Decision reserved in contest fish case

By GREGG WYCHERLEY

The trial of three fisherman said to have concocted a "cock-and-bull story" to cover up a plot to fraudulently win a $20,000 fishing competition ended yesterday.

After three days of conflicting evidence and sometimes heated testimony, Judge Geoffrey Rea reserved his decision on the fate of the trio, charged with attempted false pretences.

Police allege that Gary Fisken, Shane "Sock" O'Connell and Paul Jackison, all Aucklanders, entered an old fish to win $20,000 in the Matamata fishing competition in December 2000.

In the Hamilton District Court yesterday, Fisken, 45, rejected the claim that he and his two fishing mates had plotted to take the prize for heaviest snapper with a two-week dead fish.

Prosecutor Mark Sturm said: "You are trying to explain away the deteriorated condition it was in by making up a cock-and-bull story about the way you treated it."

But Fisken was adamant that he had caught the 14.35kg snapper legitimately off a sunken barge in the Firth of Thames.

"That's absolute lies ... I'm not lying, I know when I caught the fish."

Matamata club officials were immediately suspicious when the droopy and battered fish was presented for weighing.

Although Fisken was initially declared winner, he was later disqualified and received a summons rather than a $20,000 cheque.

Two scientists testified that the snapper appeared to have been dead for 15 to 17 days, but were unable to say so for sure after the defence claimed the fish had not been stored on ice.

Fisken said there had been no space on the 8m boat for an insulated container big enough to take the fish, and he had not had problems storing fish in water before.

Although he conceded that ice was the best way to preserve fish, he said he had not bothered because he had no intention of eating his monster catch.

He had planned to have a cast made for a trophy and did not need the skin to be in good condition.