Club NZ National Fishing Tournament 2025

Click Here for the fish tally                         Click Here for the prize list

This year the weather was so good to us, it was still and settled, and had been for weeks, and looked like it was staying around, so the area did actually need some rain – but not while we were fishing, please! We had 25 boats and and 67 anglers from 5 different clubs take part. We had 9 Whangaroa teams, 7 teams for the Northland Club, 5 for Ngunguru Sports & Recreation Society, 3 for Kamo Club, and 1 for Howick Club.

Day 1 was a very foggy start in the harbour so when the daylight came and the fog had cleared somewhat, the boats trailed out of the harbour for a fish, with trevally, kahawai, snapper, kingfish and marlin to be sought for prizes from Burnsco, who had provided a goodly array of rod and reel combos, tackle bags, cool bags and lures and jigs, and other fishing paraphernalia. We had 16 qualifying snapper on the weigh-station and with braid and mono sections for the contest, the heaviest for the day on braid was a fish of 4.3kg caught by Dwight Shepherd on Red Chequer, for the Northland Club. The heaviest on mono weighed 4.45kg and was caught by Leoni Renata on Christina, also for the Northland Club. There were also 5 qualifying kahawai weighed in, with 2.1kg being the heaviest in both braid and mono sections, caught by Evan Yates on Belongarangi, and Kelly Wech on Rough n Ready, respectively. The team on Lego Sea from Ngunguru targeted kingfish and Simon Herbert managed to tag and release one, and his team-mate Chris Harrison weighed one in, of 7.55kg.

Day 2 dawned and the fog appeared and got thick for a while, but the anglers were keen to get started, so after breakfast they were out there doing it all again. Lego Sea were the first team to see some fishy action with the kingfish again, and by the end of the day Simon Herbert had amassed a tally of 3 fish tagged and released and one weighed in of 6.9kg. Doug Anderson on Nautilus and Denise Larmer on Liberator both managed to also tag a kingfish. More kahawai came in today, with Dale Halliday bringing in the heaviest of 2.5kg. Among the snapper that we saw back here, was the heaviest of 6.35kg caught by Kelly Wech for the Kamo Club, and on braid. For the mono catches, Evan Yeates had a good snapper of 5.75kg on 8kg line which was good as there were prizes for the different species earning the most IGFA points. We also saw some ‘other’ species on the weigh-station which included 2 grandaddies and a porae of 3.05kg caught by John Dunbar on Hawkeye.

That evening the prizes were worked out and their placings dictated how many points the clubs would earn when vying for the trophies. First placings for all the species earnt 100 points, 2nd placings earned 80 points, and 3rd placings got 50 points. After all of those were added up, the teams from the Northland Club were way out in front with 440 points, Ngunguru were 2nd with 280 points, 3rd place were Kamo Club with 200 points and 4th were ourselves with 180 points.

Everyone was so happy with their trophies, prizes, and lucky draws so a big thank you goes to Burnsco for being our major sponsor, and we look forward to the contest next year when we will see everyone again in friendly inter-club competition.