The Trans Tasman 2020 was hosted by the Christchurch Angling Club and the format for the event this time around was to be a festival type competition with the competition to be held over four days using four different venues. Each Angler would fish each Venue once on a rotational basis.
The winner of the Trans Tasman competition is based upon an average section point score for all the Anglers for each country. The individual winner will be the angler with the least section points accumulated over the four days
The venues used were:
Lake Hutchinson
Lake Hutchinson is located just north of Kaiapoi, 15 minutes from Christchurch. It’s a lake surrounded by reeds and it varies in depth from around 4ft – 10ft. The lake contains a good head of Tench, Rudd and Perch. All methods are proven to catch fish which include Feeder, Waggler and Pole.
North End Quarry
North End lake is located in a gravel works just north of Christchurch. Access to the lake is limited as the quarry is a full working quarry with lots of earthmoving equipment and trucks. The lake itself is quite small with around 25 Pegs.
The lake is full of Rudd and some large Perch. The lake is generally fished with a Whip or Pole with bags of Rudd generally taken in excess of 30lbs.
Lake Tahi
Lake Tahi is in the Roto Kohati Reserve, Harewood a suburb of Christchurch located by the airport. Lake Tahi is a dedicated lake specifically for Jet Ski usage and is not often fished. It’s a deep weedy lake but has a great head of Tench and bags of 100lb are regularly taken. The water is crystal clear and access is really good.
Lake Rua
Lake Rua is co located with Lake Tahi. The lakes are actually divided by a causeway. Lake Rua is very similar to Lake Tahi however it has much more weed and regularly requires dragging before you are able to fish the lake. The lake does tend to be very peggy. The Christchurch Club with the local council have done a fantastic job and the lake has over 45 permanent pegs. The lake is deep and crystal clear. You can see the bottom in 14 foot of water.
The lake has a great head of Tench but also has a good head of Rudd and Perch.
The lake use to be gated and locked outside of working hours which protected the venue from misuse. Over the last few years, the gates has been removed and the lake opened to the public. This has impacted match fishing on the lake as it is often crowded with swimmers.
Competition days were to be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. Thursday was a public holiday and it was decided to have the day off from the Trans-Tasman. However over the Weekends and the Thursday several knock up matches were organized which allowed some of the Aussies time to practice on venues that they had not fished before, especially North End and Lake Hutchinson.
The New Zealanders organized a BBQ for the Sunday evening where the rotation draw was performed. Each Angler from each team drew a rotation and everyday the Anglers at each of the Venues would draw for Pegs.
After Day 1, the results were pretty much as expected. The venues were peggy with a few big weights thrown up on each venue from the favored pegs
The only exception to this was North End which generally fished consistently but not as well as expected Lake Hutchinson had good weights from a couple of pegs and other areas struggled. Lake Rua as expected fished poorly except for the end Pegs. Lake Tahi also was very similar end pegs fished well.
NZ won Day One. The rest of the week continued much the same. Australia won Day Two by a narrow margin the hardest venue was as expected Lake Rua. The first two pegs fished consistently all week Peg 1 and Peg 2 pretty much cleaned up everyday.
Unfortunately, Australia did not win New Zealand won three of the 4 days. The total average section points for NZ for the four days was 4.71 with Australia’s average being – 5.23.
The individual Trans Tasman winner for 2020 was Jason McMahon with an excellent total of 7 points from the four days. This included two lake wins, a second and a third. A terrific effort and congratulation Jason.
Ivan Mitchell – Rudd from North End 
Martyn Rymer – Tench from Lake Hutchinson
One of the great things about the Trans Tasman is the social side of the event. Christchurch is really great as a lot of the social activities are based around the Papanui Club which has good food and plenty of beer. It also has a great shuttle bus service, the bus will come and collected you and drop you home afterward and all for a Gold Coin. A fantastic service.
We also had a terrific curry night in the city on the Wednesday evening. The presentation dinner was held at the Papanui Club which ended a great week.
This year as the Caravan Park was full so many of us from Australia decided this time to utilize Air BnB for our accommodation. Several of us made group bookings and utilized large houses. The group I was with had a fantastic place. We a great time with plenty of room and a terrific outside area where we drank far too many beers. We will most certainly use Air BnB again as it offered great accommodation at a reasonable price.
The Trans Tasman for 2021 will be in Australia. The date and venue will be announced shortly.
For a full details of the results please click on the file below :
Australian Federation of Coarse Anglers Association 