Tauranga anglers are reeling in the big ones and predicting more of the same as competition heats up in the Tauranga Sports Fishing Club FIN-NOR One Base 2014.

The annual tournament is attracting 98 teams with 329 anglers taking to the seas to try their luck for a prize winning fish.

A competitor with his 29.5kg kingfish caught during the FIN-NOR One Base 2014 tournament.

Starting at 7.30am on Wednesday the majority of boats braved bolder weather conditions heading out the Tauranga entrance to destinations within Chart NZ54, modified for TSFC tournaments – ranging from Lottin Point in the east, to the southern tip of Great Barrier Island in the north.

Tauranga Sports Fishing Club manager Grant Holley says as the four-day tournament progresses fishing conditions continue to improve, as do fish sizes being tagged and landed, with high expectation for Saturday's finale.

'Wednesday was a bit of a wipe out, we only weighed a kingfish and three snapper but the weather has improved through the week,” says Grant.

'I'd say today has been exceptionally busy. We have had mahi mahi, marlin and albacore and fish dropped. There has been plenty of action out there and we are predicting the same tomorrow.”

Already two sizeable striped marlin have been landed and another two tagged during the tournament, the main talking points by competitors.

The first one, caught off the boat Intruder on Thursday, weighed in at 159.6kg with the second close behind with 148.9kg.

'We did a courtesy weigh early this afternoon for a 13-year-old boy and his fish weighed 101kg. he was pretty rapt.”

The tournament sees the club plot sponsors on a grid map marking various locations on Chart 54 so that any fish that are hooked, tagged and released or landed, can be reported back to the club during the day.

The FIN-Nor One Base tournament finishes on Saturday with the final weigh in at 3pm.