Hi all

Well that's March done and dusted and we've just finished the Simrad Raglan One Base and the Summer Champs Prize Giving. 

If you didn't fish the Simrad One Base, you missed another goodie. We moved it from the old 3 day format to the new 8 day format for the first time last year, making this year the second running of the new format. What a great decision that turned out to be! We got 5 fishable days this year, and even though the swell was higher than I'd normally be comfortable with, the early to late morning high tides we had during the week made crossing the bar a piece of cake. Once out the fishing was on! With the marlin more spread out than they had been they were harder to find but two boats got two each during the course of the week resulting in Scott and the team AWOL taking out top Team and Matt Hassard from War Horse taking out top Angler and heaviest Marlin with one weighed marlin and one tagged fish. 

Inshore fishing was a slugfest between the Ingley and Waitere Families all week with both families featuring strongly in the inshore fish prizes with Nick and Dave Waitere taking out first and second Snapper with Alison Ingley taking out third place. Honorable mention goes to Scott Pritchard who would've placed 4th if we had a prize for that, but he ended up smashing a 21 year old Club record with a 5.85kg snapper caught on 2kg line. 

Scott and his Daughter Rebekah also took out 2nd and 3rd place respectively in the Kingfish section. 

A huge thanks to Mark Olsen for pulling it all together, and Simrad our headline sponsor for something like the last 10 years or more, our hard working committee who supported Mark to make it all happen. He's also done a write up later in this newsletter. Thanks Also to our great Sponsors who stick with us year in year out despite the difficult economic times we have been through.

We all did our Summer Champs Prize Giving Congrats to all the winners and notably our good Mate Jeff Preston who featured in most categories, but again we had some very notable captures and strong finishes from a number of competitors including and 84cm Trout! Also see later in this newsletter for results..

And don't forget our 2025 Hunting and Fishing Big Four Comp kicking off and running from April 12th through to the 27th. Get in to win your share of $10k of prizes. 

We also have the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council Junior Nationals running along side the Big Four, so make sure you get your junior anglers signed up for that, and then all they have to do is weight their fish with a catch card at an NZSFC Affiliated club weigh station, and send the catch card back to Katelyn our hard working records officer. 

By the time you read this you'll also have seen the announcement from IGFA that they have decided to open up Junior Line Class records. So all juniors up to the age of 16 years can now claim IGFA world records for all species except billfish for the first time in history. 

That's it from me for now.

Cheers

Bob

WSFC Members receive 10% off Hamilton and Cambridge Hunting & Fishing

10% off at Hamilton and Cambridge Hunting & Fishing when you present your WSFC Membership. The discount applies to all items in store but excludes items already on special, electronics, firearms, ammunition, game and electric fishing combos.

Big Four 12th-27th April 2025

$10,000 Minimum Retail Prize Pool

Snapper, Kingfish, Kahawai, Trevally  

Our Big Four competition will be running during the April school holidays and includes the Easter and ANZAC holidays. We also have the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council Junior Nationals running along side the Waikato Hunting & Fishing Big Four, so make sure you get your junior anglers signed up for that, and then all they have to do is weigh their fish with a catch card at an NZSFC Affiliated club weigh station, and send the catch card back to Katelyn our hard working records officer, so you can enter both at the same time. See details further on in this newsletter.

Waikato Hunting & Fishing Big Four Tournament

Entry Fee

Adult $50

Junior $25 (16 years and under as of 30 June 2024)

Enter by clicking the Waikato Hunting & Fishing Big Four Tournament Entry Form button above. The entry form is also available on our website. If you have any difficulty entering please email Kerrie at secretary@waikatosportfishing.co.nz.

Entries close 11.59pm Friday 11th April 2025

Fish entered  via NZSFC App. Measure photos must be submitted using the NZSFC measure app,  instructions on how to download and submit fish are attached to the rules. Any questions please email Brian at  treasurer@waikatosportfishing.co.nz

Fishing commences anywhere in NZ waters from ​​​​​​​12.01am Saturday 12th April 25, until 11.59pm Sunday 27th April 2025.

Four Big Four Bag divisions 

Men Prize Value $500

Women Prize Value $500 

​​​Junior Prize Value $300

Overall $1,000 cash

Prizes for 1st to 3rd longest fish in each division and each species.

$200 cash X 5 draws for lucky entrant draws. (All entrants eligible but must be present at prizegiving otherwise will be redrawn)

Prizegiving will be held on a date to be confirmed and will include complementary Pizza and Hot Chips.

Rules. The rules are available on the Waikato Hunting & Fishing Big Four Tournament Rules and NZSFC App Instructions Button below.

Simrad Raglan One Base Fishing Tournament 2025.

This year’s comp was a success with the 8-day format providing 5 days of fishable conditions and seeing a wide range of fish species being weighed.

The Marlin fishing has been exceptional this season on the West Coast and there were still plenty around for those who ventured out wide. Although reports of sightings in 36m near Reef 21. 

5 Striped Marlin were Tagged & Released and 1 weighed in at 108kgs caught by Matt Hassard, on Boat “War Horse”.

Tagged Marlin

Mark Bennett 600 pts, Boat “Legasea”

Hamish Bryant 600 pts, Boat “AWOL”

Matt Hassard 600 pts, Boat “War Horse”

Rory Atkinson 600 pts, Boat “AWOL”

Harper Furniss 600 pts, Boat “Crackers”

Mark Bennett tagged a Shark and Marlin leading on points, but Team Legacy narrowly missed out on Top Team by dropping a second Marlin at the boat on the last day of the competition.

