Far North Kahika (Mayor) Moko Tepania at the opening of the 2023 Snapper Bonanza on Monday evening. Photo / Moko Tepania
A return to “mint conditions” is forecast on Ninety Mile Beach for the final two days of the Snapper Bonanza after huge swells pounded anglers yesterday and gave fish the upper hand.
Wednesday’s brutal seas meant few fish were expected to be weighed at Bonanza headquarters at Waipapakauri Ramp.
As a result, at edition time yesterday Auckland fisher Craig Larson was still the leading contender for the $30,000 top prize thanks to a 7.160kg snapper landed on Tuesday, day one of the iconic event.
The weigh station was, however, still open when the Age went to press.
Publican and councillor Dave Collard, who organises the event along with Kaitaia printer John Stewart, said it was “very, very tough” on the beach with “massive” sweeps and swells.
Contestants had been warned the previous night to take care and few fish were expected.
However, from 7pm on Wednesday to 10.30am on Thursday anglers were permitted to fish off the beach anywhere from Shipwreck Bay/Te Kohanga on the west coast to Tokerau Beach in the east as part of Riders Sports Day.
That would allow contestants to seek out a sheltered spot and make up for lost fishing time.
Fish landed during Riders Sports Day were, however, not eligible for the main Bonanza prizes.
Collard said the official forecast for Friday and Saturday was “mint”.
That would give the other contestants a chance to challenge Larson’s early lead.
While the Ninety Mile Beach Snapper Bonanza has long been regarded as New Zealand’s, and probably the world’s, biggest surfcasting competition, this year’s contest is even bigger than usual with 1200 entrants and up to 3000 people at prizegiving every evening.
That makes it easily the Far North’s biggest multi-day event.
Collard said it made a “huge” contribution to the Far North economy with, according to a Far North District Council study, out-of-district contestants spending on average $300 a day on accommodation, food and other needs.
“We believe the impact on the local economy is in excess of $2 million for the week, and that’s probably conservative because it doesn’t take into account spending by locals,” he said.
In previous years about 65 per cent of fishers were from outside Northland.
The current contestants had come from as far away as Hokitika, Christchurch and Western Australia.
Anticipation has been extra-high ahead of this year’s competition because the 2022 event had to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 restrictions.
Fellow organiser John Stewart said tickets sold for the last year’s Bonanza had been honoured at the 2023 competition.
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.
The top spot prize was a Mitsubishi Triton ute, to be drawn on the final evening, while the cash prize pool totalled $72,000.
That included $30,000 for the heaviest snapper overall and $10,000 for the fish closest to the tournament’s average weight.
In contrast to Wednesday’s big swells, conditions on Tuesday, day one of the contest, had been “beautiful”, Stewart said.
The competition was opened on Monday evening by Far North Mayor Moko Tepania, who said he would suffer fomo (“fear of missing out”) all this week while he had to work in his Kaikohe office.
He said he was looking forward to the fish auction on Saturday and seeing who managed to land the biggest snapper.
Former mayor John Carter, who lives nearby, has been putting in daily appearances at the Bonanza Headquarters as a weigh station volunteer.
Fishing in the Bonanza resumes at 7am on Friday. The weigh station will close for the last time at 4.30pm on Saturday with final prizegiving due to start around 5pm.
The 2021 winner 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.
Collard and Stewart started the Bonanza in 2011 after an earlier contest, the Snapper Classic, ran into financial difficulties and folded.
One of their key reasons for wanting to keep the contest alive was its economic benefit to the district.
■ Tuesday’s 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 on day one, with Kaitaia Hunting and Fishing being the winning team and Gillian Fisher of Kaitaia and Trevor Coombe of New Plymouth the average weight winners (2.773kg). If not enough fish were landed on Wednesday the daily winnings would be handed out as spot prizes.