2022 Extreme Boats only Fishing Tournament
355 anglers entered on 101 boats and with the tournament being postponed for the previous three years due to Covid anticipation was high, and everyone was pumped to back in Whitianga to enjoy a couple days on the water with like-minded people. Day one saw favorable conditions allowing a shotgun start to kick the tournament off, and with the bay filling with wakes as the sun began to rise it certainly was an awesome sight to see.
Many chose to head wide in search of Kingfish and it was an awesome sight to see over a dozen Extremes drifting only meters from each other in a tight area on the Alderman pins cheering each other on as they took turns hooking up and going toe to toe with the local Kingfish. Laughter and cheers filled the air each time someone's rod buckled over and there was a heap of great fish caught, with nearly all choosing to measure and release their fish for someone to catch another day. Ben Bersma fishing on the 795 Game King "Club 26" landed an awesome 117cm Kingfish which held on to be the longest Kingfish for the Tournament and take out top honors in that section.
Day two saw a little more wind which saw most finding some shelter inshore around the many islands out from Whitianga and targeting Kahawai, Trevally and Snapper. Again, the fish were on the chew and some amazing fish were caught. The standout fish on day two went to Bob Hawke who travelled all the way from Australia to fish the tournament and caught and released a massive 89.0cm Snapper on board "Awatea". Bob had it all worked out and even brought over a matching uniform for the crew consisting of some bright and baggy flannelette shorts and some rather colorful crocs which certainly looked the part on stage while receiving his prizes. The other top prizes went to Andrew Shove who took out the longest Kahawai on board "Lit Up" with a 58.0cm fish and Daryian Te Ei fishing on "Chartarangi" took out the Trevally section with a 51.0cm fish.
One of the anglers fishing the competition offered his auctioneering services to help raise $4000.00 for the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust by auctioning off an original canvas painting of a Marlin donated towards the tournament prize pool by Zoe from Unjustified Risk and a rod and reel combo donated by Tony from Offshore Adventures which was awesome. Another standout on stage was when one of the anglers won a step ladder as a spot prize and decided to put it to good use using it as a platform to get up high and get the crowd amped up as each winner was announced. By the end of the prizegiving the ladder turned into a stage for the winner to have a celebration drink and "ladderman" was born!
The prize pool was massive with most people taking home something and a huge thanks goes out to all the sponsors below for their continued support. The 2022 Extreme Boats Fishing Tournament will be a hard one to top, but we will be back again in 2023 to give it a good nudge!