A bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at the office.
This years Sea-doo King of Jetskifishing was the eighth time an event of this nature has been held. The King of Jetskifishing is a bi-annual event which always attracts a hugh number of entries from all across the North Island to come and compete for many different titles including heaviest catches, teams events, best dressed and a few more.
This year the race started off with the format similar to the amazing race. With competitors gathering to start the day at an organised location and then after the horn is sounded they race to their chosen boat ramp to start the day on the water. This year Andrew Hill and his team out did themselves with a new location at the all new Andrew Simms Experience Centre which is a massive car yard giving plenty of room for everyone and lots of room under cover for after-event activities.
I personally love turning up and wondering around the car park before the event listening to the pre-competition banter between all the anglers, the fish was t-h-i-s long stories begin here and set the mood for the day.
This year there was an impressive $8,000 prize pool which help get the good entry numbers of sixty one anglers registered which meant most brands of personal watercrafts were present. It’s amazing to see how much effort some of these anglers put into their ski and rigs to make the most of this growing sport.
To mix things up a little there were a few extra competitions within the competition like catching a legal fish while traveling the longest distance. Each entrant had to take a pic with a local landmark showing where they travelled to within the eight and a half hour fishing window from Auckland. The winner of the challenge was Peter Jacobsen, who successfully caught fish with his massive road trip to Tairua and returning in comfortable time, back in Auckland before the 3:30pm weigh-in cut off.
There was no shortage of fish at the end of the day for weigh in, with their most successful day yet! Three was also a few people fishing two up, including fathers and sons, husband and wife and even a mum and son showing that anyone can get involved in this well run competition.
Results and more info can be found here on the Jet Ski Fishing Blog
The date has already been set for the next event, King of Jetskifinging #9 – Sunday, April 13, 2014
