b'Like a light switch, the dory showed up from seemingly nowhere, with three bites in less than 30 minutes. All were lovely fish from 1.21.5kg, not prize winners but, you really cant complain with JD action like this. In a usual dory take the line moves away from the boat. If its a particularly savage strike they can take off on a run like a kahawai. When the fish is nearing the boat, having the net ready to go cannot be understated. Hooks will pop out very easily. After the 4th dory was thrown back to fight another day, it was all over. No dory action for the next 3 hours. I packed up not expecting aThe writer and Charly (on left) heap of fishing for the following day, withpicked up a couple of second the worsening forecast. place prizes at the prize giving.DAY 2 ROUGH SEA Sunday morning was a lost cause for the open ocean, heavy 2m sets were pumping in and the water had become dirty. Down in south Taranaki there was some shelter, but I didnt fancy another tough surf launch. I mucked around in the harbour for a few hours before it was apparent nothing was going on.One of the best parts of the weekend is the weigh in. Even if you havent had a good weekend fishing wise, you can guarantee someone has scored. Snapper are the most common species weighed at this competition. Taranaki fish are very heavy for their length so anything smallerLiam Anderson with his than a 9kg fish is usually laughed at bywinning 9.605kg snapper.the locals. On years when the weather is nice you can expect the top 10 snapperOn this weekend a strong northerlyA large majority of the competitors to all exceed 9kg (20lb), with someflattened South Taranaki and roughed uphad rolled at some point during the knocking on the door of 11kg (24lb). the north. South was where all the bigevent but thats all in good fun. Thanks fish were landed. The wind funnels overagain to Viking Kayaks and all the Blair uses a 6/0 circle hook,the top of the mountain, leaving someother sponsors.As we said goodbye and nose hooks mackerelnice windless water if you stay in close.to Taranaki, the rain began to bucket for JD live baits. A strong northerly is uncommon anddown reminding us once again we had many of the locals hadnt fished thesegot away with another monster Taranaki areas, showing us plenty of new spots forClassic weekend.FIGZfollowing years.My gurnard weighed 0.830kg and slotted into 2nd equal just a mere 5gmResultsbehind 1st place. The rest of my fish went across the scales hoping for an average weight prize. A nice spot prize1ST PLACE SPECIESfor closest mackerel to 20cm was also onSnapperLiam Anderson 9.605kgthe cards as I had caught a 19mm jack.KahawaiCharles Dinnis 3.38kgMy teammate Charly joined me on theBlue CodTrent Van Der Poel 0.905kgboard with a big John dory of 2.040kg,GurnardTony Hurring 0.835kgsecuring him 2nd position.TrevallyAlastair Munro 2.60kgMany great stories were exchangedKingfishDavid Leatherby 11.075kgduring prizegiving, mostly of theJohn DoryBruce Howson 2.07kgdownright laughable conditions./FISHINGINGODZONE57'