Last Sunday was the New Zealand Jetskifishing Club "Snapper Cup", which is an all jet-ski, members only comp for big cash prizes! The club has over 80 current members, with 39 of them signing up for the free fishing comp with a chance to win $850 in cash prizes along with lunch hosted by the club after the days fishing. With winter fast approaching and some atrocious weather forecasted, it was enough to reduce the number that headed out on the day!
The joys of owning a jet-ski in Auckland, there is typically somewhere you can find shelter to fish in whichever wind direction or conditions. I opted to take advantage of the ramp facilities at Kawakawa Bay which made for a short and comfortable ride across to fish at the bottom end of Waiheke.
Having a short fishing window with the weigh-in commencing at11:30am meant some pressure fishing! As with any fishing competition, you just don't know what size would be required for the winning Snapper on the day. My morning started off with a Snapper on the first drop in 25 metres of water, but soon to lose enthusiasim with it a mere 34cm, not even qualifying for weigh-in :-) The deeper waters didn't seem to be providing so I decided to move into the shallows as the drift was running nicely along the reef. Fishing the shallow depths in around 8 metres with one of my favourites, Gulp - New Penny Grub was producing some results. The bait was getting smashed by some good size Snapper just over 50cm. Within the hour I had caught half a dozen nice sized fish, but none of which I would expect to be the winner. Happy to have fish in the bin, I took my chances and made my way back to the weigh in to see how the others got on and enjoy a hot lunch with a few coldies at the club.
Plenty of fish were caught, in some hard conditions but the size of fish was a struggle with many of the anglers being plagued by under 40cm Snapper at the area which we fished. Another great comp, my 2.65kg Snapper was enough to claim first prize and $500 cash. Congrats to Craig Brown and David Mckenzie placing second and third, and taking the rest of the cash prizes!
If you are:
See a big line up of skis setup to the next level of Jetskifishing, including the various brands fished off by our club members. Speak to the people who are fishing all year round and catching trophy fish while Jetskifishing.
Next open evening, winter 2016
Andrew Hill
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