Andre is couta king
A total of 281 anglers fishing off 111 boats took part in the competition.
THIS past weekend saw the Hibberdene Ski-boat Club host another very successful Couta Classic.
With almost perfect conditions on both days, some very good-sized couta were brought to the scales.
Andre Loubscher, fishing on his boat Flat Rock, and a previous winner of this competition some years back, blew everyone out of the water on the first day with a dog of a couta weighing in at 36.9kg. This was the eventual top fish of the competition and earned Andre a boat (Ace Glider 530 plus trailer) valued at R550 000.
In second place was Abed Khan with his fish of 30kg, followed by Wayne Brissner with his 28.9kg fish.
Greg Defilippi caught the ‘average’ couta weighing in at 17.53 kg.
The biggest kingfish, weighing 27kg, was caught by Tyler Loomes.
Sharon Bennett was top woman angler with a nice-sized couta of 16,64kg.
In total there were 281 anglers fishing on 111 boats with 41 couta brought to the scales with a total weight of 718.6kg.
The average sized fish was 17.5kg.
The top 10 prizes started off at 23kg, which showed that there are still some good-sized couta around if one is prepared to go out and target these fish.
Club chairman Lyle Fraser said that although uncertain weather forecasts had put off some fishermen, it actually turned out very well.
“The event was a resounding success with no incidents reported and the weather was the best the competition has had in the last four years.” said Mr Fraser.
The event drew a good crowd over the weekend, with some 5 000 people visiting the tent and taking part in the weekend’s festivities.
Sunday night’s prize-giving featured free gifts, lucky draws and auctions in addition to the presentation of the all-important prizes.
