Harley Ra knew he had something special from the instant the fish entered the shallows. The 7.665 kilogram snapper he hauled from Ninety Mile Beach on Saturday, the final day of the five-day competition, proved unbeatable. Ra took home the $30,000 top prize at what is widely regarded as the world's largest surfcasting competition.
Ra grew up in Kaitāia but now lives and works in Perth. The fish came in fighting, and at first he had no idea what was on the end of his line.
"It ran for a fair bit. Then it started going sideways. I thought it was a stingray, but then there were more head nods, and it just kept stripping line," he said.
Confirmation came only once the fish had reached clear, shallow water.
"It wasn't till I seen it get close, I seen the big tail flipping up, and I thought it was a stingray wing, and I thought 'oh bugger'. Then just as it got into the clear shallows, I saw it was a snapper, and I was screaming out, 'holy shit, it's a moocha'."
He didn't hesitate. "I ran straight down to the water to grab it and grab my trace. It snapped at the water's edge, and I dug into its gills straight away to grab it."
The snapper was landed just after 8am, and Ra spent the rest of the morning in a state of barely contained anxiety.
"It was early, and I was nervous the whole time. I pretty much knew it was the winner then. And I was like, I need to get back to the ramp [contest headquarters] to weigh this ASAP. So I was nervous hanging around. About 12 o'clock, I packed up and boosted straight back to the tents for weigh-in."
It was only Ra's second time entering the Bonanza, though the beach itself holds deep personal history. Growing up, he fished the earlier version of the event, the Snapper Classic, alongside his father and uncles.
His bait on that winning morning was nothing out of the ordinary. "I used BKK circle hooks, and the bait was pilchard, just half a pilchard. It always works up the Ninety [Mile Beach]. When the bite's hot, pilchard's the go, and then when the bite cools down, then you go to ocky [octopus] and crayfish and all your other exotic baits."
Ra was quick to credit his father, John Ra, who has built a reputation around Kaitāia as a skilled rig-maker. "Dad does all our fishing tackle. He does some pretty mean fishing rigs. He even does his own bit of YouTube and Facebook showing how to do it."
On top of the $30,000 for the heaviest snapper of the entire competition, Ra collected a further $2500 for Saturday's biggest fish. By that evening the celebrations were well under way.
"We drank a few at the tent, and then went down to the Awanui pub. The boys filled the cup up, and we drank from the cup."
He admitted to feeling "a bit hazy" after the night's festivities. The question of what to do with the winnings was one he happily handed to his wife, Alicia. "I let her decide. She makes the smarter decisions."
Ra is already planning his return next year, though securing a ticket is far from straightforward. Entries are capped at 1200, and places sold out in less than an hour when they went on sale online. For someone living in Perth, the timing creates a particular challenge. "So when they go on sale here at seven, that's 2am in Perth, so you gotta set the alarm at 1am. Get up, make a coffee, and get ready to start hammering the button at two in the morning."
Before Ra's catch was confirmed at the top of the leaderboard, Ōpōtiki angler Darin Maxwell had looked a genuine chance to make history. A previous winner, Maxwell was chasing a second title, but he had to settle for the runner-up position. His 7.25kg snapper earned him $4500. Maxwell retains the competition record, his 12.03kg catch from 2012 still standing as the heaviest snapper landed in the event's 15-year history.
The Bonanza has been held every March since 2011, when Kaitāia publican Dave Collard and printer John Stewart stepped in to revive competitive surfcasting in the region after the Snapper Classic collapsed under financial pressure in 2009. Anglers are restricted to Ninety Mile Beach, also known as Te Oneroa-a-Tōhe, with rocks and boats both off limits. The total prize pool across the competition exceeds $200,000.
Over the five days of fishing, 736 snapper were caught. A number of these were auctioned at Saturday's Kaitāia Market, raising more than $14,000 for the Kaitāia Volunteer Fire Brigade. Former fire chief Colin "Toss" Kitchen said the funds would go towards purchasing a new operational support vehicle for the brigade.
