Excitement at One Base
While gamefish weren’t in abundance for the 24th Houhora One base, there was still plenty of exciting action for nearly 200 anglers who took part in this year’s event.
With 191 anglers and 60 boats entered from various fishing clubs including those as far south as Tauranga and Matamata, there were a lot of yellow fin and albacore tuna caught throughout this year’s competition which ran from Wednesday to Saturday, March 7-10.
Organisers of the four day tournament noted there double and triple strikes and in one instance five fish were hooked up at once, while winners took home cash, fishing rods and reels, and power tools in prizes and lucky draws.
Full credit
went
to Houhora’s Giovanni team, with skipper Marty Doody, landing Michelle Wedding’s 222.2kg blue marlin in rough seas, a great bonding session for the all-girl crew winning the $10,000 billfish prize.
The striped marlin landed by Nick Inder and team on the boat Rampage broke the event’s striped marlin drought to claim the other major prize of $10,000 cash.
The top skipper trophy and winning boat with 661 points went to Doody (Giovanni); Doug Buckle (Big 00) and taking $1000 for the heaviest snapper at 9.36kg; Justin Nelson (Beefeater) won the $1,000 cash prize for reeling in the heaviest kingfish 15.6kg; while Mike Lodge (Hemingway) won $1,000 cash for the heaviest yellow fin tuna at 37.7kg,
Other winners were Mike Morphett (Off the Hook) who claimed the sponsored lucky draw of 4x4 tyres, while the eight-day cruise for two to Fiji — on the Pacific Jewel with three stop-overs — went to Tony Kearns (Big OO). Both are regular anglers at the One Base.
Total fish weighed were one blue marlin, two striped marlin — albeit one under qualifying weight — 12 yellowfin tuna, 10 albacore, two mahi-mahi, and six snapper.
Good times were had by the anglers in the clubrooms in the evenings with the Man of the Moment award going to Mike Allen (Mikes Stabi) who won a Shimano 24kg roller tip rod and Shimano TLD30 reel and donated it to the youngest angler fishing the one base, 13-year-old William Lomas.
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