The 2025 Snapper Cup, hosted by Dawnbreakers Fishing Club took place from the 14th – 16th March and was a huge success. The weather forecast looked a bit dubious at times, but it ended up being a great weekend with the extended fishing period and boundaries providing an opportunity for all entrants to get out and experience some of the great fishing on offer in the bay this season. The fish were on the bite and some great catches were had.
Over 420 fish were entered into the competition by the 121 anglers taking part, with the average length of all snapper entered being 54 cm – this is testament to the awesome fishery we have on our doorstep, in Tasman Bay. Aside from snapper, there were plenty of gurnard, kahawai and trevally entered along with a handful of kingfish and some albacore tuna which took out the new category prize for “longest other species”.
This year, the prize giving was hosted by Speight’s Ale House, Nelson and they didn’t disappoint! An awesome afternoon was had sharing fishing stories and celebrating our winners, accompanied by excellent food and beverages.
As always, the prize giving provided a great opportunity to raise some funds for Coastguard Nelson as well – via donations and a silent auction table put together by our awesome local sponsors, we were able to raise over $3400 which is a welcome success and will go towards an amazing organisation that always has our backs out on the water.
Prize categories this year included adult and junior divisions with prizes awarded for the longest snapper, gurnard, kahawai, kingfish and trevally.
The Trifecta category, awarded to the longest combined length of three species, is an exciting category which allows the more serious anglers to show off their skills and claim bragging rights for the year.
You didn’t need to catch the biggest fish to walk away with some great prizes – this year, all entrants received a handy goodie bag filled with treats from local sponsors and lucky angler Jordan Di Leva walked away with a brand-new fish finder, sponsored by ENL and Furuno, just for entering a snapper in the competition!
The junior section was hotly contested with a lot of youngsters showing their folks how it’s done. Young Theo Pearson was a standout amongst the juniors landing the longest snapper (68 cm) and taking out the trifecta category with a snapper, kahawai and trevally. Theo also caught the longest trevally, tied with Dereck Ludik (49 cm). Dereck Ludik and Madeleine Collier took home prizes for 2nd and 3rd longest snapper, while the closest to average length snapper was awarded to Ash Walzl. Other species prizes went to Bree Dell (longest Kahawai, 55 cm) and Ewan Ludick (longest Gurnard, 43 cm). Junior winners walked away with some epic prizes including rods, reels, tackle and clothing sponsored by DNA boats, Daiwa NZ and Hunting and Fishing Nelson.
Results in the adult’s section were quite remarkable this year with some ridiculous fish being caught. There were four Snapper over 80 cm landed during the competition period and you would have had to beat 68.5 cm to make the top 20 longest snapper over the weekend! Shannon Scholes walked away with the honours for his 84 cm snapper, which was the longest of the tournament bagging him the trophy and prizes valued at over $2000. Andy Brannen was unlucky to miss out with an outstanding fish of 83.5 cm, Pete Connoly (81 cm) and Ross Satherley (80 cm) also put their names in the mix and all walked away with some great prizes. Luck fell the way of Fergus Drummond who bagged himself a Yamaha F6 outboard motor, sponsored by Marahau Marine and Yamaha Marine, for closest to average length snapper (53 cm)
The adults trifecta category was won by Pete Connoly who landed a snapper, kingfish and kahawai with a combined length of 229 cm – he won himself a Pit Boss Grill, Daiwa reel and Black Magic tackle pack for his efforts. Species category prizes were awarded to Caleb Tinnely and Alex Walzl for longest gurnard and kahawai respectively, while Karl Puklowski caught the longest kingfish and trevally during the tournament. Jesse Gould caught the longest snapper from a kayak with a 74.5cm fish.
For those who didn’t do so well in the fishing competition, there were spot prizes galore with just about every entrant walking away with a prize of some sort by the end of the day.
An event like this wouldn’t be possible without the support of a huge range of sponsors who have all shown such great support to our fishing community. Major sponsors included Hunting and Fishing Nelson, Daiwa NZ, Marahau Marine and Yamaha Marine, DNA boats, Osprey Boats, Black Magic Tackle, Clever Living Ltd. and Furuno ENL. Over thirty other local business sponsored and supported this event as well.
Please visit the Dawnbreakers Fishing Club’s Facebook page to see the list and support these generous businesses in return. Some great pictures from the event can be found here as well.
We look forward to doing this all again next season and hope to see all of you on board.
