Whangaroa a Magnet for Fish

The last few days have seen awesome catches close to Whangaroa. Boats have been returning with sheaves of weigh sheets and tag cards, with the striped marlin being out there everywhere you turn! The blue marlin have also shown their bills with the first fish for the club being caught by the club’s Recorder, Sandra Moore. It took 3 hours to land on 37kg line and weighed in at 197.8kg. This fish we could barely drag into the cockpit of Santana, but it was closely followed by another blue which had to come in to the weigh-station on the duck-board of Astrid – no way was this fish coming on board! They arrived in the darkness and pouring rain and as the fish was lifted upwards an enormous tail appeared. This was attached to a fish that weighed in at 316.2kg, another pinfish already! The angler Winkie Bannister, caught this monster on 37kg line and also took 3 hours to land the fish. The weigh-station was surrounded by excited and very wet people trying to get photos of the fish, and congratulate the angler and crew of Astrid. The day before, Ian Stewart also on Astrid caught a pinfish stripey which came in at 146.4kg. TopGun has been out a lot lately, with Carmen McIntyre tagging 3 stripeys in one day, 1 the next day, and their charter tagging and landing 2 bronze whalers 2 days later. Reel Passion has also been reeling them in, with a haul of 3 stripeys, 2 yellowfin tuna and mahimahi in the last few days. The club’s One Base Tournament starts next Wednesday the 8th February, and promises to be a huge success with the fish being out there, and all the effort gone into setting up a One Base to remember. We’ll see you and your weigh-sheets there!