Reon Sudderby This is the story of the one that didn't get away.
Despite breaking his reel, Napier man Mark Ives managed to haul in a huge 11.71kg snapper during the National Angling and Casting Championships, hosted by the Ahuriri-based Pania Surfcasting Club last weekend.
Mr Ives landed the huge fish about
200m south of the Black's Beach reef on Friday evening, to the amazement of surrounding competitors.
Mr Ives' first thoughts were that he had another stingray on the line, and to get rid of it as quickly as possible.
But it soon became apparent that what was on the end of his line was in fact a snapper.
Disaster struck when Mr Ives pulled the rod back and tried to wind at the same time. His reel broke and he had to wind the bail arm by hand.
Mr Ives said it probably only took no more than seven or eight minutes for him to land the snapper, but admitted it felt "a lot longer".
It's the biggest fish he's caught, although he did land an 11kg snapper just over three years ago.
However, Mr Ives said the weekend's catch was special because he caught the snapper in the middle of a competition.
The giant fish topped off a superb weekend at the championships for Mr Ives, who was awarded the New Zealand Champion Surfcaster (shore fisher) trophy. He also won awards for the heaviest bag in the shore section, all-round surfasting champion, and unsurprisingly, the heaviest snapper.
Despire talk of it being a record, Mr Ives still has a way to go before he can claim that honour. The club record is a 14.4 kilogram snapper.
As for the fish - it was filleted.
