Hooked on Fishing: Thunderchild’s Simon wins stunning boat

THE Mallards Mercury Ski-boat competition, held at Shelly Beach Ski-boat Club, was one of the closest in recent times.

The top three positions were separated by a mere 100g respectively.

On the first day, a king mackerel, caught down south in the Red Sands area by Franc van der Merwe, was brought to the scales and weighed in at 30.5kg.

The top tuna for day one was a magnificent fish of 28.4kg caught by Jess Jarvis, fishing on Me Steph.

The second day saw a tuna of 30.6kg at the scales, caught by Dolf Wucherpfenning on the boat Stingray.

This was the new leader by 100g.

The third day saw another king mackerel of 30.7kg coming from the Scottburgh area, caught by Simon Colley, on his boat Thunderchild, again bettering the previous days’ heaviest fish by 100g.

With the fourth day coming to an early close due to the arrival of a gale-force south-westerly wind, Simon walked off with the magnificent all-new centre console Cobra Cat 630 boat, with twin Mercury 115Hp four-stroke motors, which was displayed in all its glory in the club’s swimming pool.

This year saw some really good-sized fish being brought to the scales, with 20th position starting off at 20,2kg.

There were some really great prizes up for grabs and the competition was a huge success.

This year the event was a phenomenally successful competition and marked the club’s 40th anniversary.

The Bedouin-style outdoor tent allowed the public direct interaction, watching the daily boat launches, beachings and weigh-ins in one place.

A total of 73 boats entered with 240 anglers.

The yellowfin tuna shoals were abundant and some lovely specimens were weighed throughout the week.

Results

Overall: 1 Simon Colley 30,7kg king mackerel on Thunderchild; 2 Dolf Wucherpfenning 30,6kg yellowfin tuna on Stingray; 3 Frans van der Merwe 30,5kg king mackerel on Bluetooth.

Juniors: 1 Luke Nielson 21,5kg yellowfin tuna on Humdinger; 2 Jordan Jones 16,8kg yellowfin tuna on Reel Blessed; 3 Tristan Pretorius -16,8kg yellowfin tuna on El Pescatore.

Women: 1 Juley du Plessis 17,3kg yellowfin tuna on Me Steph; 2 Sarah Dennis 15,9kg yellowfin tuna on Fod Father; 3 Sharon Bennett 15,7kg yellowfin tuna on Too Kaotic.

General

Unfortunately the weather has not fully recovered since the weekend, however, with some decent conditions forecast for this coming weekend and early next week, anglers can look forward to some really good tuna fishing.

The whales have arrived in abundance and the reports of plenty bird activity from the Port St Johns to Coffee Bay area could still be an indication that those elusive sardines may still make an appearance this year.

Shad are still biting freely with the average size starting to improve.

There are still reports, however, of anglers exceeding their daily limits with some anglers walking off with bags of shad.

Please guys, remember your limit is four fish per person per day and not per session.

Garrick are starting to make an appearance with reports from Stiebel Rocks at Umzumbe producing some good-sized fish around the 15kg mark, mainly taken on live-baits.

These fine fighting fish provide excellent sport on light tackle as they are very clean fighters.

Bronze bream are still in abundance and it should not be long now before reports of some good-sized brusher being caught.

These fish are extremely strong fighters with the preferred bait being either crayfish or  black rock crab.

The stretch of beach from St Michael’s to Manaba is a very productive area, as well as the stretch of beach at Umtentweni, north of Port Shepstone.

Report by Mark Bennett, Tackle Box