Annual Snapper Bonanza surf casting competition thrives at 90 Mile Beach

The annual Snapper Bonanza fishing competition saw more prizes, bigger crowds and heavier fish than ever before. 

Organised by Dave Collard and John Stewart, the premier five-day event takes place on Te Oneroa-a-Tōhē 90 Mile Beach and celebrates the pursuit of one species:
the snapper. 

Since its inception in 1982, the competition has grown in scale and popularity, attracting anglers from far and wide to test their skills against the backdrop of New Zealand's coastline.

Organiser John Stewart speaks to The Adventurer about the event’s evolution over the years. 

"Back in 1982 there were probably about 600 anglers," he says, "and we've grown it since then to 1200 anglers now, which always gets sold out in a few hours." 

The event also draws a total crowd attendance of between 1500 and 3000 people each night, enjoying the entertainment and prize givings.

This year’s event offered substantial rewards for participants, with more than $80,000 in cash prizes available for people who have caught fish. On top of the cash prizes, there are numerous lucky draw prizes to ensure that every attendee has a chance to walk away with something special. This year, the total prize pool reached a quarter of a million dollars, marking a new high for the competition.

"The event will still cater for the unlucky angler that doesn’t catch a fish as the lucky draw spot prizes exceed $100k,” says John. “There's people that come for 10 years and don't catch a fish. It’s not that easy.”

The 2024 edition of the competition proved to be another success. 

"This year’s event came together really well. The weather conditions were perfect, but the sea conditions were a little bit hard work, especially later in the week,” John says.

"We caught 300-odd fish on the first day, which is quite a lot for us. It's the second highest amount we’ve had in one day. One year we had about 700, which was just crazy. But that's only happened once. Some days we've had absolutely no fish caught. But that’s where the lucky draw prizes come in.”

John says the crowd at this event was a highlight. 

"The crowd was amazing, as good as it's been. There were up to 3000 people there every night for six nights. It’s become a really family friendly event with lots of kids joining in,” he says.

John says the quality of the fish caught during the 2024 event exceeded expectations.

“The fish were generally a lot bigger than previous years,” he says. “I think that is because the beach has just been fishing so well and there were a super amount of tuatuas for food. The fish are in really good condition and they're big, they're big fish. Our average weight one day was 4.5kg.

“Our top five fish on the Tuesday were all over 7kg.”

Tickets go on sale for next year's event on the 1st of June. See below for the overall winners. The full list of can be found here: https://snapperbonanza.co.nz/winners/

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OVERALL WINNERS

Heaviest Snapper Zane Kaaka, Te Kao 8.225kg $30,000

Average Weight Snapper Damien Sinclair, Wairoa 3.63kg $10,000

Ladies Average Weight Snapper Joeleen Rogers, Kaitaia 3.551kg $2,000

Teams Average Weight Snapper Marty Black, Awanui 19.835kg $3,000

Winning Team Bounty Hunters 82.52kg $5,000

2nd Team 4UP 68.535kg $3,000

3rd Team The God Botherers 67.535kg $1000

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