The organisers of the 2014 90 Mile Beach Snapper Bonanza surfcasting tournament sat down to their Christmas dinner happy in the knowledge that the five-day tournament was shaping up well.
Dave Collard said last week that ticket sales were on a par with this year, about 65 per cent of those who had signed up being from "out of town," including an encouraging number of debutantes.
Some tickets had also sold overseas, the trend there being for contestants to get in early or relatively late.
"We've printed and distributed 32,000 brochures this year, so that could explain the first-timers, and we don't need much of a hit rate to have a really good competition," he said.
The major boon had been Internal Affairs' decision to cease regarding fishing contests as akin to raffles, he added, and some contestants, whether they caught fish or not, would be going home very happy. The spot prizes would include a four-wheel-drive, two fishing torpedoes (one the earlybird prize, the other being reserved for a Kaitaia Pak'nSave customer), two sets of four-wheel-drive tyres, $3000 worth of overseas travel, television sets, fishing rods and reels and and a couple of dozen gigantic chilly bins.
The contest would start on March 18, some weeks later than usual, Mr Collard saying a number of competitors, most of them local, had persuaded the organisers that the fishing would be better in March than in February. The daily start time had been set back to 7.30am to allow for the relative lack of light for the first cast.
"We wanted to give people who would like to fish a couple of extra weeks after Christmas and Anniversary Weekend. A couple more weeks at work might make all the difference for some," he added.
It was also likely that the sign marking the beginning and end of each day's fishing zone, which most competitors had trouble seeing in the dark, would be lit in some fashion, with a sign at Waipapakauri Ramp advising competitors how far they would have to travel to reach the zone, and while security would at the weigh-in would be improved.
"We haven't had a lot of trouble with thieves but one theft is one too many," Mr Collard said.
"It's been suggested that we put someone in a cherry picker so they can spot anyone who's misbehaving, although the few problems we've had in the past have generally involved vehicles parked on the road."