Fishing good in Doubtless Bay

Nate Renata weighs in the heaviest kingfish of the Far North ITM Doubtless Bay Fishing Contest and Auction 2017 over the weekend.

While numbers of anglers were notably down on last year, the Far North ITM Doubtless Bay Fishing Contest and Auction 2017 on Saturday and Sunday was still well supported and turned out another great success.

A total of 337 anglers, including 78 women and 71 juniors, registered for this year's contest, compared with 450 entered in 2016.

More importantly, weather conditions were ideal and fish were biting in the Bay.

The best snapper produced over the weekend was the 12kg specimen weighed in by Suzanne Ludbrook on Sunday which won her the King of the Bay Trophy.

The other highlight was the 38.3kg kingfish weighed in by Nate Renata, with the overall average weight snapper prize claimed by Raku Hori for his 2.9kg fish.

Event spokeswoman Danielle Moa thanked the local and wider business community for helping organisers put together a massive prize pool for this year's event which topped the $40,000 mark.

She also thanked the public for coming out in force for the fish auction on both days.

"The auction was still a hugh success," she said, noting an estimated $20,000 was raised for local community-based projects.

A full list of results from the two day event will feature next week.