Gold trout ‘second chance’

Fish & Game says it’s disappointed to announce that no anglers have come forward with a pink tag to claim any of the big prizes up for grabs as the new fishing season kicked off.

Pink tag trout are missing in action.

The Fish for Gold promotion, where anglers could land a pink tagged trout and potentially win a major prize of $10,000, or an outboard motor valued at nearly $1000, has now closed.

The promotion kicked off on Opening Day October 1 and ran for eight days.

Fish & Game Eastern Manager Andy Garrick says this year differed from the past two years in that no one came forward on Monday (October 9) with a tag to claim a prize within the allotted time period, as three people did last year.

“We hate to see folk missing out altogether, so we’ve decided to put forward three bonus prizes for anyone who can catch and present one of these special pink tags before the end of this month (October 31).

“We are offering a voucher to the value of $200 for the first three pink tags returned.” 

Mr Garrick says putting up the additional prizes is a way to keep the Fish for Gold suspense happening, albeit at a lower key.  

“We must stress that this is an add on, a bonus if you like, and that the main promotion and its prizes of cash and an outboard motor which was run according to strict conditions, has now closed.

“But here’s a ‘second chance’ offer for all those who registered for the event originally.”

Mr Garrick says that regrettably, bad weather is likely to have played a part in no one catching a pink tagged fish, as lake conditions were not particularly conducive to getting anglers out and about over the course of the event.

Fish & Game staff opened the specially sealed and numbered envelopes yesterday as the 1pm deadline to present tags passed. They found that the winning fish was number five, which had been released into Lake Tarawera.

The tag which would have won the outboard was number 18 attached to a fish released into Lake Rotoiti.

 “We extend our thanks to the hundreds of people who entered the spirit of the event and registered for Fish for Gold.

“We would also like to extend our grateful thanks to the sponsors who backed the event and put forward products as prizes.”