Mynmanne 2011 Competition Report for Liberty Part 2
Fishing must be the one Sport that certainly keeps you Humble.. The Monday started off with a bang, everything worked right and we got results. The next two days we did everything the same, worked the same areas, same everything NO FISH!
We averaged 130 km’s of Trolling for Billfish each day.
Then
Thursday 10 February
The previous day- Wednesday there was boats getting quite a few strikes straight out Jesser Point in 800 to 1 000 meters of water.
So our plan for the day was to work the area South of Jesser Point and Diep Gat then later head out Deeper to 1 000 meters of water.
I made one lure change on my Starboard Short to : Pulsator Bonito Smoker Blue/White.
At 7: 30 we had our first enquiry.. it was a Yellow Fin Tuna of 12.8 kg. It will later help us a lot on our Points talley. This was on the Southern side of Diep Gat.
Then we looked on the Garmin Blue Chart for a bit of Structure in the deeper water and Big Van found a place where the 800, 900 and 1000 meter lines was close to each other with something like a hole close by. We headed out that way.
10:00 The first Reel went .. Fish On.. a Stripey nice size.. after a bit of Head shaking and Tail walking the hooks was thrown. Ag wat.. we thought there must be more around.. We got one more strike and then
11:20 The Starboard Long was grunting like only an 80 lb Shimano can! The fish did a few jumps and the hooks were VAS! It looked Big so I took the rod .. the fight was not that long and we got the fish in good time to the boat.. Now our day was cooking..
The fish was Tagged and Released easy and it was well mannered. When the fish came close it wasn’t that big and in the region of 70 kg (160 lb’s), I felt bad because Peter ( my sister’s Fiance) is not a big guy .. and this could have been his first Billfish.
Here is the photo:
13:30 Our team was highly motivated now to make it two Billfish for the day.
At the 900 meter mark we heard the Elastic band break on the Outrigger.. Amazing how sensitive your hearing becomes after a few days of fishing only one Tik of a reel
and you are ready.
This fish was hooked and speeding off at a speed, made a few nice jumps. Piet was on! It will be his first Billfish..
No one can put into words what it feels like to have one of these amazing animals on the other side of the line.
He was knackered, as he was going to marry my sister, we kept the boat in gear to ensure that there will be no fumbles with the line slacking.
Here is a photo of him fighting the Striped Marlin:
Now it was my turn to tell him: “Wind, Wind, Wind if you rest the fish rests, WIND!”
After a while he was winning.. Piet asked: “net ‘n slukkie water asseblief oom!”
He was one proud guy as I leadered the fish and held onto the Bill.
Congratulations Peter we are proud of you!
A photo of Peter's fish Greyhounding:
A photo of the proud fisherman:
Our week was made and as lines up is at 15:00 we headed back, we were 28 km from Sodwana – Jesser Point.
If we could stay out, we probably could have tried to catch another one.
The flags were flying and this day belonged to the crew on LIBERTY!
The competition for us was finished, and the next day will just be for fun!
The Friday was a separate comp where the Biggest Game Fish win!..
We fished for Cuta in the Big W area and got a few smaller Cuta and one Cuta that weighed.
The Friday night was prize giving and we won a couple of nice Prizes, and finished overall 3’rd. Which for us was fine, just a tad more luck and blessing and we could win this competition sometime.
Thanks to the crew of LIBERTY – Big Van and everyone organising the competition it was a memorable one.
