Big season shaping for gamefish club

ON BOARD: Aaron Switzer just missed the weigh-in on the final day of the recent Radz Challenge by 10 minutes with an impressive 280.5kg blue marlin.

There was a thrilling and dramatic climax to this year's Radz Challenge when a massive blue marlin weighing 280.5kg failed to make the cut-off time by only 10 minutes, allowing the Muriwai team to wrest the highly coveted carved wooden trophy off their Ahipara counterparts.

The 11th Radz Challenge - an annual big gamefishing contest between teams of anglers representing Muriwai and Ahipara - went ahead in Far North seas over the weekend of March 7 and 8 and saw 11 striped marlin and one blue weighed in by the 24 boats taking part.

Muriwai eventually secured the trophy in what was described as one of the closest contests in memory with 1776 points to Ahipara's 1650, although it could have all been very different if Aaron Switzer had managed to get his fish to the scales on time. Fishing from Ahipara boat Time Out, skippered by father Brett, Switzer hooked the blue off Houhora just before the close of fishing on the second and final day, Sunday, with Time Out unable to reach the weigh station by the 7pm cut-off. Switzer's blue will still likely feature at the hosting Ahipara Gamefish Club's (AGC) end-of-year prizegiving being the only blue marlin caught so far this season. It is also the heaviest since club records began.

A report from the Radz noted that with weather conditions not exactly favourable, the organisers' call for both days was to allow anglers to fish either coast. Day one on Saturday saw both teams catching five marlin each to set up one of the closest challenges ever.

Highlights for the local faction included the heaviest fish overall, a 120kg striped marlin by Rore Nathan fishing from Reel Adikt. The stripey netted Nathan $5000 and was described as a remarkable effort, particularly considering he was one of the club's newest members and it was his first time out. Reel Adidkt skipper Kerrod Neho also tagged a stripey. Wild Thing also had a great weekend by winning the team prize as boat with most points for landing two marlin, by skipper Ryan Wild at 112kg and taking 2nd prize overall, while crewmate Karl Watson was 3rd heaviest overall with a 111kg specimen. As well, Chance Brown landed a nice 107kg fish from Equity.

In reply Muriwai tagged five fish on the Saturday (by Stephen Prendegast, Craig Ross, Glen Kipling, Ryan Renall and Joe Vuletich). Day two of the challenge was very quiet in contrast, with Muriwai's Jed Radaly, skippered by one of the event's main founders Paul Radaly, landing Sunday's only striped marlin.

The AGC, meanwhile, reported it was shaping up to be a memorable season with both junior and senior anglers weighing-in and tagging some major fish in the past few weeks. The heaviest striped marlin to date this season was 135.8kg by Matthews Shalders on Ma Rua and which put him among the front-runners to win the striped marlin jackpot set to conclude at the end of the month. Not to be outdone, younger sister Hannah weighed in the heaviest fish by a junior this season, with a 107.8kg stripey [an image of which featured in last Tuesday's Age].

Having recently become affiliated to the New Zealand Sports Fishing Council, the AGC was well represented by six teams and 29 anglers in the annual nationals tournament from February 21-28. During the week-long tournament, six striped marlin were tagged by Emma Matthews, Yvette Lloyd, Dave Gray, John Smart, Rodney Dick and Brett Switzer, with the only one landed by Mike Fryer, a 96.8kg fish on 15kg line. Also of note, the Moet team skippered by Robbie Matthews scored the most points for an AGC boat with 1095.33; while the 209.4kg black marlin snagged off Ahipara by Muriwai's Jules Bone was the only black caught during the nationals.

In domestic news, the February Trophy was won by Andy Morrogh of Wild Cat fame with a total of 435.4 points for landing four of the five targeted species, the highest score recorded since the club was formed in 2007.

The next event for the AGC is a junior competition during the upcoming school holidays, from April 3-19. Juniors can fish any day during the two weeks and land snapper, hapuka and marlin to compete for club trophies. There is no entry fee but all fish must be weighed at Ahipara.

- In other big game fishing news, readers were reminded the Houhora One Base begins tomorrow and runs until Saturday, March 18-21 with the general public invited to each night's weigh-in from 4pm.