One hundred fishing boats with about 400 anglers on board headed out of the Tauranga Harbour entrance today for the start Tauranga Sport Fishing club's One Base tournament.

'We kicked them all off this morning,” says club manager Roly Bagshaw. 'It's a full house. It's sold out with a waiting list. It's in great shape, this event. It's a fantastic event with a really good vide to it.”

While some catches are expected to feature on the club scales at Sulphur Point, the four-day fishing tournament has a big emphasis on measuring and tagging fish and releasing them.

Every angler that tags a marlin is guaranteed a gold game fishing reels which are worth S800-$900, says Roly.

'Our snapper, kingfish prizes in the measure section are actually better than they are in the weigh section.”

If there's a big Kingfish or snapper taken with a good chance that'll take out the weigh section – the club communicate that to the competitors, and fish after that can be released.

'We really are incentivising people to put fish back in the water. But there will be highlights no doubt of big fish at the weigh stations.”

Deciding to kill a fish and bring it back for weighing is now a decision with other factors involved. If a team returns to Sulphur Point they lose the time that could have been spent fishing, which is one of the reasons why tag and release is becoming popular, explains Roly.

'The more experienced guys have a fair idea of how big a fish is going to go. Strategically a lot of them have got quite good at working out should they take it, should they leave it there.

'In terms of the prize set up and so forth, they are quite selective in terms of what they take. And from an organisers point of view we have arranged the stage, even to put back snapper and kingfish.

'We can influence or incentivise the decision that they make to a degree. We take that responsibility pretty seriously in terms of where we want to take the club, and the events, and angling culture.”

There have been a few hooks already this morning and Roly is looking forward to a really successful tournament. There's three days of pretty clear weather ahead.

Most of the boats are from Tauranga, but there's a few from out of town says Roly. Some will fish day trips, but he expected the bigger vessel with the range will stay out overnight.