Boisterous weekend fishing competition

The Cook Islands Game Fishing Club held the first Cook Islands Open fishing competition over Saturday and Monday, in conjunction with a mamas and tamariki reef fishing competition on Saturday.

Fishing conditions on Saturday were boisterous and far from ideal, with a high tide around midday.

However, of the 18 boats that registered for the CI open comp 12 were successful in landing at least one fish and several with very good catches.

Saturday, although somewhat rough, was the more productive of the two days.

Over the two days a total of 41 fish were weighed in with a combined weight of 548.3kg. Maimai were biting freely with many being caught, weighing between 6kg and a lovely 22.6 kg bull maimai caught by Junior Ioaba in Bobi Marie.

In the reef fishing division – three mamas weighed in several reef fish each, but the reef conditions were too rough for the tamariki so the free ice creams and sausage sizzle will be set aside for another day.

First place in the reef fishing competition went to Vaea with 5.2kg of fish with second place won by Tupe with 3.6 kg and third went to Sam with 1.3 kg.

Each received two bottles of wine for their effort, generously sponsored by the Bond Store.

The Cook Islands open competition included the heaviest fish, aggregate weight, heaviest wahoo, heaviest maimai, and heaviest tuna divisions.

Heaviest fish results – 1st- Black Beauty (Dick Marsters) with a 45.6kg wahoo, 2nd- Bobi Marie (Junior Ioaba) with a 22.6kg maimai, 3rd- Marlin Queen (Willie) with a 20.8kg maimai.

Aggregate weight – 1st-Dragonfly (Jason Tuara) with a total of 73kg, 2nd- Marlin Queen (Willie) with a total of 69.8kg, 3rd- Black Beauty (Dick Marsters) with a total of 60.4kg.

Heaviest wahoo went to Black Beauty (Dick Marsters) 45.6kg while the heaviest maimai went to Bobbi Marie (Junior Ioaba) 22.6kg and the heaviest tuna prize went to Marlin Queen (Willie) 7.6kg.

Marlin Queen also won the unlucky boat prize for catching a whopper 85kg tuna the day before the competition.

Prize giving was officiated by weighmaster Rob Coote.

A scrumptious meal was much appreciated by the fisherman and those who stayed back to celebrate.

The Club along with all the anglers who took part wish to sincerely thank the following sponsors for the generous donation of prizes – Transam CI Ltd, XCil Ltd, CI General Transport, Akura Charters, Pacific Spring Ltd., CI Motor Centre, CI Printing Services/Jaycar, Ministry of Marine Resources, Pacific Divers, Michigan Motors, Trader Don, Toa Petroleum, Vonnias Ltd, The Bond Store and Quality Equipment NZ Ltd.