The Hawke's Bay Sports Fishing Club is hopeful registrations for its three-day Breakers Restaurants Hawke's Bay MegaFish competition starting on Friday will top 300.
Club captain Neil Price said although figures were still to be counted, it appeared the "early-bird" entries that closed yesterday would be more than 50 per cent up on the early-bird numbers last year.
"There were about 80 early-bird entries last year," Mr Price said. "We think there will be about 130 this year."
But if trends are followed the bulk of the entries will come in at Thursday's briefing, after which the first boats are expected to put to sea ready to throw out the lines at 5am on Friday.
The competition, a remake of the historic Coruba tournament, carries must-go prizes worth about $60,000, including a top prize of $10,000 for the biggest fish based on a scale against species - from the weight of the biggest marlin to the biggest skipjack calculated at 15 times its weight.