Fine haul at fishing comp

Golden Bay Community Board meets for the first time this year next Monday.

Board chair Abbie Langford is relishing the prospect of a busy year ahead. “We’ve got a great team; the new members have already made a great contribution and I’m looking forward to working with them.”

Community Board meetings take place in person – usually at Tasman District Council’s Service Centre in Tākaka, and via Zoom. The Zoom link is provided in the meeting agenda published on the TDC website a few days prior to the meeting.

Public forum – usually the first item on the agenda – provides an opportunity for people to have their say, within certain boundaries, on whatever subject they choose. Presenters can speak in person or online as they prefer, but need to abide by the set of rules listed on TDC’s website. Perhaps the most contentious of these is the prohibition on speakers making criticisms of elected members and/or staff, something many believe represents a barrier to democratic accountability.

Regular contributor to public forum Reg Turner is highly critical of the rule. “I have been very worried about this attitude of being unable to comment on behaviour, and inability to bring our elected representatives to account… Even members of parliament in the chamber can challenge, criticise and comment on statements made by either side, with the public in attendance.”

Pōhara Boat Club’s fishing competition made a welcome return to the events calendar last weekend.

When The GB Weekly turned up on Sunday afternoon, one of the main organisers of the two-day event, Judy Ray, said she was delighted with the response from the Golden Bay community. “It’s gone well; we’ve got 116 individual entries. It’s really good for our first as a new committee.”

Judy explained that, under the rules, landbased fishing was also allowed. “Not everyone has a boat.” But she said some had improvised with an unconventional craft. “A group took a waka out and fished – it was great to see.”

Club commodore Tom Lake was equally happy to see the resumption of the annual fixture. “It’s nice to have it running again. So many people fish in the Bay – it’s a huge cross-section of the community and it’s great to share common ground.” He expressed his gratitude to local businesses for providing dozens of prizes, including rods, reels, kit bags and tackle boxes along with chilly bins and even a portable fish smoker. “We’ve been blown away by the generous donations.”

Overseeing the busy filleting table, Dylan Ray said they had processed heaps of fish, including possibly the biggest of the day – a 21lb snapper. Unfortunately, the successful fisherman had not registered for the competition, making his monster catch ineligible for any prizes, and so the angler, like his catch, was left “gutted”.

There’s clearly a lot of snapper swimming around in the Bay; Colin Jacquiery’s boat crew managed to land 38 of the specimens in a frantic 90-minute session. “We were pulling out two at a time,” said Colin, who put some of his success down to the pilchards used to bait the hooks.

Although the weather turned wet and windy on Sunday afternoon, competitors were still bringing their catches to official weigh-in right up until the 4pm deadline. As they came in, Steve Woods placed each fish on the scales and the weight was noted down in the official logbook. While snapper was undoubtedly the fish of the day, blue cod, trevally, kahawai, and kingfish were not uncommon.

Two of the last competitors to hand over their catch were Matai Kelsall from Pakawau and Aria McNamara from Wakefield, who between them had gathered a tasty looking haul of blue cod, snapper, and crayfish.

Soon after the final fish had been weighed, the bidding began – all in a good cause. After the hammer fell on the final lot, attention turned to the prizegiving, which saw winners net their just rewards (see full results list on page 8).

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The total time set aside for public forum is currently limited to 30 minutes, within which each speaker is alloted five minutes. If there are more than six speakers, the chair can decrease the speaking time for all presenters. Speakers are officially required to give prior notice via completing an online form “at least 48 hours before the meeting” or by contacting Jess McAlinden at TDC’s Tākaka office. But Abbie says people can still take their chances and leave it until the day of the meeting. “If they contact Jess on Monday morning, and we still have a time slot available, they will be allowed to speak.”

Apart from public forum, board meetings frequently include in-depth presentations from council staff, agencies and individuals on a range of issues affecting Golden Bay and the wider district. Members of the public are also welcome to sit in on these – and any other part of the session that is not “closed”, ie deemed confidential.

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Please phone 03 525 7115