Monday 29 April 2024

Weather conditions dictated that competitors of the International and National Bottom Fish Tournament could not go out to sea until today. Everybody started gathering at the harbour at 05:00. It was still dark and there was a thick mist but there was still an air of excitement and the anglers were looking forward to a good day out at sea.

(Click on the first photograph in the gallery to enlarge and then use arrows to watch the slideshow. Press escape to return to the blog post.)

The sea was calm enough to allow the boats to launch between 06:00 and 07:00. Luckily the mist started lifting and by the time all the boats were launched the sun was out and the day looked promising.

As the sun rose the boats headed out to the deep, waiting just outside the harbour for all to be launched and the signal to move to the fishing grounds was announced by SkiBoat Mobile. Lines in was at 07:00 and Lines up at 17:00

Some commercial boats did not go to sea today as they feared the cold temperature of the sea would put the fish off the bite. However, all turned out well and all the competition boats caught fish today. Below are some of them coming into Struisbaai harbour after a wonderful day out at sea.

All the teams were split up and assigned to various boats. SADSSA lady, Sheena Gerber was on Wee Nanya skippered by Bryan Fitchat, the smallest boat in the fleet and she landed a possible record Hottentot. Well done Sheena!

In the evening, the competitors, skippers and committee members were treated to a lasagne dinner at the Struisbaai Harbour Cafe.

Some fun was had when a few naughty competitors were called up for ‘straf dops’ – for misdemeanours and mishaps including losing keys, not releasing the trailer tie-on buckle before launching and just because the judge decided it would be appropriate to give out such punishment! (No captions to protect the privacy of the guilty!)

Below are the current team rankings.