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A public auction of prizewinning catches will mark the culmination of Warkworth RSA’s annual fishing competition, which takes place on Saturday, February 15.
Competitors have from 3am that morning to land a fish fit for one of several cash prizes on offer, with the weigh-in taking place from 2pm to 4pm in the RSA carpark.
There’s a top prize of $1000 for the “average snapper” category, which involves all the snapper caught that day being weighed and the specimen closest to the average weight of all of them winning the prize.
Warkworth RSA Fishing Club president Eddie Watts says this is to help preserve snapper stocks by making sure competitors don’t just target the biggest or heaviest fish, and it leaves winning pretty much to chance.
“Generally, that average comes in at around 1.3 or 1.4kg. There’s no skill involved in going for the average snapper and it’s pretty fair on the fish, too, if we’re not taking the big fish out all the time,” he says.
For the remaining categories, however, including kingfish, kowhai, trevally and John Dory, it will be the heaviest fish caught that wins the cash.
Once the prizes have been decided and distributed, the haul of fish will go under the hammer for public bids at 4.30pm, an event that Watts says is not to be missed.
“We don’t put a premium price on them, they’re all reasonably priced, so people can just buy some fish and have a good feed,” he says.
Entry tickets cost $30, or $10 for anyone aged 16 or under, and are available from Warkworth RSA or the new Hunting & Fishing branch at Kowhai Falls.
Proceeds from the competition will go towards funding the RSA’s veterans’ support services.
