As we sail through December and towards the end of another year, longer days with warmer weather provide great angling opportunities. However, the morning missions can sometimes be hamstrung by the end-of-year functions and late-night Christmas shopping!

Things are heating up in the competition, with good fish being entered, and frequently released. This was the case with anglers Logan Craw and Joel Kennedy letting their respective 86cm and 82cm snapper swim away in the Northland waters. Rather unbelievably, this still wasn’t enough to keep out Mokau snapper specialist, Geoff Preston, who now sits atop the Snapper World Cup leaderboard with his first entry of the season clocking in at 87cm!

A leaderboard-topping fish wasn’t required for our October prize winner, however. Johnny Huynen has won himself a Thunnus 8000/ Carbolite combo, spooled with Suffix mono, worth over $800. Johnny caught himself a 100cm kingfish and 56.5cm snapper off Mana, Wellington, in late October, with his snapper entry being drawn as October’s winner.

Those two fish put Johnny close to qualifying for the Bayleys x LegaSea Angler Trifecta, which is now in full swing. With November marking the start of the kingfish season (the most challenging species required to complete the trifecta), we expect to see an influx of entries, with only 13 anglers having completed the feat this season. Jesse Crasborn is still leading the pack with a cumulative length of 272cm comprised of 83.5cm snapper, 132cm kingfish and 56.5cm kahawai.

There are some exciting things happening in the Export NZ Fishing Competition over summer, and just by registering and submitting a catch, you can win some great prizes courtesy of prize sponsor, Shimano.

There will be randomly drawn angler prize packs throughout the season for great grip- ‘n’-grin images, so remember to upload those photos along with your catch on an approved measure.

Also keep an eye out for comms relating to our short, speciesspecific sub-competitions. These will reward both the top angler and a randomly-drawn prize for new Shimano tackle.

Finally, the next prize boat is in build. We won’t release all the details yet but keep an eye out for the January issue to see the full breakdown. This prize is randomly drawn, so all you have to do is have a catch approved throughout the season!

As we approach the end of 2023, we’d like to extend our gratitude to all our great sponsors and participants for making the Export NZ Fishing Competition a resounding success. We look forward to seeing your exceptional catches over the summer break.

Check out the leaderboard to see if you reckon you can beat ‘em!

Tight lines!

Registration and up-tothe-minute leaderboards can be viewed at www. Fishingcomp.co.nz.