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Belated news of a Westhaven Marina Fishing Competition held last Saturday 1st April - we were given only 3 days notice of this event!!  Free entry and food after the weigh-in at the New Zealand Yacht Squadron headquarters.

Congratulations to one of our regulars Fiona Morrissey who took out the prize for Most Fish Caught by a Lady Angler.  Fiona's prize list included a Coastguard Membership for use on her personal boat, Tickets to the Auckland Boat Show, T-shirt, Jacket, Book and "lots of fishing bits and pieces".  On a personal best level Fiona caught her biggest Snapper to date (50cms) and her first ever Trevally!  Well done Fiona from the team at NZ Fishing Safaris.

Fishing was reportedly very slow by the other boatie competitiors but Fiona was happy to report that all 10 anglers aboard MV MANTARAY with Skipper Lance at the helm, all caught their quota that morning.

Check out the New Zealand Fishing Safari's Facebook page for photos......

With the upcoming Dick Smith NRL Auckland Rugby League Nines games being hosted by Auckland in 2015, Air New Zealand along with Tourism Auckland are keen to promote and encourage visitors to the beautiful City of Sails. With all 16 NRL Clubs and 288 star players competing to win over $2.6 million dollars over the one weekend this is quite an event for Auckland.  Dates being 31st January and 1st February. Air New Zealand are running a competition in which the prize winner receives complimentary tickets from Australia to Auckland for 9 friends, who will also receive prime seats at Eden Park and 9 options of experiencing Auckland Attractions and Activities during their stay. The Fishing Charter option is being offered promoting New Zealand Fishing Safaris' - a Snapper Fishing Trip for the group of 9 for a day's fishing charter aboard MV MANTARAY.   NZ Fishing Safaris will take the group on a day fishing trip from Westhaven Marina to check out the snapper fishing in the Auckland Harbour and Inn ...

More exciting fun with a difference this week!!  Tracker II was the Spectator Boat for the VIP crew of supporters from Vodafone and Samsung in their latest promotion.

Team Captain Jimmy Spithill of Oracle, winning boat in the America's World Cup, flew in to Auckland to take part in the recent Vodafone promotion.

The prize winner of the competition won the chance to take part in a demonstration match race with the famous skipper - remotely controlling the Vodafone yacht via Samsung cellphone from a helicopter!!

Earlier in the week the course was checking out for the 4gig coverage needed to ensure the sucess of the operation, of which Mantaray played an integral part ensuring boat to helicopter coverage.

The crew aboard Tracker were able to have great views of the competition having great viewing areas and photo opportunities.

A great many changes and improvements are being seen down around Z Pier, our main Charter Base at Westhaven Marina in Auckland City, and the surrounding private mooring piers. Only a couple of years ago there was a new ablution block added in the main carpark at Z Pier.  This offers our fishing guests the opportunity to shower after their big fishing day out and head off to the bright lights of Auckland City and experience the tastes and smells of multi-cultural Auckland's huge selection of Restaurants and Bars, in walking distance in the Wynyard Quarter and Viaduct Basin. The construction of a new walkway allows for a relaxing stroll taking in the many beautiful yachts and pleasure craft moored in this, Auckland's most popular Marina. The organisers of the inaugral Z Pier Fishing Classic contest last March have recently announced this will be an Annual Event for the Fishing calendar, and the date to put in your diary this year is 22nd March 2015. The format due to be advised to us by the crew at ...

Queens Birthday weekend 31st May/1st June 2014 saw the Tracker II Fishing Team once again take out the top honours in the Annual Warkworth Gamefish Club 10kg competition. The same team as last year....

At the inaugral Z Pier Fishing Classic held at Westhaven Marina, Auckland, on 11th May 2014, top place for largest fish caught (and also the only Kingfish!!) went to Faye Lees.  Young 10 year old Alex Oudenhoven also...

The SWEET LOUISE Annual Charity Fishing Competition is a fundraising day for Secondary Cancer Sufferers, and is well supported by the New Zealand Textile Industry.  Once again this year, the Charles Parsons' crew aboard Tracker II came in with some outstanding results taking out the top prizes. Largest Overall Snapper - Mike Petherick [5.41kgs] 5th Largest Snapper - Joel Sampson Largest Overall Ladies' Snapper 1st on Aggregate for total fish weighed in Hard Luck Story of the Day - Tina Grant They even won the Raffle!! Well done to the Charles Parsons'  Team under the professional watch of Skipper Richard and Deckie ("the fish whisperer"), Jim.   A great effort and a great result for the 2014 event. In this, it's 5th year, $16,000 was raised for this very worthy charity.                                 & ...

The Annual Warkworth Gamefish Club's 2013 10kg Line Competition was an awesome weekend with great results for the team of four anglers aboard Tracker II, Ray Phillips, Tony Gale, Trevor Williams and Sue Trent, taking out top honours. The Snapper Section went to 15 places again this year, and it is a feature of this competition that will endure because even 15th place is usually in excess of 5kg and this is a good fish on a 10kg or less line.  Tracker II Team took out 1st place (Tony), 2nd Place (Ray) 4th Place (Trevor) and 13th Place (Sue).  Sue took out 1st Place in the Ladies Section. Super prizes on offer - the Tracker Team also took out the Earlybird Draw and each won a raffle prize and came home armed with $1,000 cash, fishing rod, chilly bin, bottles of wine, Marine LED light set - awesome sponsorship for this event. Sincere thanks to the Warkworth Gamefish Club for their hospitality and awesome organisation, the sponsors - and last but not least to Grahame, the Sandspit Harbourmaster, ...

This popular Annual Fishing Contest well supported by the New Zealand Textile Industry was held this year on 22nd February. The Sweet Louise Charity was set up to supports sufferers of secondary cancer and all funds raised at the Fishing Contest go towards this.  Money is raised from entries and raffles of prizes donated by the participants and sponsors of the event.  This year they netted over $11,000. New Zealand Fishing Safaris had two boats involved in the competition - Team NZ Window Shades aboard Tracker II and Team Charles Parsons aboard Exdreme. Places included: 1st Largest Ladies Snapper - Safia Haythorne (Tracker II) 2nd Largest Mens Snapper - Dave Ryan (Tracker II) Hardluck Prize - Bob Errington - Exdreme 2012 COMPETITION RESULTS Team Charles Parsons  aboard TRACKER II  (Skipper Captain Rod and deckie Doug): 1st Overall Snapper - Kerry Winter 1st Ladies Snapper - Kerry Winter 1st John Dory - A total of $10,500 was raised from thi ...

The Team entered for the NZ Nationals Competition held in the last week of February 2012 on MV Tracker II consisted of Ray Phillips, Tony Gale, Phillip Prater and Scott Prater.

Fishing was good and highly competitive in this year's contest drawing good entries competing for the prestigeous awards and prizes on offer organised by the New Zealand Sportsfishing Council Inc.

The Tracker II Team managed great overall results coming in as:-

• Top Team for the Warkworth Gamefishing Club.

Personal results included:-

RAY:

• 2nd Place Section 3 NZ Line Weight Anglers - Snapper on 8 kg Line Section (6.85kg)
• 2nd Place Section 3 NZ Line Weight Anglers - Yellowtail on 8kg line Section (11.057kg)

TONY: