SADSAA Billfish Classic 2010

The briefing for the SADSAA Billfish Classic 2010 was held on 9th February at the Richards Bay Skiboat Club. All the who’s who of South African angling were there to support the event. In total, there were 82 boats that were participating and this event promised to be the best billfishing event held in the country.

I have fished this event since 2005 when it was still called the “Black Watch” – we were lucky enough to win the tournament in 2005 with 3 marlin releases. The concept is simple ... release as many billfish as you can in four days. The winner walks away with R100 000 cash, runner up R50 000 and third R30 000. Marlin count 100 points, sailfish count 30 points and spearfish count 15 points. In the event of a tie, the team to catch their last fish first is the winner.

This year, I was fishing aboard Wayne Ritchie’s 900 Cobra, “Big W”. Joining us were Eugene Terblanche, Riaan Charmers and Darren Gray. Tackle preparation had taken place the week before the competition so we were hoping for the best.

Day one of the competition kicked off at 04:15am on Wednesday morning. All boats gathered together in the harbour mouth for the mass start. The camera crew were aboard the Bell chopper as well as aboard several participating boats. At 05:00 we were given the go ahead to head to sea. The sight of 80 odd boats all pulling away at top speed was nothing short of spectacular. You name it, from 18ft skiboats to 47ft sportfishers they were there.

Our plan for the day was to head north about 35km and work the 300-700m depth. When we arrived at the spot at 06:30, we were greeted by warm, blue water with an extremely strong north to south current. Perfect conditions. The wind was blowing a bit, probably 15knots NE but the conditions were very fishable. The spread we decided on was: Centre rigger 9inch pink and white Moldcraft Bobby Brown; Port rigger Black and Blue Iland saillure with a halfbeak; Starboard rigger Blue and pink Moldcraft tiny superchugger with a halfbeak; Port short rigger Blue and white Moldcraft tiny superchugger with a halfbeak; Starboard short rigger black and purple Pulsator Stripey Tickler; Starboard flatline big blue and white Moldcraft Superchugger behind a 18inch Williamson exciter and Port flatline blue and white Pulsator bonito smoker.

The idea behind this spread was to have very big lures close to the boat to act as teasers and then to have some bait a bit further back to snatch fish that came up close to the boat interested in the teasers. There were a few lures in the back spread just incase a fish was missed on the bait.

With the lures swimming beautifully, Wayne headed the boat in an easterly direction trying to gain some depth. There were a few hook-ups reported already and we were anticipating something to happen. At 07:35, Riaan saw a splash on the centre rigger, but nothing happened. A few seconds later, with everyone now focused to the back lure, there was another splash and the rigger popped and the reel screamed. The fish stuck its head out the water and shook violently. The rod jerked back and forth for a few seconds then pulled up and stood still. The fish was gone. After closer inspection it could be seen that the marlin had managed to get the hook over the bill and not into its mouth. When the bill pointed in the boat’s direction, the hook simply slid off. There was nothing we could do about that. It has happened many times with many different hookrigs. We reset the lines and continued trolling. At 9am, without any warning, the starboard short rigger popped and the reel took off. A small blue marlin came flying out the water about 20m from the stern and greyhounded across all the lines. We managed to clear the lines without burning off. It was Wayne’s turn in the chair so he came down to the deck and I went up to the bridge. The fish settled and we started gaining line. After 25mins, the fish was about 10 meters from the boat. Eugene was leaning out to take the leader when the hook pulled! Unbelievable! What bad luck. So near yet so far. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

We reset again and continued trolling. During the course of the morning, we had a few niggles with the spread. Firstly, the large exciter we had on the flatline would turn upside down and catch the swell, pulling it underwater. The resistance was so much that the line would run off the reel at a medium pace and we would need to slow the boat to retrieve the lure. The second problem we had was with the portside halfbeak. It was rigged with a superchugger which had quite a resistance in the water. This caused the light rubber band to break periodically. I didn’t want to put a stronger one on as the fish would probably feel the resistance and leave the bait or the body would part from the head and we would miss the fish.

At about 10am, the port rigger popped. Riaan shouted from the bridge that it was a false alarm. I assumed the same thing as this had happened about 4 times already. I stood next to the rod with the reel on freespool just in case. A few seconds later, the starboard flatline ran off a bit of line at a medium pace. All of us assumed that the bird was pulling line as it did earlier that morning. I watched the angle of the line and saw it heading straight for the port rigger bait. I was just thinking of pulling in the bait to prevent a tangle when I felt the line in my hand go tight and run off the reel at the same pace as the flat line. Damn, a tangle. I put the reel into strike and held on. Now both reels were running at the same pace in the same direction. I asked Wayne to slow down so that we could sort out the tangle. As he slacked off, I looked back to see two shortbill spearfish jumping next to each other! There was no tangle, there were two fish on! Chaos! Riaan took charge of the flatline while I held onto the standup rod. After a few seconds, my fish jumped off the hook but the other one was still on. We cleared the lines and Riaan pulled in the spearfish. I took the trace and the required photos were taken. Riaan wanted a photo so I grabbed the bill and lifted it into the boat. There was not much place to grab as the bill was so short, so I ended up grabbing the bill and the hooks at the same time and yip, you guessed it, I got a hook in my hand (not too serious though). After a few quick pics, we released the shortbill. They are one of the most beautiful billfish.

We were all stoked to be on the scoreboard and reset the lines with a spring in out step. Wayne circled the area that had produced the last few strikes and as luck would have it, the starboard short rigger popped again. A nice blue marlin rocketed out f the water behind the boat and smoked line off the reel. We all cleared the lines and Wayne chased the fish down. There was probably 450m of line off the reel when the fish slowed it’s run, but with so many boats in the area, we had to shout and direct traffic to prevent our line from being ridden off. The fish sounded and Eugene went to work putting line back on the reel. After a fight lasting about an hour, I got my hands on the leader and pulled the +-150kg blue against the boat. I removed the hooks and revived the fish for a few minutes before releasing it. What a great feeling.
After releasing the blue, we had no more action and returned to port in 4th position. There were 21 releases for the day.

On day 2 we worked the same area as the previous day, without a touch. The fish had moved south with the current and boats operating in the area released several fish. The days tally came to 18 billfish releases.

Day 3 was blown out by 9am. We had some bad luck when a small marlin had a go at the centre rigger but missed the hooks. We made a turn in the same area and the same fish ate the port long rigger. Unfortunately the hook pulled after a few seconds. There was only 1 release for the day.

Day 4 was a perfect day. Light winds, blue water and good current. Unfortunately the action was not in the area that we were fishing and we again had a blank. There were 11 fish released for the day. This brought the total release tally to 51 billfish (9 spearfish, 4 sailfish and 38 marlin).
All in all, it was a great competition and I look forward to participating next year.