Fishing: Gamefish enthusiasts hitting fever pitch

By Geoff Thomas

Gone Fishing


"Radar Blue hooked up!"

"Red October in Furuno Quadrant and hooked up!"

"Black Watch - fish on."

The messages crackle over the marine radio, sometimes brief, sometimes yelled at high pitch, carrying the excitement into 190 boats as they roll and pitch into the swells off the Northland coast.

At dawn today the armada of game fishing craft will again head out through the narrow opening which leads to the sheltered harbour of Tutukaka.

Nearly 1000 hopeful anglers will spend all day watching lures popping in and out of the surface, or live baits swimming slowly in the wake. Salt-reddened eyes will scan the horizons for the white specks of seabirds wheeling and diving, or the splashing of feeding fish.

Today is the fourth day of the Bartercard-Furuno Gamefish Challenge 2100 - New Zealand's richest fishing tournament, with over $250,000 in prizes.

The teams on each boat have paid $1500 for the chance of winning cash prizes up to $50,000 in the main categories and an array of product prizes.

The boats spread out and head for favourite fishing grounds up and down the coast, while others disappear over the horizon, looking for the warm offshore currents where the big blue marlin are usually found - maybe 80km out to sea.

All hook-ups have to be reported to the Whangarei Deep Sea Anglers' Club, in the clubrooms overlooking the marina at Tutukaka.

Tagging and releasing of fish is encouraged, and every boat has been issued with a specific camera to record catches which are released.

Fishing ends tomorrow at 4 pm, but the first days of fishing saw plenty of action.

"It was a dream start," said club manager Hilton Polkinghorne. "The weather was fine, and we had striped, blue and black marlin caught, as well as tuna and sharks."

The cream of the country's professional charter skippers are fishing the tournament, as well as keen anglers from all over New Zealand.

"But you don't have to have a million-dollar boat to win," said Polkinghorne, pointing to a 6m aluminium runabout painted red.

"The boys on Red October landed a 121kg striped marlin and a 78kg mako shark on the first day and another shark the next day."

The first marlin of the tournament was boated by a team who towed their 7m boat from New Plymouth.

There were eight marlin, four sharks and three yellowfin tuna weighed on the first day. The following day saw a black marlin of 160kg, a blue marlin of 192kg and several other sharks and marlin caught.

The crew on Black Watch added a striped marlin tagged to the 203kg blue marlin they had caught on the first day.

Game fishing usually gets under way seriously at the end of January, but the club at Tutukaka wanted to hold the first major tournament of the new millennium.