Notable Catches, Junior Angler Harper Furniss tagged and released her first Striped Marlin at the grand old age of 10yrs. 

More Teams were fishing light tackle this year to accumulate points. Scott Pritchard caught a 5.82 kg Snapper on 2 kg line which is a new club record and scored 291 points for Team De Saraphanie

Results

Gurnard - 1st Jason Waitere 1.01 kg

Trevally - 1st Kyden Waitere 2.18 kg,  2nd Alison Ingley 1.22 kg ,3rd Peter Aarsen 1.09kg

Kahawai – 1st Nick Waitere 2.92 kg, 2nd Katelyn Olsen 2.88 kg, 3rd Gerry Ingley 2.84 kg

Snapper – 1st Nick Waitere 7.33 kg, 2nd Dave Waitere 7.29 kg, 3rd Alison Ingley 6.58 kg

Skipjack – 1st Warren Banks 4.07 kg , 2nd Cade Hassard 3.94 kg , 3rd Aaron Davey 3.92 kg

Albacore – 1st Shaun Brinkworth 3.85 kg, 2nd Tim Cresswell 3.4 kg, 3rd Ben Rapson 3.25 kg

Kingfish – 1st Brian Milne 14.5 kg, 2nd Scott Pritchard 12.68 kg, 3rd Rebekah Pritchard 11.97 kg

Mahi Mahi – Nil

Tuna - Nil

Marlin – 1st Matt Hassard   108 kg Striped Marlin.

Top Junior - Harper Furniss 600 pts

Top Lady - Katelyn Olsen 270.5 pts

Top Men’s - Matt Hassard 1050 pts

Top Team – Boat “AWOL” 1200 pts T&R Two Striped Marlin.

The Grand Finale was the Last Man Standing draw for $2000 which was won by Team “Crackers” 

We had 49 anglers entered on 19 boats which was similar to last year’s comp.

Heard a few of our contenders were chasing the big Bucks at the Kubota competition which dropped a few boats from the list.

Was great to see all the usual competitors entering and enjoying the friendly rivalry that is the Raglan One Base.

Thanks to The Raglan Club Inc for hosting the Tournament.

Thankyou Kevin & Helen Larkin our weigh masters for weighing fish the full 8 days , they also did a great job scanning  all the catch card details through to committee.

Thankyou President Bob for MC duties throughout the week.

All our committee had a part in organizing and helping out during the comp.

Special thanks to our Secretary Kerrie for integrating  all the online entries and notifications to work on the new Sporty management system and running a secondary data base to check catches against.

Lastly thankyou to all our sponsors who have supported this year’s One Base.

It has been a tough year for many businesses and the WSFC appreciates your continued support.

Organiser Mark Olsen presenting Katelyn Olsen with 2nd place Kahawai. Katelyn also won Ladies Overall

Last man standing winner Crackers and runner up Reel Outlaw

Nick Waitere and Dave Waitere weighing in their 1st and 2nd place Snapper. 

A HUGE THANK YOU to our weighmasters Kevin and Helen Larkin. We truly appreciate the time you spend ensuring that every catch is accurately weighed and recorded.

New Snapper 2kg Line WSFC Club Record

Congrats to Scotty Pritchard who got all inspired to fish for points at this years one base, by fishing 2kg line class. The plan was hatched and a spot well up the coast from Raglan was chosen for its relatively clean bottom and generally good quantities of Snapper in relatively shallow water. Fishing had been pretty good all morning, and toward the end of the session a fish was hooked that was clearly bigger than anything else we'd caught that morning. After what seemed like an eternity but more like 30 odd minutes, a very good snapper came along boat side. We knew it was a good fish and hoped it would be a contender for a podium finish in the comp. Back on the scales it went 5.85 Kgs which in the final results would have scored fourth place in snapper category, but broke the long standing Club record of 5.65kg held by Wayne Rendell since 2004. 

Congratulations to our Summer Measure Champs 2025 Winners

Many thanks to Joe Dennehy for the very informative talk on Soft Bait and Sliders.

Spotlight on sponsor

Limited Edition WSFC T-Shirts

We have a limited edition Waikato Sport Fishing Club T-shirt available for purchase. It's the perfect way to show your support and affiliation with Waikato Sport Fishing Club. The T-shirt is produced by the very popular AS Colour brand.

See our design below: Left is the front, right is the back.

Mens T-shirts $50 Size S, M, L, XL, XXL, XXXL

Womans T-shirts $50 Size S, M, L, XL

Kids T-shirts $45 Size 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14

Please follow this link to our online order form. WSFC T-Shirt Online Order . Please note that postage costs will be added if required. You can also opt to pick up your order from our next club night.

Important letter from NZSFC President
 
Hi there,
 
Please see this important letter from NZSFC President Scott Macindoe - click here 

Regards

Helen Pastor 
Administration 
NZ Sport Fishing Council

Upcoming Events

Big Four 12th-27th April 25

Club Night/Big Four Prizegiving 14th May 25

2024/2025 Membership Renewal

You can join our club at any time during the season. Memberships are valid for the current season starting 1st July and will expire on the 30th of June. For further details including membership benefits and fees visit our website https://www.waikatosportfishing.co.nz/

New WSFC Facebook Group

A Waikato Sport Fishing Club Facebook Group page has been created. This platform has been established to enable members to share their fishing experiences and photographs of their recent catches. We look forward to seeing your photos and hearing your fishing stories. 

Click on the link to join https://www.facebook.com/groups/1345848790105770