He persuaded the government to invite Grey to New Zealand to fish and publicise our game fishing in New Zealand. In 1926, a new fishing club house was built and completed at Otehei Bay in the Bay of Islands called the ‘Zane Grey Sporting Club Ltd’. It had full accommodation in separate cabins and a clubhouse with bar and dining available, as well as long distance phone and post office facilities. Four new game fishing boats were built to game fish from the new location, mostly paid for – from what I can gather – by the Government. Over the next few years Zane Grey fished from the north coast down into the Bay of Plenty, including freshwater fishing at Taupo. There is no record of him staying at the lodge that had his name, other than visits in its early days, although there were plenty of other well-known anglers who stayed and fished from there. The original Zane Grey Sporting Club visitor’s book is in the Russell Museum. There are also some catch records etched on large Kauri wood panels displayed in the Bay of Islands Swordfish Club Inc. Russell Clubhouse that came from the Zane Grey Club. Zane Grey made New Zealand marlin and shark fishing known to the world and, without doubt, put our game fishing in New Zealand on the world map.
The original BOI Swordfish Club
When the great depression came in the mid 1930s, the lodge was closed due to a lack of trade, and the boats were sold. The lodge was soon sold to Jack Anderson, an American banker, who operated it with a manager until his estate sold it again in the 1970s. The main building burnt down a few years later, and these days the restaurant that has been built there is a tourist stop for Bay of Islands’ charter party boats. It is believed this was the first game fishing clubhouse to be built in New Zealand.
I don’t have the same knowledge of the other founding clubs but have fished out of most of their areas except for Mercury Bay. I’m sure all these clubs will have their early history on record. The five founding clubs all started without club houses. The Whangaroa club used the Marlin Hotel; the Bay of Islands club used the Duke of Marlborough historic hotel; the Whangarei club, after moving from Whangarei Harbour to Tutukaka Harbour, used the old Tutukaka pub when the little office at the end of the wharf wasn’t big enough; I’m not sure where the Mercury Bay club met before they took up residence at the club building on the wharf but most likely at a local pub; and Tauranga had a game fishing camp at Mayor Island but used the hotels on the Tauranga waterfront for meetings and social events outside of fishing (they also used an office on the charter boat wharf). These clubs will have met in many other places as well, and all have a rich history of their own. In the early years there was no unified game fishing rules and regulations. Zane Grey tried to stop some practices, like the use of treble or multiple hooks, harpoons for harpooning fish close to the boat, sliding gaffs that went down the line to snag a fish that they could not get up with rod and reel, hard baiting to choke the fish and putting a float at the top of the leader to stop a fish from going down. Their fishing equipment was antiquated and, in many cases, homemade. While there were a few split cane rods, most were made from local supple-jack, a small tree called ‘Tanekaha’ of all shapes and sizes. Many of the old clubs have these rods, as well as the associated reels, on display. The fishing rules were different from club to club, especially between Northland and the Bay of Plenty where most of the game fishing was taking place in those days. To make it worse, clubs and anglers were accusing each other of cheating, causing bad blood between clubs in the North and the Bay of Plenty. While there had been attempts to unify the fishing rules, the clubs could not agree on what they should be. In 1939, the 100-year Centennial was being planned. NZ had nearly been part of the British Empire for 100 26 www.nzsportfishing.co.nz