Lure of the Furuno

ROBIN BAILEY reports on an "unforgettable fishing event" at Kawau Island, which ranks as the biggest tournament in the Southern Hemisphere.

From March 22 until March 24, the normally tranquil Bon Accord Harbour at Kawau Island will resemble a spectacular boat parking lot as the keenest fishermen in the country attend the Lion Red Furuno Fishing Tournament.

The 3000-plus fishers represent all social spectrums, regardless of income, gender, race and even size of boat. They will come from all over the country for three incomparable days, to compete in the biggest tournament in the Southern Hemisphere.

A love of fishing draws this group together to attend a unique event, the motto of which is "Fish in the spirit of comradeship and goodwill, fish honestly with conservation always in mind, and most importantly, fish safely."

Many will win prizes, but they stand just as much chance of being mercilessly ribbed by the razor-edge humour of the prizegiving MCs, funnymen Dwayne Franks and Jon Gadsby.

At the end of the contest a ticket draw will enable someone to walk away with a Haines Hunter/Yamaha outboard/DMW trailer combination worth more than $36,000, or a fishing trip to Vanuatu, or one of the other prizes from a pool worth more than $100,000. Entries will be accepted until March 22.

The tournament base is at Pah Farm, a site that also houses Moana Pacific Fisheries Ltd's fish breeding project. This enterprise initiated and partially financed the tournament in its early days.

Charity is another big winner, with up to $25,000 raised through the sale of fish going to FOAM (Friends of Auckland Maritime) charitable trust, for distribution to worthy causes.

A plan promoting fish quality by offering special prizes has further increased the money raised for the trust with the catch now selling for 20 per cent more on international markets than it has in previous years.

The tournament has been part of the fishing calendar for 17 years. It started in 1986 at Waiheke Island, had short tenures at Motutapu and Motuihe then finally moved in 1993 to its permanent base, Pah Farm Fishing Lodge on Kawau.

The founders were Auckland marine industry personalities, Mike and Marisse Hodson, who still call the shots at the Furuno.

Marisse remembers its beginnings, when Mike asked her to talk to someone about writing a computer program suitable for a fishing competition.

"I hardly knew one end of a fish from the other," she says.

"We saw the software as the key to a successful tournament. It was written by Steve Cunningham and it has been constantly updated by Kevin Taylor's On Track Systems, but we are still using essentially the same program that was written in 1986.

"At the first tournament we had to run 180m from the weigh-in scales to our only computer - we were grateful there were only 200 people," says Marisse. "We hadn't worked out that we could put the computers next to the scales. In those days you didn't put computers outside."

Today, the tournament runs a fully integrated network, linking Pro Weigh scales to the computers via a network maintained by CSC Computing, who regard the tournament as the ultimate test for their technicians.

As many as 140 people work at the tournament, the core coming from the Furuno Fishing Club. This enthusiastic group makes sure that the water flows, the effluent makes it safely to the purpose-built treatment plant, and that there are hot showers, food and cold beer.

During the tournament, club president Vern Ruffles' team will prepare, cook and deliver 1.4 tonnes of chips, 3000 hot dogs, 90kg of bacon, 105 dozen eggs, 800 meat pies, 60kg of onions, 300 loaves of bread, 20kg of margarine, two pigs, 1000 steaks, 1500 sausages and 96 litres of sauce.

At the end of three days, the contestants will be tired and probably smelly.

Some will have caught the fish of a lifetime and won prizes. But they will all know they've been to an unforgettable fishing event.