Celebrating success at the Snapper Cup

The 2025 edition saw a key change with boundaryless fishing (NZ waters) allowing us to open the competition up to a wider audience of entrants and grow the impressive prize pool made successful by our sponsorship help. Adding to the boundaryless rule, was the introduction of a specific Juniors section which allowed families to take to the coastline in remembrance of Joe and his family values we all still feel.

The competition was once again measure only (submitted online), with entrants encouraged to release their catch or only keep what they need to feed their family. This encourages the core values of McKay into both competition and everyday good fishing practise and is something we as the organisers are proud of.

The event date was set for 21 – 22 February 2025, and prizes started flowing in. We were once again very grateful for the support and donations we received which included:

A cash donation from Lindsay Faithfull/McKay
Discounted rods, reels and other fishing equipment from PENN New Zealand
Discounted rods and reels from Warren Hay Marine (Whangarei boating and marine store)
A huge range of generous spot prizes from Scott Electrical Whangarei Branch
A large Icey Tek bin from Tricab, with both theirs, MGE and the McKay logos proudly displayed

With 45 entries into this year’s competition, and entrants fishing from as far south as Tauranga and up to Whangaroa Harbour in the north. This meant a 50% increase in entries compared with the 2024 event. The forecast, while not perfect remained accurate and below last years 35 knot average. Several entrants made quick starts getting into the action on Friday evening with a strong early leaderboard growing rapidly. Competition heated up through the fishing on Saturday as entries came in thick and fast, along with the odd tall tale of the one that got away! (or returned to the McDonald’s freezer in the packet it came in).

Prizegiving was held at McKay Head Office, with a live link broadcasting the prizegiving to those that were fishing outside of the area. This saw an hour of spoils, celebrating our kids, place getters and multiple spot prize winners followed by a hearty dinner of McGinley’s famous Rum’n’Coke Burgers, Chups, and a taste of some freshly sashimi’d Trevally.

For category winners, we saw some dominance and new faces across the final standings.

Juniors:
Junior Snapper – 55cm – Max Haselden
Junior Trevally – 56cm – Max Haselden
Junior Kingfish – Wildcard – Penny Gibbons
Junior Kahawai – Wildcard – Henry Seymour

Seniors:
Senior Snapper – 1st place and Recipient of the JFSC trophy – Keiren Errington 74 cm
Senior Snapper – 2nd place – Robbie Mclean 68cm
Senior Trevally – 1st Place – Ben Haselden 57cm
Senior Trevally – 2nd Place – Alexander Seymour 47cm
Senior Kingfish – Wildcard – 1st prize – Joel Freeman – 2nd prize Greg Steyn
Senior Kahawai – 1st equal – Breen Seymour and Louis Marsh – 50cm

Best Moment award went Stuart McDonald who eagerly entered his bait into the competition in a sign of complete desperation. Congratulations to all place getters, MANY spot prizes winners who took home, BBQ’s, electronics, fishing equipment, boating products and others. Carla now hands on the coveted trophy to Keiren and we look forward to seeing this continue.

We are proud of how the event has grown in such a short time and plan to build on its success. We thank the Faithfull family for their assistance, support and their regular attendance at this event.

Planning is already underway for the next JFSC with even more additions. Could we see an interdepartmental challenge perhaps?