RESULTS AND NEWS

(Click on any photo below to view the enlarged version)

2019 UMKOMAAS INTERCLUB

Congratulations to our Shelly Beach team of PJ Botha, Mark Brewitt and Adrian dela Hunt who placed second out of 21 teams in the Umkomaas Interclub this past weekend. Despite some windy conditions the guys caught some decent yellowfin tuna. Well done. Thanks to Umkomaas Ski Boat Club for hosting a well run event, we hope to see you at our Shelly Beach Interclub from the 10th-12th May.

SHELLY BEACH SKI BOAT CLUB HOST SUCCESSFUL 2018 JUNIOR GAME FISH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

South Coast angler shines in Junior Game Fish Nationals

Shelly Beach Ski-Boat Club was once again a stellar host for the South African Junior Game Fish National Championships 16 – 20 July.

Hot on the heels of the senior nationals at the same venue, this year's South African Deep Sea Angling Association (SADSAA) junior competition took place from Monday to Friday in descent conditions.

A total of 21 teams - 13 Under-19 and eight Under-16 sides - vied for national bragging rights. Yellowfin tuna was plentiful throughout, with a few jobfish, bonnies and skipjack also weighed over five full days of fishing.

In the Under-19 category, Mpumalanga shot into a big lead after two terrific days before their fortunes changed.

The single best day belonged to SADSAA, who made a major haul on Wednesday that moved them into the lead.

This talented team, consisting of KwaZulu-Natal trio Seth van den Berg (captain), Tristan Schreiber and local angler Bevan Taljaard, were the most consistent side and went on to take top honours in commanding fashion.

Taljaard had a dream tournament that culminated in not only victory for his team, but individual honour as well as the Top Under-19 Angler of the Tournament.

The South Coast star’s top catches weighed 21.6kg – the third heaviest of the competition – 20kg, 19.40kg, 18.30kg and 17.90kg, all yellowfin tuna.

Eastern Province were the runners-up with fast-starting Mpumalanga ended up taking bronze.

They were followed by Gauteng, Southern Cape, Natal White, Border Blue, Free State, Southern Gauteng White, Natal Black, Southern Gauteng Black, Border White and Zululand.

Southern Gauteng Blue won the Under-16 competition, with Zululand and Free State securing second and third respectively.

They were followed by Natal, Eastern Province, Gauteng, Southern Gauteng Yellow and Southern Gauteng Red
The top skipper awards went to locals Faith Lategan (Mesteph - Under-19) and Anton Gets (Bliksem - Under-16).

Photos by Justin Klusener Photography

2018 MERCURY SKIBOAT FESTIVAL FINAL RESULTS

Click here to download the official results

TEAM “MUST BYT” TAKE TOP HONOURS

The Shelly Beach Ski Boat Festival is one of the country’s premier winter gamefish competitions in terms of total prize value and this year’s event which was hosted at the Shelly Beach Ski Boat Club from the 3rd to the 7th July, was well supported by the angling community. During this competition the fleet consisted of 46 boats and 151 anglers. The main prize was a pair of brand new Mercury 150Hp four stroke outboard motors worth R400,000, set aside for the heaviest gamefish overall by the competitions loyal sponsor Mercury Marine. The past few years have seen a battle between a big yellowfin tuna, king mackerel or amberjack for heaviest species and this year was no exception with these species being the common target species.

Several generous contributions from the long list of sponsors certainly made the week’s fishing worthwhile, and combined with the independent “Calcutta” or “Skins” system giving an added incentive to boats for a daily cash prize of R11,000 for the heaviest gamefish per day.

The week’s weather was magnificent for the full duration of the competition with safe launching conditions at all of the launch sites from Port Edward through to Durban. The first day’s fishing proved to be quieter than expected despite all of the sardine activity around and this was reflected at the scales at the close of the day with numerous mid-sized yellowfin being weighed. Towards the close of the weigh-in the team from last year’s winning boat “Bliksem” brought in a good haul of tuna with the largest being Brendan Puren’s 22.7kg specimen which held on as Day 1’s heaviest fish. Another remarkable catch for Day 1 was Natal u16 Junior angler Dylan Westoby who brought in a very respectable yellowfin tuna of 20.7kg which set the bar high for other juniors to beat.

Day 2 promised better results as the teams dialled in on the conditions and reports came in of better fishing than the previous day and there was hope for more species at the weigh-in. The boats who ran deep in search of big yellowfin were having a slow time and the only reports of catches were inshore on Protea Banks and north at Hibberdene. At scales it was another batch of yellowfin tuna that again dominated the fish weighed. Notable fish for Day2 were Trevor Mosley’s 22kg Yellowfin Tuna caught on “Hooker” and Gert Krugell’s 22.5kg tuna caught on “Pokerface” that came out ahead of the pack. Young Pietie Bodenstein on “Bliksem” caught a lovely 14.8kg Dorado that added some variety at the scales, also an impressive fish for a junior of 9 years old. However the stand out catch of Day 2 was the massive 37.8kg Amberjack caught by 13 year old Greg Botha on his dad’s boat “Watt4” which jumped him into top spot overall. This was an outstanding catch that had many teams rethinking their game plans to try and chase down this trophy fish.

