Snapper numbers 'looking good'

CRACKING IT: From left, Paul Summers, Dave Harrison, Phil Kake, Dave Hallett, Sue Clark; middle: Anne Moses; front: Duke Fraser, Wills Lynton, Dave Lloyd and Quaylin Wikitera.

Recent hauls bode well for Bonanza tourney

With the annual Snapper Bonanza week-long surfcasting extravaganza hitting Ninety Mile Beach next week, there is huge interest - not just locally but throughout the nation - on how good the fishing has been off the Far North west coast.

The 90 Mile Beach Surfcasting Club's club competition last weekend certainly went some way towards providing an answer. In his report from the McCoy & Thomas Hunting & Fishing 24 Hour Field-day, local surfcaster Jack Rogers noted the signs were good if the 37 club members and two visitors who eventually brought a kingfish, 114 snapper, seven trevally and 12 kahawai to the event weigh-in on Sunday were anything to go by.

"The fishing proved that when conditions are good, big fish are there for the taking. When you consider that each angler can only weigh in a total of five fish on a 24-hour field-day, this indicates the snapper numbers are looking good on the beach at present, especially with the Placemakers 90 Mile Beach Snapper Bonanza Surfcasting Contest less than a week away.

"This field day must be regarded as a very good indicator for the Snapper Bonanza when the smallest snapper in our prize pool was 7.45kg, and there were many fish weighing 5-6kg which never got a look in," said Rogers.

Never mind the snapper, though. The highlight of the two-day event was Quaylin Wikitera's 15.37kg kingfish, the biggest and heaviest fish the junior surfcaster had ever caught in his six years of fishing. Rogers noted Wikitera, who turns 12 tomorrow, displayed the maturity and the skill of a far more experienced angler in hauling in a fish of this size.

"In conditions that suited the fish more than the angler, he let the fish run when he had to and reeled in again to tire it down. He was fishing with Dennis Clarke who didn't have a chilly bin big enough to keep the fish cold until weigh-in the next day, so the pair returned to Dennis and Sue's home and packed the fish in the bath full of ice to keep it fresh."

The young Wikitera stole the show and first place overall with his kingie, while Paul Summers took the runner-up prize with the heaviest snapper of the day at 7.94kg.

Elsewhere, Dave Lloyd was third with the heaviest trevally at 2.60kg, visitor Wills Lynton was fourth with the heaviest kahawai of the day at 3.13kg; followed by Dave Hallett 7.93kg snapper 5 (i.e. 5th), junior angler Duke Fraser 2.52kg trevally 6, Dave Harrison 2.35kg kahawai 7, Phil Kake 7.45kg snapper 8, John Randell 2.42kg trevally 9, and Mark Frost 2.30kg kahawai 10.

The event's most active angler was Dave Hallett weighing in a total of 26.17kg of snapper, including three over the 6kg mark, but he still ended up being pipped for 2nd place overall by the aforementioned Summers, who held a superior difference of 1kg in the individual snapper stakes. Summers also won the haggle (of 2.95kg) with a 2.96kg snapper. Sponsored prizes also went to those anglers with the heaviest fish of three species; being Wikitera with his kingfish, Paul Summers for his snapper, Dave Lloyd for his trevally, while the heaviest kahawai weighed in by a female went to junior angler Amber Rogers for her 2.26kg kahawai.