Junior angler Matthew bags a boat
The youngster showed the 'ballies' how it's done.
MATTHEW Defilippi, still only 16 years old, proved again what a good up-and-coming angler he is.
He won the Mallards Mercury Shelly Beach Ski-boat Festival, catching a huge 39,4kg amberjack. By doing so, he won himself a Cobra Cat to the value of R500 000!
The event was very well organised and many big fish were boated.
Results – 1 Matt Defilippi (About Time) amberjack 39,4kg; 2 Andrew Stewart (Bakgat II) amberjack 36,1kg; 3 Weasel Coetzee (Man Size) couta 34,1kg; 4 Jonathan Bakos (Billy Jude) couta 32kg; 5 Brett Bartho (Gone Fishing) yellowfin 31,6kg; 6 Garth Richardson (Game Over) wahoo 25,7kg; 7 Jonathan Bakos (Billy Jude) couta 23,1kg; 8 Cameron Palmer (Aqua Brat) couta 23kg; 9 Craig Tutton (Hooker III) couta 22,8kg; 10 PJ Botha (Watt 4) amberjack 22,1kg; 11 Digby Smith (Game On) couta 21,6kg; 12 Anton van Zyl (Flippenice) yellowfin 20,7kg; 13 Richard Moir (Man Size) couta 20,5kg; 14 Brett Bartho (Gone Fishing) yellowfin 20,5kg; 15 Roy Jackson (Thunderchild) couta 19,2kg; 16 Shane Dennis (Geronimo) yellowfin 18,8kg; 17 Clifford Saville (Mercury Raptor) yellowfin 18,6kg; 18 Jeff Botha (Watt 4) amberjack 18,5kg; 19 Dave Kleyn (Strike) yellowfin 18,2kg; 20 Pieter Kruger (Vanitay) yellowfin 18,1kg.
Juniors – 1 Luke Nielsen (Frenzy) yellowfin 17,3kg; 2 Gregory Botha (Watt 4) yellowfin 16,7kg; 3 Luke Nielsen (Frenzy) yellowfin 15,1kg.
Women – Sharon Bennett (Too Kaotic) yellowfin 16,1kg; 2 Bernice van der Merwe (Stunning) yellowfin 15,9kg; 3 Corné Brits (El Pescatore) yellowfin 15,5kg.
Regular fishing
In terms of rock and surf, things have hotted up again.
Shad have been wild, just about everywhere, with some really big ones.
Remember to keep your fishing area clean. Rubbish bags, empty sardine boxes and fishing line can negatively affect our marine life.
There have been some decent edible fish on Splash with a lot of big kob taken out on live bait, plus a few garrick in the mornings.
Jeremy Naidoo landed a 15kg yellowfin tuna off Splash.
Margate pier has also produced some garrick and a few more kob.
In interesting news, a great white pup was (accidentally) landed at Margate pier, estimated at maybe 70kg, by a unknown angler on holiday.
It was safely released and swam off strongly.
This fish is heavily protected and one is not allowed to land one.
In Port Elizabeth there are shark spotters watching anglers fish for sharks and if they hook one and see it jump they have to part their line!
If they are caught landing them there is an extremely huge fine.
Remember think for the future, promote catch and release!
Port Edward
This July has featured some of the best fishing and will be remembered by many fishermen to be the best they have had.
Every day, in all conditions the shad spots buzzed with activity.
The deep water points have been full of fishermen with rods out on the wait for bigger fish on the go as well.
Kob, garrick and even yellowfin tuna have been hooked, the angler ‘taken to the cleaners’ with the tuna, yet some landed.
Kob top the list so far, with fish up to 17kg reported.
Colder weather from the south could bring more sardines up with it which is not unusual.