Day 3 dawned with flat seas and again the teams launched to find the prolific yellowfin shoals that were providing non-stop action in the deep off Shelly Beach. Many boats caught mid-sized tuna for the day and no stand-out fish were weighed. There was a noticeable lack of fish from outlying areas such as Aliwal Shoal and Port Edward which is unusual for this time of year. The best fish of the day went to Sean Hewitt on Carl Gutzeit’s boat “Sea-Fishient” with his 22.5kg Tuna amongst an excellent bag of fish for the day. Again the boats that persevered in the deep looking for large yellowfin tuna came home empty handed.

The weather for the last day was very favourable, and with a shorter day with scales closing at 4pm meant that teams had less time to find the winning fish. By this stage of the competition most of the anglers had settled for the fact that their best chance of being in the Top 10 prizes was to chase yellowfin tuna where a fish over 23kg would almost certainly be in the top 5. A few teams went after large Amberjack in the hope of beating Greg’s 37.8kg specimen. By mid-morning there was talk over the radios of a massive yellowfin tuna out in the deep and shortly before mid-day a picture started to do the rounds on Whatsapp and got everyone talking. There was a BIG tuna on the boat “Must Byt” who had been working beyond the 2000m contour more than 35km out to sea, it looked to be a massive specimen and estimates were that it would weigh in excess of 70kg, more than enough to take top spot. Many boats pushed till the last minute to try and find big fish to round out the Top 10 and by the time scales opened there was a buzz in the tent in anticipation of the arrival of the monster tuna. Several teams weighed their fish and many better sized yellowfin were brought in, with 6 of these fish making it into the overall Top 10 placings. The biggest of these 6 was caught on the boat “Haraka” by Mark Arnold and weighed in at 23.6kg. In the race for the Junior anglers 10 year old Conrad Viljoen, son of last year’s winner Lourens Viljoen, weighed a solid 22.6kg yellowfin tuna which was matched by the current leader Greg Botha on “Watt4” who also weighed a tuna of the same weight.

As the time ticked away the crowd grew in anticipation of the arrival of the big tuna and at 15.55 everyone got what they had waited for - a huge yellowfin tuna, caught by Pieter Aslett on Mike Schneider’s “Must Byt 5” in the deep. This is a phenomenal specimen for these waters and the four days of effort put in to target this one fish paid off handsomely as this fish pulled the scales to 79.2kg securing them top place and deserved winners of the main prize.

At the prize giving on Saturday evening a good sized crowd gathered to appreciate the top placed anglers. Prize giving went very well with overall placings going to Greg Botha’s 37.8kg Amberjack (2nd overall), Mark Arnold’s 23.6kg Tuna (3rd overall), Conrad Viljoen (Top Junior) and Chloe Kidd (Top Lady). Emerging as overall winners the team on “Must Byt 5” celebrated Pieter’s superb tuna of 79.2kg which put them in first place overall and earned them the pair of Mercury 150Hp outboard motors as Top Team for 2018.

2018 SHELLY BEACH INTERCLUB

Click here to download the official results

SHELLY BEACH SKI BOAT CLUB HOST SUCCESSFUL 2017 JUNIOR INTERPROVINCIAL

The Shelly Beach Ski Boat Club hosted the inaugural Natal Deep Sea Angling Association Junior Interprovincial fishing tournament from Friday 29th September to Sunday the 1st October. In total 11 teams of juniors between 11 and 18 years old were entered for the tournament, with teams from Mpumalanga (1 team), Zululand (3 teams), Southern Gauteng (5 teams) and Natal (2 teams). Day 1 was delayed due to rough surf conditions and eventually the day was called off by 11am leaving Saturday and Sunday for the teams to compete. Saturday saw far better launch conditions and all teams were on the water by 6am. The day was eventually extended to allow maximum fishing time for the teams and, with lines up called at 3pm, the anglers made their way to the scales with some impressive catches. Numerous good-sized yellowfin tuna were weighed as well as Cape Yellowtail, Amberjack, Bonito and Dorado. The most notable catches for the day were a 19.6kg Yellowfin Tuna caught by Luke Nielsen of the Natal Black team, a 14.9kg Cape Yellowtail caught by Jan Du Plessis also of the Natal Black team and a 9.6kg Dorado caught by Luc Doffay from Zululand. The weather on Day 3 also allowed all teams to launch safely and the day ran to full time despite a persistent strong northeast wind which created cold and choppy conditions. Fewer fish were caught on day 3 but teams still managed to weigh in some respectable yellowfin. At the final prize-giving on Sunday night the junior teams were eager to see the final team placings. Eventually Southern Gauteng Yellow received the bronze medal for third overall with 94.9 points, Natal White received the silver medal for second overall with 194.3 points and Natal Black took the gold medal with a massive 507 points. The skippers who played a major part in the success of the tournament also competed for medals and it was Zululand skipper Shaun Aspden who took bronze medal, local skipper Chris Diedericks took silver medal and Watt4 skipper PJ Botha took the gold medal overall. Natal Black team captain Luke Nielsen took the Top Angler accolade for his 231.2 points. The tournament was a great success and provided a platform for junior development ahead of next year’s Junior Nationals which will be held at Shelly Beach Ski Boat Club in July 2018.

2017 MERCURY SKIBOAT FESTIVAL FINAL RESULTS

Click here to download the official results