Three days of long surfcasts, cold mornings and back-country meals on the Taranaki shore came down to a half hour past high tide on day three, when Rachel from Reel Outdoors NZ and Reel Girls NZ lifted a personal-best snapper out of the wash and into the camp story of Legends of the Coast 2026.
The couple — Paul and Rachel — had filmed every step from the opening cast on day one. "Lines in the water at 3:00," Paul said as the boat-rod surfcasters spread out along the beach for the start of the comp. "See you guys all at the prize-giving. Bring it on."
Day one started slow. The first run on Rachel's rod was "something heavy. It's not even fighting. It's probably a big stingray," Paul reckoned, before a small snapper rolled in the wash. "That'll do though. That's a good start." The Shimano Power Aero 14000 rigs and Ultegra BX425 rods stayed out into the night, BKK Octopus Beak 4/0 hooks soaking baits over a clearly visible rip running off the beach.
By day two, the wind had churned the water dirty in their first spot and the team moved to a reef edge, fishing a couple of hours either side of low tide before heading back in to weigh fish. "6° this morning," Paul said at first light. "We had a good session last night. Got a few good snapper." A few small spotted sharks and a hand-sized snapper came in, but nothing to put a real dent in the leaderboard.
"That was a good save for your rod," Paul said as he stopped it skating off the rocks. "Sus. You want the rod?"
"Yeah, I am," Rachel said. "Like a snapper, I think."
"Yeah, it looks like it."
What came up the next swell wasn't a pannie. "Oh my god, that is phenomenal," Paul said as the fish washed up the stones. "Let it wash. Holy [expletive]. This way. This way. Grab the rod."
"I've got it," Rachel said. "That's the biggest snapper of my life."
The pair were stuck on the platform for the rest of the tide, the comp-sized snapper dripping on the rocks beside them. "Wow. I think you won the comp, darling," Paul said. "Look at that. That's a fish. I think you are the legend of the coast."
The early start — and the willingness to fish a tide that most of the field had already given up on — was, in Rachel's own words, what cracked it. "That 3 o'clock get out of bed was worth it," she said.
For the Reel Outdoors NZ crew, who had been working through smaller snapper, eels, gurnard and the odd "yucky" conger, the day three fish was both the biggest snapper Rachel has ever caught and the result that capped a long, cold weigh-in run. "What did you just do?" Paul asked her, half-laughing. "Got the big dog," Rachel replied.
The Legends of the Coast Snapper Hunt is a Taranaki west-coast surfcasting comp run from the rocks and the open beach, and the moment of the weekend was decided in the only window Rachel and Paul had to fish on day three: the back of the high. Their gear list — Shimano Speedmaster 6.6 kg mono, BKK heavy circle 5/0 hooks for the bigger baits, Daiwa Shorecast 20 lb mono on the second outfit, Simms Flyweight wading boots and Freestone waders — was straight off the wall and in the water through three days of dirty surf.
The rest of the comp will be sorted out at the prize-giving, but for the Reel Outdoors NZ camp the headline is already done. "Well done you," Paul told Rachel as she finally turned the fish over for a photo on the rocks. "Well done us."