Open Juniors Contest 2024

Click Here for the 0-8 Yrs Tally
Click Here for the 9-13 Yrs Tally
Click Here for the Prize List

It was nice to hold this contest again after missing out due to bad weather and Covid last year. We had a good sea and weather forecast for a change as well, which made it even better.

This year we changed from 3 age categories to 2 categories: 0-8 years old, and 9-13 years old. In the 0-8 years old category we had 40 anglers, with about ¾ of them being boys, and in the 9-13 years old category we had 26 anglers, 2/3 of which were girls! We put out a set of prizes from Burnsco and the club, and the anglers set off to hunt their prey.

The younger set of anglers managed to bring in 8 kahawai, with Benji Ward on ‘Day For It’, landing the heaviest fish of 1.8kg. There were also 16 snapper brought in, with Isabella Pickery landing the heaviest of 2.16kg, fishing from ‘Impulsive II’. In the ‘other fish’ category we saw trevally, parrot fish, squid, wrasse, pink maomao, grandaddy hapuka, jack and slimy mackerel. The heaviest fish was caught by Blake Grimwood whose fish was a trevally of 2.415kg from the boat ‘Demelza’. The surprising thing this year was that there were no sprats or spotties caught, whereas there were heaps of them caught 2 years ago.

The older anglers managed 4 kahawai with Olivia Ward on ‘Day For It’ landing the heaviest at 2.235kg. There were 12 snapper with Nico Farmilo on ‘El Pescador’ weighing in the heaviest fish of 2.16kg. Seven trevally came in as well, the heaviest at 0.715kg also caught by Nico. In the ‘other fish’ category we saw grandaddy hapuka, parrot fish, an octopus, blue cod, wrasse, pink maomao and jack mackerel. The winner in this section was caught by Olivia Ward with a lovely grandaddy of 3.23kg – good eating! The older anglers unfortunately didn’t manage any kingfish to weigh this year, but the prizes were lucky drawn.

Many thanks to all our anglers and their crew for taking part in the contest, and for the sponsorship from Burnsco.