Stabicraft Whangaroa Juniors Tournament 2025

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The weather played ball for us this year and the tournament went ahead on its first planned dates, with 23 boats and 45 anglers.

Yellowfin, yellowfin, yellowfin…….. they had been around for a few weeks, in vast numbers, with so many around, some members have started tagging them now, which doesn’t usually happen! They were still around for the contest, so we were expecting them on the weigh-station, and we were on high alert for our juniors and small-fry to break some club line records. We were also hoping for some marlin as they had just started to appear, but only on the small side at the moment. The place of action was out deep and all around the Seamount area. Listening to the radio chatter you could hear that the bait fish were there, and the predator fish were out to play.

On the first day there were 2 striped marlin tagged and released, by Leila Atkinson on Liberator, and Hudson Gerrard on our sponsor’s boat Catch 22. Allie-Jean Frear on Last Chance also played a striped marlin for quarter of an hour and got it to the boat, for it to slip away back into the briny at the last moment. There was plenty of yellowfin action with 13 fish landed. The heaviest yellowfin weighed in at 32.2kg and was caught by Hunter Swan on Bill Collector, who caught his fish after three quarters of an hour, on 24kg line from the Seamount. The majority of fins were around the 8kg mark. We also had plenty of kahawai weighed in, with Ella Puckey’s fish of 2.5kg being the heaviest. Of the snapper that came in, Lily Trass on Spear Wife had the heaviest fish of 6.55kg and brother Dane had the second heaviest at 5.7kg. Dane also had the heaviest kingfish for the day, at 7.85kg from Tauranga Bay.

Day 2 was a quieter day on the whole, with more boats staying close in to fish, rather than out wide, but there was still a haul of 10 yellowfin, with 3 being tagged and released, a good skipjack of 5.4kg for Allie-Jean, 4 snapper and 6 kahawai. Rex Sturge on Nauti Buoy had the heaviest kahawai of 2.35kg, Lily on Spear Wife brought in another good snapper of 6.05kg but the fish of the day was a yellowfin caught by Braxton Sheard. Small-Fry angler Braxton was with his family and friends on Kahlua and hooked into his first fish ever. The fish gave him the run-around for just over an hour and he was ready to give up but encouraged and supported by the crew he managed to boat a yellowfin on 24kg line. There was great excitement coming back to the weigh station as it was a big fish, hopefully a new club line record and possibly a new NZ record. It weighed in at 49.4kg, a few grams short of the club line record, and a few kilos short of the NZ record, but what a great effort from Braxton and the crew. Braxton had the heaviest fish of the tournament, which won him a prize and the Whangamel Perpetual Trophy.

Blair Gerrard and Stabicraft from Twin Coast Marine in Waipapa came up with a great set of prizes, along with other sponsors from Whangaroa Sport Fish Café and the Whangaroa Marina. Ella Puckey on Valliant had the heaviest kahawai of 2.5kg, Lily had the heaviest snapper of 6.55kg, Dane still had the heaviest kingfish of 7.85kg. Leila and Hudson both got prizes for their tagged marlin, the heaviest other gamefish turned out to be a trevally of 2.3kg caught by Ellie, and Dane’s kingfish was the best effort on 15kg line or under.

Our results now go forward to the Interclub where we are competing against the other northern clubs for trophies, so we will see how our juniors do.

A big thankyou to our sponsors, organisers and workers, and especially the anglers and skippers for taking part. We look forward to next year’s tournament.