Fishers flood Taranaki aiming for a big catch

11:45 am on 11 November 2023

Robin Martin, Taranaki Whanganui reporter

Laurie Te Kahika with his 7.7kg snapper at weigh-in. Photo: Supplied

Hundreds of fishers from around the country are chasing the elusive 'big one' at one of the nation's largest surfcasting competitions in Taranaki this weekend.

Entries for the Taranaki Open Surfcasting Challenge, which started on Wednesday, were sold out as 400 hopefuls lined up for a share of the $25,000 prize pool.

Laurie Te Kahika in action. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin

Wairoa fisher Laurie Te Kahika, who was fishing at Ahuahu Road just south of Ōākura, with wife Ruby, had bagged the second biggest snapper as of Friday morning.

"This is the first time I've ever been here, this place. I just liked the way the sea was, and that you had to walk over the sand bar and then you go down into the deep.

"So, I caught the tide right yesterday and fortunately I had a bit of luck."

He certainly did.

"When I weighed it in it was a 7.7kg snapper. It did put up a bit of a fight but once I got it over onto the sand bar it was pretty easy."

David Carroll was top of the snapper leaderboard with a 7.940kg beauty Photo: Supplied

David Carroll was top of the snapper leaderboard with a 7.940kg catch.

Competitors in the Taranaki Open Surfcasting Challenge are chasing five species - snapper, trevally, gurnard, kahawai and spotted smooth-hound shark - over a huge expanse of coastline from the Marakopa river mouth, in the north to Wainui Beach, near Waitotara in the south.

Ruby and Laurie, who are retired, were enjoying the mellow vibe of the Taranaki competition.

Ruby said they were at the Ninety Mile Beach Snapper Bonanza where 1200 surfcasters vied for $70,000 in prize money earlier this year.

"This is probably better. It's a huge area where you can fish whereas up in the Ninety Mile you only have a short space of area where I think they have about 1000 rods, so you're in pretty close.

"Here you've just about got the whole beach for you to fish in and it's really good fishing and we're right here on a sandy beach. It's great."

Ruby and Laurie Te Kahika. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin

Laurie was hopeful of claiming some of the snapper prize money.

"Well, we might take something I hope. There's 15 prizes, we may take something home. Pay for the gas and that. For the beers and all that."

He also had plans for that snapper.

"Oh, I'll take it home and do it up into raw fish and fillets. They'll be a lot of fillets on that thing for everybody. Just share it out amongst the whānau. The best part is the head though, yeah, boil the head with onions, beautiful."

Event organiser Allan Dodd said the competition had almost doubled in size since being launched in 2010, and entries for this year's event were sold out in September.

"About half a dozen surfcasters thought it was about time we had a competition in Taranaki, so we got together and had a few meetings and it's grown from there. The first year we budgeted for 140 entries and got 256."

Taranaki Open Surfcasting Challenge co-organiser Allan Dodd. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin

Dodd said entries were now limited to 400 because that was the capacity of the Cape Egmont Boat Club where prizegiving was held.

Entries come from around the country and beyond.

"In the very first competition, we had a guy visiting from the US and he got the second biggest snapper. A $1000 he went home with."

Dodd was usually tied up with paperwork during the competition and could only throw out a line in between jobs, but one year that was enough to land a prize-winning fish.

"I got to Mōkau about three hours before I had to pick up the weigh-in sheets and caught a 5.7kg snapper. It got ninth that year, so that's the only time I've got on the board."

Dodd said Taranaki was a great region for surfcasting.

"It's a great area for big snapper. It's hard to fish, but the rewards are good when you get the conditions right."

He said the prevailing south-westerly winds made the past time challenging.

Surfcasting was also a relatively cheap way for people to get into fishing for those who could not afford a boat or kayak.

"Well, if you're like me and get seasick that's why I don't go out on boats. I just love getting out in nature and getting out onto a remote beach where no one else is fishing and doing my own thing."

Taranaki Open Surfcasting Challenge wraps up Sunday afternoon.

Record holders: