# Taranaki Kayak Classic



## Naki Man (Aug 30, 2006)

Just thought I'd pop in a report from the Taranaki Kayak classic that we've been a bit busy with latley

With the increasing number of kayak anglers and kayak fishing clubs popping up around the North Island of New zealand, it was understandable that there was a need for a national kayak only fishing competition. As the Oakura Surfcasting and Kayak Fishing Club was the first Kayak fishing club in New Zealand, it was of no surprise that this club would be the first club to take on this challenge. After many months of organising and with numerous sponsors on board, the organisers watched nervously as high winds and huge swells bashed the Taranaki coast 10 days out from the competition. A watchfull eye on Swellmap suggested that the weather was going to be a cracker for the competition and many yak fishers entered the competition in the last week. Friday nights registration saw more late entries bringing the total number to about 65 and while waiting for the briefing, secretive plans were whispered as teams were formed. False times and spots were mentioned to put possible followers off the trail.
Following registration I hit the sack at 12.30 after inputting data into the computer and running tests to ensure that all would run well at the first weigh in. I was up again at 3.00. Our leaving time had been brought forward an hour to 4.00 am as a few yak fishers were hot on the trail of our spot. Others took a more laid back approach and arose at 10.00 am (probably due to the fact that the previous night had been spent testing beer to confirm that all glasses tasted the same). 
We arrived at WC (White Cliffs) at about 4.45 am and critiqued the situation, however the ute headlights beamed onto a surfless sea. Car parks were at an abundance as the other yak fishers had underestimated the eagerness of Team Naki.
We paddled for about 1/2 an hour with our head lights parting the dark, leaving a halo around each yak. At this point we were discussing the possibility of a team name change to "The Fucarwee Tribe" as all you could hear above the sound of the paddles cutting through the water was "where the [email protected]#k are we". Wondaboy (Tony) assured us that we were on the correct course according to the GPS. "Just head for that star". "Do you mean the one that's moving" I exclaimed. This didn't comfort me, as with my eye sight being not exactly 20/20, even with my head light, I couldn't see much past the end of my yak and the only way that I was going to find the buoy was to hit it.
The shout went out "it's over there". Shortly afterwards anchors were dropped and the days fishing began. Almost immediatley the fish started biting as the sun peeked over the distant landscape and sun rays danced across the waves. The morning proved to be bounteous with Team Naki binning snapper up to 15lb and a spattering of gurnard and kahawai were also thrown in. 
We packed up at 1.00 pm as I had to be back in time to set up the computer for the weigh in. 
We arrived back at the beach only moments before the Taranaki Terrors. The show and tell began and even though the Terrors were, as some considered, the best dressed, Team Naki brought home the bacon and took out the bragging rights
The scales clocked our biggest snapper at 7.22kg, followed by one at 6.745kg. which left us 2nd & 3rd consecutively behind a 7.57kg snapper landed by Aaron Farley of the BBK Local team. 
Team Naki were at the top of the teams leader board, with the Taranaki Terrors trailing by 100 points and closely followed by the Naki Boys. A total of 162 fish were weighed in on the first day, with kingis and john dory being the only species to be conspicuous by their absence. Most angles ended the day with a beer in their hand, a smile on their face and a story to tell, in between secretively planning their next days adventure.
A succulent roast pork buffet meal followed and that in turn was followed by a well narrated and illustrated presentation by Mark Jones of the Adventure Philosophy team on their circumnavigation expedition of South Georgia Island. Thanks very much to Peter and Bronnie from Canoe & Kayak for organising this and for the rest of their sponsorship.
The night ended early for all, except those who still had organising and computer work to complete; Oh yeah and fish to attend to! 
After hitting the sack once again at 12.30, I was soon awoken when the alarm radio burst into life at 3.00 am. We adopted the same routine as the previous day, however the paddle out was much quieter and less enthusiastic. The fishing was slower and pannies seem to be the order of the day. Squid played with our baits as they sank to the depths, with the odd one being hooked and binned. At one stage while reeling in a pannie snapper, a squid shot up from the deep and grabbed my fish. Reeling in slowly, I grabbed the squid by the tail and threw it my bin. The irony of all this was that the squid, once the predator, was now in the bin to be used in future as snapper bait. The news had got out about our spot and it wasnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t long before another 5 yaks had joined us, including Ã‚Â¾ of the compliment of the Taranaki Terrors. 
A motor boat screamed in and proceeded to tie up to the bouy just metres in front of Wondaboy under a hail of abuse from the surrounding yakers. Unperturbed the boaties proceeded to send line after line to the depths and shortly showed the results of their catch, Adams anchor!
A yaker paddled in from further out and we soon realised that it was Nubee with his new Marauder, with rods sticking out in all directions and a vibrant green flag flying at the back; it gave the impression that it was a float left over from the last Mardi Gras Parade. A commotion stirred behind me and I reeled to see Dogfish going head to head with a Mollymawk in a fight for his stray line.
One oÃ¢â‚¬â„¢clock had come around, so it was time to head in with a lesser catch than the previous day; some pannie snapper, a kahawai or two and some gurnard.
Excitement was rampant back at the weigh in with rumours that a monster snapper had been landed. I weighed my fish and proceeded to punch data into the computer. Suddenly the noise of the crowd escalated as the rumours turned to fact when Andrew Wright from Team Bucket slaps a 12.88kg snapper on the scales, Ã¢â‚¬Å"what a monsterÃ¢â‚¬


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Thanks for the report Naki and congratulations on the organising and the win. You guys have some nice fush over there


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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QlpoOTFBWSZTWaaqpy8AABffgAASQKEACICDGIA/79+gIACUiKn+qeoyTzVPTU/SjTaIek9qg1TyTNQBoMh6g0AgEawOF0jlGCqYRoRzI8qnynQRGWToTjJCi8xgQIo2zRqZFY3laRLmOZjWDOQ7/a4VlAgg2A5BPdA7rMKkb5JQQ37tB3YdPTzvPSrVlsCiTUXHQ/A1XDFszyFVQnZM0oHj+LuSKcKEhTVVOXg=


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## Wattie (Apr 30, 2007)

My god,
I need a cut lunch and a water bag just to read it......

Great fish though!


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## Naki Man (Aug 30, 2006)

Red - A mollymauk is a rather large brown sea bird. The work out was needed as I put the Fish in Dive in a 26km race down a river 2 weeks later and managed to average 11.3k per hr

Wattie- sorry about the length of the report

He's a couple more pic's


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## hoit (Aug 29, 2005)

Damn they are good Snapper. I get excited about landing a 3kg Snapper.

Thanks for the report.

Regards
Grant


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## spooled1 (Sep 16, 2005)

Geeez.... Even the pinkies have knobs out there in NZ.
Bloody nice bag of squire fellas

What's your water temperature doing?


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## spottymac (Aug 29, 2005)

Thanks for posting the report on the comp Naki Man, what a turn out 65 entries,
Fishing from yaks has caught on big time over in NZ.
NZ would have flogged us in the comp with snapper of that size
:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:


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## Wattie (Apr 30, 2007)

Hi Naki Man

I can blame you bloody kiwis for getting me into this stuffÃ¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦.shit, hold onÃ¢â‚¬Â¦.I am an ex Kiwi,
I came over to OZ in 84.

All my family are in Whangarei and I talk to them every second weekend.
My two nephews are right into kayak fishing. They send photos over like yours all the time.

Anyway they are the ones who have got me involved in this great activity.

Keep a lookout for them. Lance and Hadley Watkins. They are now in a lot of adventure magazines.

WattieÃ¢â‚¬Â¦.Ian Watkins

PS we are coming over next year for a visit. It would be great to catch up with you.


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## DGax65 (Jun 7, 2006)

Great report Naki Man. Your efforts were well rewarded. That sounds like it was quite a successful weekend.


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## Clarkos (Oct 11, 2006)

Don't be sorry Naki, that's a great report, and thanks for posting. 60 odd entrants is a great effort, so congrats on organising, what by the sounds of it, was a great weekend.

Cheers, Steve.


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## Y-Knot (Sep 26, 2006)

really enjoyed the read Naki and those Snapper are AWE-INSPIRING ...

Top bloody work boys 8)


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## Blaen (Jul 4, 2006)

Great report Naki, those Snapper are HUGE :shock:

You Kiwis have some great water over there.


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

terrific result Naki, and enjoyable report


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

65 entries :shock: Bloody brilliant stuff!  

Love that Fish n Dive Naki Man. Tell us some more about your down-river race - how did you go?


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## Naki Man (Aug 30, 2006)

Thanks guys, it was great to see so many yak fisho's get together and every one seemed to enjoy themselves - checking out different ways of setting up yaks and fishing methods. I was buzzing for days afterwards.

Spooled1 - the water temp was about 19, but has dropped a bit since then, however our big snapper will be around for a while yet and if the weather settles for a few days, maybe a crack at a 60lb Puka :lol: 8)

Wattie - PM me if you're heading to the Naki, maybe it will be when our comp is on next year.

Occy - next year we will try and see if we can hold the comp in March when the kingi's are still around and the big snapper are just starting. The weather will be a bit more settled as well.

Squidder - The river was running at about 5k. The Fish n Dive handled well and seemed to plane when it got up in speed. I managed to post a quicker time than some of the multisport Kayaks and quite a few of the sit in sea kayaks. I placed about 160th out of 350 entries in a time of 2hrs 19m, with the biggest amount of kayaks being surf skis, multi sports or sit in sea kayaks, which are all much faster kayaks, so I was ecstatic with the result :lol: 

NM


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

Naki Man said:


> I placed about 160th out of 350 entries in a time of 2hrs 19m, with the biggest amount of kayaks being surf skis, multi sports or sit in sea kayaks, which are all much faster kayaks, so I was estactic with the result :lol:


Huge effort mate, no wonder you're ecstatic!   Congrats :wink:


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## PoddyMullet (Aug 29, 2005)

What a read and report Naki...thanks for that...it was huge :!:


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