Snap up the big one

It's the lure of adventure they say (and pardon the pun) but you'd have to wonder what brings a bunch of blokes to a long and windy stretch of Far North beach to surf cast for fish. For a week.

Truth be known it's time away from work, from responsibility, from her indoors and other pesky interferences that draws normally fairly sane men to form a team, string up a rod and chuck it out to sea day after spray-in-the-eyes day. And to fortify one's self during most of the day with nothing more than a hip flask of unfortified coffee and gritty sandwiches.

The annual surf-casting competition has been running at Waipapakauri Ramp since about 1983, give or take a couple of years, and in the 21 years former Detective Sergeant John 'JC' Payne has entered the competition he's probably caught more colds than the three kahawai he's actually hauled in. He has yet to hook that elusive snapper so he's never been in the money although he's won things like a rod and reel, a chilly bin, a dinner set, pots and pans and on one occasion he was one number away from winning the car. But like the snapper it got away.

Blame the late John Ponsford for forming the Northland Police Fishing Team. The team name survived until the (then) Minister of Police, George Hawkins, stingily declared they couldn't compete under the police nomenclature so they circumvented the edict by calling themselves The Blue Heelers. John had won $3,000 in 1991 and figured they had a greater chance of collectively winning more cash with 15 or so police and others loosely associated with them like a famous local Kaitaia editor and a Crown Solicitor. But even when they did win a bit of cash it cost them more to shout a round in the bar of an evening than they actually acquired from the day.

This is a team of old pros. They have the official tee-shirts complete with stars and bars for longevity, rituals like lunching at the World Famous Mangonui Fish and Chip shop on the journey north for potential luck, the first day and last night BBQs, maiden trip speeches and the camaraderie that fishing competitions seem to generate. They even have their own trophy - the Hone Ponsford Memorial Trophy - which was introduced well before he died and is a tangible example of the team's collective sense of humour.

There are many fishy tales to tell. Consider the irony of a member of the police team having their records stolen from his car. There's the ignominy of JC squelching into a wet suit a few sizes too small for him before it became unzipped again in front of a crowd of most appreciative onlookers. He says it could have been 'highly dangerous'. Given his job that's almost laughable and it could be argued that merely being a member of a police fishing team is fraught with potential risk yet this is the stuff of bar room legend and it's been that way for many a long year. If a common sense approach is adopted by the Department of Internal Affairs which is currently investigating the running of the Snapper Bonanza, these narratives may continue for some years hence.