The Far North's infamous winterless conditions came to the fore over Queens Birthday weekend and the fine weather contributed to another very successful 90 Mile Beach Kahawai Bonanza Tournament.
Fishing - open to both west and east coasts - in the 90 Mile Surfcasting Club's annual event began at 7am and finished at 3pm, when the weigh-in took place at Waipapakauri Hotel with anglers able to weigh in two kahawai per ticket.
A report from the event noted there were a lot of middle-of-the-range kahawai weighed in with anglers fishing 90 Mile Beach, Tokerau and East Beach, up to and including Spirits Bay (where the winning fish was reeled in in last year's event).
John Winch, fishing below the ramp on 90 Mile Beach with Mike Scott as his tour guide, weighed in the heaviest kahawai of the day at 2.452kg, the winning fish reeled in one hour after the event started to earn the Henderson Bay man a cool $1000.
Runner up spot was taken out by Rory Collings from Takahue, well known as no stranger to catching big fish, with a 2.334kg specimen. The other top placegetters included Far Northerner, Todd Nattrass, with 2.192kgm in third; female angler Hine LeLievre, a top prizewinner from last year's event and fishing at her same "spot X" on/off Exhibition Beach, was fourth with 2.143kg; while Grant Foster, the club's newest member, took fifth place with a 2.134kg kahawai.
