Ok guys so here is the story of the 2014 Shelly Beach Ski Boat Festival, my apologies for not giving regular updates as promised but we had a HECTIC week with travelling, boat prep, boat repair, fishing, and obviously a bit of
. Anyway here it is:
Firstly this is a great tournament to fish, it is well-run, has great prizes and offers great fishing all round. This year the first prize was a brand new Cobra Cat 630 centre consol which was on display at the Ski Boat Club in the swimming pool! It's a beauty and had all the guys super excited at the briefing. Every year the big tussle is between the guys targeting
versus the guys targeting
and with the large numbers of big tuna being landed off Durban lately we decided to give Durban a shot for the first two days of the comp. We made some arrangements with our mates and organised to stay in a boat garage at DSBC. We arrived around 4.30pm on Tuesday 1st July and quickly settled in and set up camp in the garage. We were fully kitted with mattresses, fridges, freezers, rods and loads of tackle. We unhitched both boats and set about prepping the gear and packing for the morning. The game plan was to fish for tuna on the wreck and bait spots with live bait. We finally settled in at the bar at DSBC to discuss tactics and have a few
.
Day 1
After and early wake up and prep we waited in line for the tractor to push us in. After a relatively uneventful launch (and a few jokes about how spoilt the Durban boys are with their lack of surf at the launch site) we set about getting live bait. Big thanks to Lindsay (Dugongboy) for giving us a heads up as to where to find live bait quickly we had a tank full of great livebait (another thing the Durban boys are spoilt with!)
Dugongboy. We headed out to the fairway marker where we quickly loaded some more mackerel (there was a massive shoal at the marker). On our way to Dozer and Caissons we crossed paths with a pod of dolphins and quickly flicked out two mozzies on the grinders and immediately had two pulls. I duffed mine letting it eat for too long but Clint connected his and within 3 minutes we had a 16kg tuna on deck. Good start! We then headed out to the barge and tried a few drifts but the water was green and the drift wasn't great with a fresh NE wind so we headed out to mid-reef. The sea was much bigger there and we settled onto a drift for about 30 min. I got one nice yellowfin of 14kg on a live mack under a balloon before we decided to come back inshore and fish Caissons where Brad said he had been getting some decent pulls in between being taxed. The it started - major issues with the starboard motor. It wouldn't start so we set about checking everything but no luck. We put a spread of Halcos out and started trolling towards DSBC while we worked on the motor. Just before the Barge we find a wiring problem and got the motor to start but decided to hit the beach to get it checked. The tech met us on the beach and worked on the motor for an hour before giving us the bad news - faulty computer box = R23k!! Ouch. We broke out the beers to numb the news and tried to work out a gameplan for the next few days. Within 20 minutes we had two offers for boats to use - one from guys at DSBC and the other from Shaun17 (thanks for the gesture bud
for the gesture!). Eventually we came right with one of our mate's boats (Shaun B) which comes from Shelly. We fetched the boat and then went about swapping all our gear over to his boat for Day 2 onwards. The plan was to leave Clint's boat in Durban and tow Shaun B's boat back with us to Shelly for days 3 &4. Late to bed, but organised for Day 2! Feedback from Day 1 showed a couple of good fish weighed down at Shelly with the leading fish a 28,4 YFT caught by our buddy Jess on ME Steph.
Day 2
We got up early and managed to launch earlier than Day 1. This was revenge! We got a full tank of bait just off Vetches and headed straight to the fairway marker to see if the mackerel were still there. No joy so we headed to Dozers where the bait showings were wild and we did a few drifts there but no takers. From there we headed to the Barge and did some drifts with the livies out. I got a nice pull on a live mack under a balloon and landed a nice 16,7kg tuna. It was very quiet after that and not many fish came out aside from a 21,5kg tuna caught on a local boat at the Barge by a junior - nice fish, it took top prize in the end for Juniors. We headed back to the beach early to pack up and head back to Shelly for days 3 & 4. We loaded both boats to tow back and left Clint's boat behind in Durbs to get repaired. We made it back to Shelly by 5pm to weigh the tuna - at least we were on the board! Day 2 had a new leader - a 30,5kg couta caught south of Port Edward but conditions had been tough all round.
Day 3
Back on home turf and there was news that the tuna were in the area. We launched late to avoid the circus at the Shelly Launch site and headed up to Sheppie to find some bait. We loaded a couple of livies and headed to our honey-hole called The Playground near the northern pinnacle of Protea Reef. We started the drift and worked the chum and block baits in the usual way. There were a few guys bending around us but the action was far from wild. We worked hard but couldn't get past the shoal-sized yellowfin getting 3 fish in the 16-17kg range which we didn't even weigh at the scale. At the end of day 1 the leading position had swapped again, firstly with a 30,6kg yellowfin and then with a 30,7kg Couta! Day 4 was going to be a cracker, with fair seas and then a big buster SW wind coming through by 12.
Day 4
Again we launched after the rush, with the plan to only fish for tuna straight away. We got on our drift line early and immediately had results with 2 fish in the 15-16kg range on the first two drifts. We got two more fish before 11 and I managed a beauty of a yellowfin which we guessed around 23kg! The wind came through sooner than planned and we hit the beach at 12, having had to plough through a huge sea and rolling swells getting drenched in the process. We weighed our 5 fish and my tuna went 23,6kg so hopefully in the prizes! The usual weigh in trash talk was going on between teams with some guys pretending to have huge fish, and other guys saying they had lost the winning fish to sharks etc, always good for a laugh. After a shower and quick clean up we headed to prize-giving. There was a great vibe and the outdoor tent and big bar area were a hit. The food stall served great food and the Cobra Cat floating in the pool set the mood! The prize giving went well with a host of great fish caught including a wahoo, some big couta and big yellowfin and eventually the winner was announced - Thunderchild took the top honours with their 30,7kg Couta caught on day 3. We managed to get 14th place and in the prizes for the 23,6kg tuna.
It was a great comp, awesome venue and some top class fishing by anyone's standards!
Some pics:
