Remember, the tournament starts in

Based at Pah Farm on Kawau Island the perfect location for an event like this with only 55 entrants, made this very special as we were challenged with all the obstacles of running an event from an island base. The staff at Pah Farm were great .

Teams of very keen anglers grasped the concept of a sport fishing tournament very quickly and after the initial nerves of briefing night the some of the teams departed for the grounds whilst others bunked down for an early morning start. With good weather great catches were expected and delivered by the the anglers.

With the express intention to challenge both snapper and kingfish world records on 6 kg (12lb) line, the Tournament is unique in that all anglers are supplied with their own 1000m spool of Momoi Hi-Catch 6 kg line at the beginning of the tournament and only fish that line. In fact having any other heavier line onboard is not allowed. It is fascinating to see up to 140 reels being re wound with line the evening before fishing as anglers make last minute preparations before heading out. Supplying one brand of line is a unique innovation as we are not aware of any other saltwater tournament being fished under this regime in NZ at least.

Anglers are only allowed to weigh in one snapper and one kingfish each day and they must have caught their own fish. Absolute fairness and test of skill is the primary attraction of this tournament.

Prizes are awarded for the best 5 fish weighed in each species on each of the 2 days with the grand winners going to the heaviest single fish in each species.

Day 1 started with a 10-15kn SW breeze and a 1m sea the trip out was lumpy but in the right direction for the Mokohinuas and both Little and Great Barrier.

Fishing white water close in proved effective for Heath Robson on Half Cut as he pulled his big snapper out of the kelp. Others also experienced exciting results in both shallow and deep water. 5:30 pm weigh in was exciting with over 20% of fish weighed being in excess of 7 kg. Biggest snapper of the day was Heath Robson€  ™  s 8.998 kg fish closely followed by Wayne Bridger€  ™  s 8.506 kg fish. Wayne landed the recent Furuno winning fish.

Kingfish were not so compliant. Of the 10 or so hook ups, only 4 were landed. Gavin Spaabaek of Easy Rider reported dropping 2 hookups both in excess of 25 kg. In the end, the biggest king of the day went to Noel Edwards on Stingray with a 8.164 kg fish.

Following dinner, spot prizes of Momoi line and CRC Tackle Guard were liberally handed out.

Saturdays weather was a flat calm, the largest snapper weighed for the day was an 8.392 kg fish caught by Tony Wiles on Quattro. Tony actually weighed in the heaviest total snapper, taking that prize too.

With such a positive start to a new tournament the following years are sure to be great fun for the competitors and the sponsors who enjoying supporting well run events like this..

Tournaments Years
2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2003 - 2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007
2008 - 2009 - 2010