SADSAA Billfish Classic Richards Bay 2012
I have just been to Richard’s Bay to deck aboard Kas Van Der Merwe´s BlackWatch and we were lucky to catch two Blues during the event, one of which was a superb fish.
Not 20 minutes after we started trolling on the first day we found this big and very compact bait ball sitting in about 80 meters at a depth of 260 meters. Kas as a really good sounder on the boat and along with the bait we could mark some big fish just below and obviously worked that showing intensively until we a crash strike bite on the long corner lure.
We caught the fish on 130-pound tackle & it was the angler’s first ever Marlin, but he did a great job and we had immense pressure on that fish as soon as we were on top of her.
We had the fish on the leader just under an hour, had to drop it three times and then had it on the leader for the last time at 1h20 fighting time. Had her on the leader for almost 10 minutes, stretched my arms like crazy but obviously, being a release comp, we were extremely easy on her for fear of ripping out or opening the hooks.
I am told the biggest fish ever weighted at Richard’s Bay was a 761 lbs Black, caught by Jan( kleinjan) Welthagen on the 27/12/95 on the boat ´Running Reels´.
Of course we did not weight the fish so cannot really claim any record but was a great fish nevertheless and I, along with a number of very experienced Captains (whom I showed the photo and who have caught way more granders and big fish than I have), think we were very conservative when we called it 800 lbs.
I for one know that fish was not a pound under that… 
That first day was phenomenal, not only because we released that big girl but we pulled hooks on another two, which were of very respectable size as well around the 500 lbs mark!
Despite the horrible weather (apart from the first morning) and a relatively slow bite I really enjoyed the event and that big mama certainly made the trip. Already looking forward to next year!
By what I saw that day and looking at the number of boats that fish the area I would not be surprised that a fish over a 1000 lbs will be caught soon at RB.
Angler Fred Kruger doing battle with his first ever Marlin.
He did a superb job on applying maximum pressure and bringing the fish to the leader in just over an hour…
On the leader…
Another shot of the fish by the boat…
Letting her go…
72 boats took part in this event and after 3 fishing days (the second day was a blowout) and a total of a total of 34 billfish were released (18 Blues, 7 Black´s, 4 striped and 5 sailfish).
The small blue we we released on the third day.
It was nail biting right ´till the end as 8 boats were tied on top spot going into the last day with 2 Marlin releases.
It was pretty much a case of who, between those contender boats, would release the first third fish on the last day to take top honors.
In the end and from those, team Trinity was the only to released a Marlin – a small Black not long before lines out.
Besides the winning R 100 000 they received an invitation to fish in the IGFA offshore World championship in Cabo San Lucas in 2013. The next 9 places were all tied with 2 releases but on the time rule the overall standing went as such;
1. Trinity
2. Dohazi
3. Mischief II
4. Ocean Princess
5. Qaswa
6. Pisscat
7. Black Watch
8. Laura Belle
9. Go Fish
10. Enigme
PS. Besides the billfish some pretty decent tuna up to 70 odd Kilos were also caught during the comp….
