An awesome day all round

THE CATCH: The large crew from the Shepherd, skippered bu Ian Hills, show off their catch caught in the Whangaroa Sport Fishing Club's junior fishing contest earlier this month.

The Open Juniors Fishing Contest hosted by the Whangaroa Sport Fishing Club earlier this month proved a relaxed and successful affair.

Club recorder Sandra Moore said no membership was required for the event, the second time it had been held. The contest promoted family togetherness as the anglers fished wherever they liked off wharf, land and boat.

Despite atrocious weather on the Friday beforehand, 73 children ended up taking part, with most joining up through the day as the weather settled down, and the children and their families fishing in three age sections.

The youngest category for anglers aged six and under had mostly snapper, then kahawai and spotty and a few koheru weighed in. Evana Gaffer brought in a very good kahawai of 2.14kg while Toby Hornell had the heaviest snapper at 2.485kg, and Cassidy Kahle had the heaviest spotty at 0.205kg. Moore noted the youngest competitor at less than a year old managed to bring in a fish with mum's help, while the few prizes not won were all given out as lucky draws.

In the 7-10 age category, snapper and kahawai were the most common species on the scales, with Iris Webb landing the heaviest snapper at 4.385kg, and Marlin Candy brining in the heaviest kahawai at 2.07kg. This was by far the biggest group of the three, with 43 fish landed. Also notable were Che Frear's barracoutta and Daisy Seabourne's 3.45kg trevally.

For the 11-13 year olds, the biggest fish of the day, a 13.42kg kingfish, was landed by Tyllah Rose-Rogers (her first kingfish).

Elsewhere, the 4.86kg kingfish caught by Marika Seabourne off the eastern end of Stephenson's Island had been previously tagged at Stevies last July by local Craig Worden while fishing aboard Amarillo.

The most common species landed were snapper with the heaviest weighing 2.345kg by local Kahu Robson; while the aforementioned Tyllah also landed the older section's heaviest kahawai at 2.465kg.

"All the children were very happy and proud of their catches and had such fun with their families going fishing for the day," said Moore.

Prizes included-boards, water pistols, fishing tackle, rods and reels, swimming gear and meccano sets along with two tablets given away as lucky draws.

"Every participant went away with something, and all went away very happy and looking forward to next year's event," she said adding thanks on behalf of organisers to the Whangaroa Marina for kindly allowing the juniors to fishing off their breakwater just for the contest. Special thanks also to the sponsors for their generosity while all the organisers, workers and helpers and especially the children and their parents were acknowledged for taking part and helping make it an awesome day all round.

The Whangaroa club is running its annual junior interclub contest; results soon.