Megafish sponsor plans to honour clubmate Nic Magdalinos

Megafish sponsor Adam Satherley, who is on board with Your Solutions for the next four years, with competition organiser Joe Bicknell. Photo / Doug Laing

The major sponsor of Hawke's Bay's biggest fishing competition has signed on for four years in the hope that it will rise to some of the heights of the flagship event which dominated sports fishing in the Bay for more than 30 years.

But it's not the only name Adam Satherley will be putting out there in Your Solutions Megafish Hawke's Bay, when at least 70 boats put to sea on February 3 for the three-day indulgence which is expected to attract more than 300 entries.

Mr Satherley, a Hawke's Bay Sports Fishing Club member who will be fishing in the tournament and chasing the very prize he sponsors, plans to have a name on the boat commemorating clubmate and architect Nic Magdalinos, who died five weeks ago.

"It hasn't got a name," he said yesterday as he and club committee member Joe Bicknell checked over Mr Bicknell's own boat. "Nic was one of the team. He was a partner in the boat. He would have been fishing the tournament with us."

Although a keen fisherman, Mr Satherley has been a club member for only three to four years. But his interest in the event has its roots in the formation of Your Solutions in 2010, when joiner Mr Satherley combined with friend and builder Troy Morgan in establishing a new firm specialising in fitting out shops and other premises.

The business started, he says, from a box of tools on the back of a truck, but now has 18 staff sand seen some sizeable contracts, such as supermarkets.

Mr Satherley hopes similar growth can come to the fishing competition, having been involved in supporting the event in its rebirth and now committing himself to the next four years, saying: "We want to get it pumping. It's exciting."

The 2018 Megafish will carry a top prize of $10,000, part of a prize pool worth more than $50,000, across seven species, including the expected bigger-catch species of marlin and shark. Other species are tuna, albacore, skipjack, kingfish, and snapper.

In February this year there were 275 anglers, fishing from 77 boats, the big prize being won by Robbie Wigmore, of Napier, for an 18.2kg albacore tuna. There were heavier catches, but in a change the big winner was decided on a weight-to-species scale.

Previously, the major prize was claimed by the biggest catch, as had been the case with the 2016 Megafish, won by Napier man Dean Young's 136.6kg marlin.

The club's "Early-Bird" entry forms are available at the club, and Hunting and Fishing Napier and Firmans Marine, which are both among the sponsors. The club members' fee is $70, non members are $85, and juniors are $30.

Mr Bicknell, who will also fish the tournament, from the boat Wahoo, said most of the competitors come from Napier, Hastings and Central Hawke's Bay.

But the club wants to attract competitors from further afield for the event, which is timed for the better fishing conditions at that time of the year.

"It is a bit difficult, because the season seems to be getting a little later with the weather changes," he said. "And there is a lot on around that weekend and Waitangi day each year. But we did get better entries last year than the year before."