Nervous wait for leading fisher in Ninety Mile Beach Snapper Bonanza

It’s going to be a nervous 24 hours or so for Kaitāia fisher Zane Kaaka as he waits to see if anybody can beat the 8.225kg fish he landed on the first day’s fishing at the Ninety Mile Beach Snapper Bonanza.

Kaaka caught the big snapper on Tuesday – earning $2500 as the heaviest fish of the day – and it’s in first place for the $30,000 grand prize for heaviest fish overall.

He will have been keeping a close eye on the fish coming in every day since, hoping that they will not top his front-running snapper.

And Thursday’s fishing left him still in pole position, despite 374 fish being weighed in.

Thursday’s heaviest fish was caught by Jason Morss, from Ahipara, with a 6.67kg snapper. Second placed went to Aucklander Calvin Fourie with a 6.625kg fish, with Ruawai’s Robbie Wilson coming third on the day with a 6kg snapper.

And it’s still local knowledge leading the way, with the biggest snapper on each day so far landed by a Far North fisher.

The competition ends on Saturday, so if there are no heavier fish caught on Friday or Saturday, Kaaka will walk away with the top prize.

But there’s 999 other fishers on the beach all doing their best to catch the elusive big one to take the top prize.

The Ninety Mile Beach Snapper Bonanza is famous across New Zealand and the wider Pacific, bringing 1000 keen fishers every year to the region. They all hit the famous Northland beach looking to catch the big one and reel in some serious prize money.

The single species fishing competition runs for five days until Saturday and the cash pool is more than $72,000. The biggest cash offering goes to the largest snapper of the week, a whopping $30,000.

Event, organiser John Stewart said the generosity of the fishers was always amazing, and so far dozens of fish have been donated to be auctioned off on Saturday to raise money for the Kaitāia Volunteer Fire Brigade.

The auction is a major fundraiser for the brigade and will be held at the Kaitāia Markets from 8.30am.

Darin Maxwell holds the record for the heaviest snapper recorded in the competition’s history. In 2012, the Te Puke fisherman reeled in a massive snapper that weighed in at 12.03kg.