Fishing cast off for $40,000 of prizes

A section of Whanganui's coastline will be a sea of fishing rods on Sunday when the Wanganui East Club hosts the Monster Surf Casting competition.

For years the competition has been known as the Eides Sports fishing contest, but this year the club's fishing adjunct has taken the reins. Competitors are allowed to fish anywhere along 17km of coast from the mouth of the Whanganui River to the mouth of the Whangaehu River.

Organiser Ken Mander said the event is regarded as the country's biggest one-day surfcasting competition and they were confident of getting 800 entries, all chasing $40,000 worth of prizes.

The heaviest snapper is the main drawcard and the winner will get to take home either a Honda quad bike, a Honda CB500 or a Honda family pack of three motorcycles. Second prize is $1500 cash and there's $1200 for third prize in that division. There are also prizes for the biggest kahawai, cod or gurnard, and the winner of that section picks up a $2000 barbecue, with $1000 to the runner-up and $700 for third. In the non-scaled division the winner gets a $1000 fishing package, second prize is $700 and third place $500. There will be prizes from first through to 10th in every category.