Fishy festival reels them in
A great family atmosphere prevailed over the weekend at Pumula.
THIS past weekend jet skis, kayaks and ski-boats took to the sea to fight it out for the inaugural title of Safire Insurance King of the Sea. Friday night’s briefing was abuzz with excited anglers plotting their moves for Saturday morning, with others keeping their cards very close to their chests. In all, 176 anglers launched between the boundaries of Isipingo in the north and Uvongo river mouth in the south, in search of ‘the fish’ that would claim them the title.
Saturday’s conditions started off well and with a 10 to 14 knot north-easterly predicted to pick up, it looked as if anglers would be able to fish for most of the day. However, by 10am, an 18 to 23 knot wind chased most of the anglers off the water. Throughout the day steady catches were seen at the weigh-in and only two fish per species, per angler, as permitted by the competition rules, were weighed.
This formula, coupled with the restrictions that only snoek, couta, yellowfin tuna, wahoo and dorado could be taken out, guaranteed that this event had little to no effect on the marine life off this stretch of coastline.
Many families, as well as visitors at Pumula Beach Hotel, enjoyed free seafood braais, beer tasting, wine tasting, live music, big screen rugby and many lucky draws throughout Saturday. The final weigh-in on Saturday closed at 5pm and, by this time, ten couta over 20kgs and nine tuna of 15kgs had been weighed in. In the end, PJ Botha stood the best chance of going into Sunday’s compo with the leading couta of 28.2kgs. Sunday’s conditions were perfect but anglers struggled and only 12 fish hit the scales with the biggest fish being Trenton Lamble’s 25.4kg couta.
In the end PJ Botha walked away with the 2016 Safire Insurance King of the Sea title with his monster 28.2kg couta. He also took prizes to the value of R60 000 including R20 000 cash, fishing tackle and holidays to the value of R40 000. Trent Owen snatched top junior prize with a brilliant couta of 25.3kgs winning himself a Legend kayak and some other goodies. Top jet ski went to Tom Smith with his yellowfin of 23kgs. Top kayak went to Winklespruit Fishing Ski Club’s Mark Shum with a couta of 16.5kgs. Top ski-boat went to Bradley Whitcombe with coutas of 25.75kgs each, winning himself R25 000 worth of prizes. All in all the event was a huge success with many saying it was the best fishing event on the KZN South Coast.
The winners were:
Safire Insurance King of the Sea 2016 – PJ Botha – 28.2kg couta
Top Ski-Boat – Bradley Whitcombe – 25.75 kg couta
Top Kayak – Mark Shum – 16.5 kg couta
Top Jet Ski – Tom Smith – 23kg tuna
Top Junior – Trent Owen – 25.3kg couta
2nd place – Josh Rodwell
3rd place – Trenton Lamble
4th place – Noel Allchin
5th place – Gregory Botha
6th place – Richard Mosely
7th place – Trevor Mosely
8th place – Andrew Birkett
9th place – Louis Posthumus
10th place – Trevor Watson
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