NZ lure Masters is one of the few comps I fish, by-in-large, comps are not of enormous interest to me. I fish at least once a week; fishing is a way of life. I’m trying to catch the biggest fish, but I’m also fishing for food first and constantly releasing the bigger fish. Everything else that goes along with fishing is a bonus, the sunsets, sunrises, and friendships made.
Then NZ Lure Masters came along, organised and ran by a couple of super keen fishers with similar ethos and approach to fishing as myself.
For a start, the comp is a measure based comp – I think we all want our fishery and marine habitat to improve – And it’s likely that kill comps only achieve the opposite of this. The way to win a traditional comp is to catch and kill the biggest fish you can find, and hopefully, you’ve killed one big enough to win. You’ll find out at prize giving.
With Lure Masters, yes, catch the biggest fish you can, and then you are encouraged to release the fish safely. Not a pre-requisite, but you are encouraged to release. Lure Masters is a win/win for the fishery and fisher. You can still win the comp without unnecessarily killing a fish you don’t even want to eat. And with softbaiting, the style that we do, the survival rate of snapper is deemed in the 95% + range
I wouldn’t fish a kill comp because the basic premise of killing the biggest fish you can, to win a prize does not fit my mindset and reasons for going fishing and gathering food. So having a comp where you can compete and still release – in my mind – is the only way forward for a healthy and productive marine environment as far as comps are concerned.
The other key aspect with NZ Lure Masters is you can fish anywhere you like. Yes, this can put you at a disadvantage as certain parts of NZ have more significant numbers of bigger fish. But it means you don’t have to plan too far in advance, and it allows you to be fluid with your choice of destination. Nothing sucks more than being trapped to an area in 20 knots when you know 4 hours drive away is a variable five knotter!
For Team Gulp!, the destination was obvious. Fish the Hauraki Gulf. There are potentially better destinations for big fish in NZ, but the HG is hard to beat on a good day, and Sams’s result of 7th out of 800 anglers meant Team Gulp! didn’t embarrass ourselves. The longest fish also came from the HG, and I believe a top 3 finish was also Hauraki Gulf-based.
Fishing the Hauraki Gulf was the plan because thats what we do; it’s where we live and fish. It’s part of our lives. Our tactics were simple, I (Alistair Arkell) would drive and position the boat, and Sam Wilkinson and Mark Stephenson would cast.
Pressure can be a big thing in any competitive environment, and some of the best athletes in the world have succumbed to it at different times in their lives. This brings me to another reason why I don’t encourage myself to fish comps. When I’m on the water, I’m at my most relaxed, never stressed and always in a good mood. So by putting pressure on myself to fish and win a comp, I feel that I’m moving away from what I love about being on the saltwater. Nonetheless, we were in the NZ Lure Masters, and we wanted to win!
The morning of the first day saw us casting at daybreak. It took us an hour to catch our first fish. Usually, this might happen on our first cast and It was a stonker of 76.5cm for Sam Wilkinson. A fish that would have been very close to, if not over 20lbs. We will never know or care, as Sam released the fish in good health for someone else to catch. 5 mins later, Mark hooked and fought a fish that looked as heavy as Sam’s fish, only to drop it at the boat.
Losing big fish is part of fishing, and we wouldn’t be the only ones to have fishing tales about the one that got away in the NZ Lure Masters.
You can’t do much about a fish popping off; it sucks, but it is just how it is. Sometimes they just lip hooked and tear out easily.
When fishing the shallows like we do (sub 10 metres), when we hook a big fish, we drive on it straight away, trying to get on top of the fish. If you let it run and run, it will get into the kelp, and your chances of landing the fish diminish. I have tricks up my sleeve to get fish out of the kelp, but it’s not where you want to be. Driving on fish in the shallows where you can see the bottom and rocks are strewn everywhere gets pretty hectic. Often we try to get in between the fish and the shoreline to prevent a bust off. It gets even cooler when you can see the fish change directions in only a few metres of water. Once people come on my boat and try shallow water softbaiting, they are hooked instantly!
After these first two big fish, the rest of the day was pretty uneventful; we probably caught another 50 fish between two anglers, with two other fish in the mid 60’s range. Most high-quality eaters in the 40-50cm range went home unharmed. We kept nine snapper the first day between 3 people. And released anything over 55cm, which is pretty standard fishing for us. That evening, life compromised catching up with some fellow Team Penn & Berkley fishers, cooking a feed, sipping a few cold ones, and then chilling out.
Day 2 started hectic for Team Gulp! And Sam and Mark were into solid fish straight away. Sadly nothing of any actual size to challenge the leader board. Yet. And so the rest of the day played out like this, catching truckloads of fish, just nothing that would escalate us up the ladder, until the last hour of the day when out of nowhere, Sam wrangled a 78.5cm fish which brought us into the top ten of the comp.
A good reason to keep casting and not give up.
That was Team Gulp! for the comp. Overall, slow fishing on the big fish with Sam finishing with a 78.5cm, 76.5cm, 66.5cm snapper, which gave him a combined length of his best three fish of 221.5cm. Good enough for 7th place out of 800 anglers fishing our home port, the Hauraki Gulf.
We stayed an extra night away to enjoy and relax some of the finest offerings of the wider gulf and just take our time to come home in a non-rushed manner.
Wayne and Dan, well done on setting the bar for all comps to follow. And the sponsors, who stuck by the comp during the turbulence of the last couple of years.
Team Gulp! will be back for the next edition of NZ Lure Masters and most likely fishing our home grounds of the Hauraki Gulf.
Frothing!
