On Sunday 16th
November, provincial teams gathered at Sodwana Bay Lodge for the briefing of
the 2014 Tri-Facet Nationals. I was competing in the Heavy Tackle Billfish
section with fellow SADSAA team mates Les Hartley and Michel de Kock. We were
fishing aboard “Little Joey” skippered by Chris Rothman.
On Monday morning, we launched in
15 plus knot SW winds. After trolling to diepgat, and then working the area for
a while, we had a marlin come up on the centre rigger and grab the lure, but
miss the hooks. We teased it a bit and it came back with a crash tackle. The
reel ran for a while but before we could clear the deck, the fish jumped off.
On closer inspection we could see that the leader had been wrapped in front of
the lure. That’s just bad luck. By 8am, the sea was really big and the weather committee
called off the comp.
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| Team SADSAA and Lappies Labuschagne |
On Tuesday morning, all the boats
launched in a still uncomfortable big sea. The water colour was not great but
we persevered in the area we had worked the previous day. On one of our
shallower turns, we trolled over a huge piece of black plastic sheeting that
caught our right short. The drag in the water was so great that even over the
strike drag, it would not budge so we had to clear the lines and go toward it
to free it. Apart from a small dorado knock down that we had, the day was
quiet. Only 1 fish was released between the 13 boats.
On Wednesday, the conditions were
perfect. Blue water and calm seas. We put the lures out and trolled over the
ledge. At just before 6am, Chris and I were looking at the spread and could
swear that I saw a movement on the centre lure. We both looked and sure enough,
just the tip of a dorsal fin broke the surface. The fish followed the lure for
probably 3 or 4 minutes but despite all the teasing in the world, it would not
commit to grab the lure and faded off. That was the first and last action that
we saw for the day. Something had to change…
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| Bycatch: 24kg wahoo |
On Thursday morning, we struggled
to get ourselves onto the boat due to the previous night’s “team build”… We
were one of the last boats to launch and put out a mixed grill of lures before
heading south. At around 9am, as we passed by another boat, a really good sized
blue marlin exploded onto the right long lure. It went ballistic greyhounding
parallel to the boat with Chris trying to get away from it. We cleared the deck
and then Kokkie took the chair. The fish settled down and because there was a lot
of line in the water, Chris slowly turned
towards the fish. Everything was going according to plan when the hooks just
fell out! Unbelievable! The lines went out again and on the next turn, the left
long was eaten. I took the strike but the fish came in too easily. In the
swell, I could see a short fish with electric blue vertical bars. Hoping it was
a small stripey, I took my time to get the fish to the boat. When Les took the
leader, my heart sank when it was id’d as a big wahoo. Kokkie gaffed the fish
and after a few pics, continued trolling. A while later, we had a knock down
from an unidentified fish but no hookup. Again, the action stopped as soon as
it started. The wahoo weighed in at 24kg.
On the last day, we launched and
fished the full day but did not have a touch. It was just not our week for a
fish, but that’s how it goes. Only 6 of the 13 teams managed to get fish.
Congrats to Team Enigme on taking gold with their two blacks and a spearfish.
