Olsen |
1.23 |
Snapper |
Junior |
3 |
Dannielle Higgs |
1.02 |
Snapper |
Junior |
4 |
Kayley Higgs |
0.88 |
Snapper |
Junior |
5 |
X |
|
Snapper |
Junior |
6 |
X |
|
Snapper |
Junior |
7 |
X |
|
Snapper |
Junior |
8 |
X |
|
Snapper |
Junior |
9 |
X |
|
Snapper |
Junior |
10 |
X |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Snapper |
Smallfry |
1 |
Sarah Gutsell |
1.17 |
Snapper |
Smallfry |
2 |
Jesse Dingle |
1.14 |
Snapper |
Smallfry |
3 |
Todd Higgs |
0.97 |
Snapper |
Smallfry |
4 |
Drawn |
|
Snapper |
Smallfry |
5 |
Drawn |
|
Snapper |
Smallfry |
6 |
Drawn |
|
Snapper |
Smallfry |
7 |
Drawn |
|
Snapper |
Smallfry |
8 |
Drawn |
|
Snapper |
Smallfry |
9 |
Drawn |
|
Snapper |
Smallfry |
10 |
Drawn |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Snapper |
Women |
1 |
Kathryn Bright |
2.03 |
Snapper |
Women |
2 |
Denise Higgs |
1.99 |
Snapper |
Women |
3 |
Michelle Gray |
0.82 |
|
|
|
|
|
Kahawai |
Overall |
1 |
Matthew Olsen |
2.2 |
Kahawai |
Overall |
2 |
Kirk Forsyth |
2.12 |
Kahawai |
Overall |
3 |
Ken Monk |
2.07 |
Kahawai |
Junior |
1 |
Matthew Olsen |
2.2 |
Kahawai |
Junior |
2 |
Jacob Dingle |
1.63 |
Kahawai |
Junior |
3 |
Dannielle Higgs |
0.27 |
|
|
|
|
|
Kahawai |
Smallfry |
1 |
Drawn |
|
Kahawai |
Smallfry |
2 |
Drawn |
|
Kahawai |
Smallfry |
3 |
Drawn |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kahawai |
Women |
1 |
Michelle Gray |
1.72 |
Kahawai |
Women |
2 |
Drawn |
|
Kahawai |
Women |
3 |
Drawn |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Trevally |
Overall |
1 |
Kathryn Bright |
2.89 |
Trevally |
Overall |
2 |
Rob Page |
1.45 |
Trevally |
Overall |
3 |
Gary Pitcaithly |
1.31 |
|
|
|
|
|
Trevally |
Junior |
1 |
Nick Bright |
1.23 |
Trevally |
Junior |
2 |
Drawn |
|
Trevally |
Junior |
3 |
Drawn |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Trevally |
Smallfry |
1 |
Drawn |
|
Trevally |
Smallfry |
2 |
Drawn |
|
Trevally |
Smallfry |
3 |
Drawn |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Trevally |
Women |
1 |
Kathryn Bright |
2.89 |
Trevally |
Women |
2 |
Drawn |
|
Trevally |
Women |
3 |
Drawn |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kingfish |
Overall |
1 |
Rob Page |
8.26 |
Kingfish |
Overall |
2 |
Ant Higgs |
5.49 |
Kingfish |
Overall |
3 |
Drawn |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kingfish |
Junior |
1 |
Drawn |
|
Kingfish |
Junior |
2 |
Drawn |
|
Kingfish |
Junior |
3 |
Drawn |
|
Kingfish |
Smallfry |
1 |
Drawn |
|
Kingfish |
Smallfry |
2 |
Drawn |
|
Kingfish |
Smallfry |
3 |
Drawn |
|
Kingfish |
Women |
1 |
Drawn |
|
Kingfish |
Women |
2 |
Drawn |
|
Kingfish |
Women |
3 |
Drawn |
|