Dickson Hohaia, of South Taranaki, celebrates winning $32,000 in the 2021 Ninety Mile Beach Snapper Bonanza with event organiser John Stewart. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Dickson Hohaia, of South Taranaki, celebrates winning $32,000 in the 2021 Ninety Mile Beach Snapper Bonanza with event organiser John Stewart. Photo / Peter de Graaf
New Zealand’s — if not the world’s — biggest surfcasting competition is under way again with a record number of anglers and near-perfect conditions forecast for the five-day tournament.
A total of 1200 anglers from every corner of the country and as far away as Western Australia are hoping for a share of the $72,000 cash prize pool in the 2023 Ninety Mile Beach Snapper Bonanza.
Whoever lands the heaviest fish by closing time on Saturday will go home with at least $30,000, while the snapper closest to the average weight will earn someone $10,000.
Contestants are also in the running for a nightly slew of spot prizes, including a Mitsubishi Triton four-wheel-drive ute.
The competition was opened on Monday evening by Far North Mayor Moko Tepania with fishing under way from Tuesday in zone 1, the southern half of Ninety Mile Beach/Te Oneroa-a-Tōhē.
Anticipation has been extra high ahead of this year’s competition because the 2022 event had to be cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Kaitaia printer John Stewart, who has organised the Bonanza with publican and councillor Dave Collard since 2011, said tickets sold for the 2022 bonanza had been honoured at the 2023 event.
However, prices had skyrocketed since 2021, when the tickets were sold, leaving the event facing a potential loss.
Fuel costs in particular had gone up but so too had the spot prizes, even though they were purchased at wholesale rates.
To make sure the event broke even, an extra 200 tickets had been sold on top of the usual limit of 1000, Stewart said.
The number of spot prizes had been increased so entrants’ odds of going home with a prize were the same as in previous years.
An angler tries to hook a winner on Ninety Mile Beach/Te Oneroa-a-Tōhē. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Stewart said conditions on day one were “beautiful” and the fish were biting, though he hadn’t seen any contenders for the top prize in the first hours of angling.
The forecast was excellent for the entire week — “We’ve been blessed,” he said — except for a large swell expected to come up on Tuesday night and last during Wednesday.
“That will make it quite hard on the beach on Wednesday, but that’s fishing,” he said.
Anglers had arrived from every corner of the motu including a group of five from Christchurch who made it to Bonanza headquarters at Waipapakauri Ramp, about 20km north of Kaitaia, on Monday night after flight delays.
Spot prize winners on stage on Monday evening included a keen fisher from Perth.
With 1200 competitors and up to 3000 people at the prizegiving every evening, the Bonanza was easily the Far North’s biggest multi-day event.
Mangōnui’s Waterfront Festival earlier this month drew a crowd of 7000 but was for one afternoon only.
Fishing takes place until Saturday from 7am-4.30pm. Thursday is a day off for the Bonanza but anglers can instead compete in Riders Sports Day, with fishing from 7pm on Wednesday to 10.30am on Thursday.
Like the Bonanza, Riders Sports Day is a beach surfcasting event with no rock fishing allowed, though contestants can fish either coast from Shipwreck Bay/Te Kohanga on the west around to Tokerau Beach on the east. Fish caught on Riders Sports Day aren’t eligible for Bonanza prizes.
The final prizegiving will start around 5pm on Saturday at Bonanza headquarters on West Coast Rd.
Dickson Hohaia, of South Taranaki, celebrates his win in the 2021 Ninety Mile Beach Snapper Bonanza with a 9.060kg fish that earned him a whopping $32,000. Photo / Peter de Graaf
The last overall winner, in 2021, was Dickson Hohaia, of South Taranaki, with a 9.060kg fish. The biggest snapper to date was landed by Darin Maxwell, of Te Puke, in 2012 and weighed in at 12.030kg.
■ The day one winner of the 2023 Snapper Bonanza was Craig Larson of Auckland with a 7.160kg fish. He wins $2000 and a chance of taking home the big prize on Saturday. The other winners were Nadine Boynton, Kaitaia, 6.955kg; Milton Arnold, Kaitaia, 6.555kg; Nore Martin, Rawene, 6.27kg; Andre Zowitzkey, Auckland, 5.975kg. A total of 527 fish were weighed. The winning team was Kaitaia Hunting and Fishing; the average weight (2.773kg) winners were Gillian Fisher of Kaitaia and Trevor Coombe of New Plymouth.
