48th Annual One Base

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This year the weather was relatively good for the tournament, so we had 45 boats and 147 anglers, and the expectation of yellowfin caught as there had been plenty around before the contest. There had been stripys around as well, but we were struggling to see fish over 90kg, but a new point scoring system for tagged billfish was introduced which made it worth tagging and releasing fish on lighter lines.

On day 1 sponsored by Kilwell, the billfish tally was started off by the Bay of Islands boats Opportunity II and Cerveza II, with tagged stripys on 24kg, which were followed by 2 more tagged fish by Elusive for Warkworth and Wave Rider for us. Nine tuna were landed, with one being a lovely albacore of 18.8kg for Kilwell rep. Todd Geayley. The heaviest yellowfin for the day was one of 40.4kg caught by Hamish Sheard on Resolution. Charter boat Nautilus targeted kingfish, with Lisa Clemmett landing the heaviest at 13.6kg.

Day 2 was also sponsored by Kilwell Sports and Nautilus really got into the kingy fishing with “Nautilus hooked up” heard frequently on the radio. They notched up 4 landed fish and 10 tagged and released kingfish. This time Scott Lloyd-Jones had the biggest kingy of the day, at 17.2kg. Four more stripys were tagged and released: 2 for KC caught by Dave Chambers and Dean Ritchie, and Sheldon Harsant on Phantom, and Harry Christian on Fah Out who are having a fantastic season so far. There were 5 yellowfin with yesterdays heaviest fish beaten by Juice Jones on Elusive with a fish of 42.6kg.

Day 3 was sponsored by BBY BOI and IceyTek and it was a good day for billfish, with 5 striped marlin tagged, and one of 97.8kg landed by John Nicholls aboard Rusty Hook. Dean Everitt on Pelican also landed a pinfish blue marlin of 150.2kg, and Harry on Fah Out tagged a broadbill. Altogether though, day 3 was a bit quieter fish wise, and teams scattered further afield as it was the stay away night.

Day 4 was another Kilwell day and Harry managed to tag another broadbill and Sean on Macksom weighed in a stripy of 90.4kg. A mahimahi made an appearance for Kerrianne Lay, on dad’s boat Christina, a fish of 6.05kg. Snapper were a popular target species for the day, but not of any good size, and the same for yellowfin.

The last day was again sponsored by Kilwell Sports and was a quiet fish day but Sheree Brough on Distinction hooked a stripy and brought it ashore to land the heaviest stripy for the comp., a fish of 107.8kg. Kerrianne also landed a stripy of 91kg, hoping her fish might be the money fish. The team on Petal had been chasing snapper all through the comp and Bryce Hills had the heaviest fish of 7kg to win the G&J Hawke Trophy. Juice Jones won the Kauri Arms Tavern Trophy for the heaviest tuna, but the huge kingfish tally on Nautilus won that crew the Whangaroa Club Trophy for the tuna/kingfish section. The billfish section and the Coruba Trophy was won by Waverider who used 24kg line to gain the most billfish points from 3 tagged striped marlin. Fah Out came 2nd with 4 fish tagged but using heavier lines, and KC came 3rd with 2 tagged fish. The Calcutta winning fish was John Nicholl’s stripy on Rusty Hook, and Sheree won the Kilwell Classic Trophy.

The coveted Waiataiti Trophy – we were almost certain that Whangaroa had done so well that we might win it, but the average points went low when divided by the number of successful boats, so we ended up in 3rd place and Bay of Islands won again.

Lisa Clemmett on Nautilus was lucky enough to get the early bird cash prize and a very happy Barry Hart won the Air NZ mystery travel draw.

The club wants to thank our sponsors for their help with this contest: Kilwell Sports, IceyTek, BBY BOI, Snooks Fuller, Hair by Chris, Keoghan’s Showcase Jewellers, Air NZ and the Whangaroa Lodge Motel, and big thanks to all the anglers and skippers who take part.