Freedivers Bluewater Gamefish Challenge 2011

The Comp
There were a few delays on the way down to the beach, which was all meant to happen l guess. The worst delay of all, which turned out to be to my advantage, was that our top man had never driven a boat. I chose to stay on the boat with him and teach him how to drive as we were on the super cat, which is a difficult boat for a beginner to handle.

The Area
The area is from the sanctuary beacon twenty odd kilometres south of Sodwana to the Mozambique border roughly seventy kilometres north of Sodwana. This area is full of reefs from backline to very deep water and provides the boat diver with many great spearfishing opportunities. Some classic spots are Gotham, Canyon, Elusive, Seven Mile, Nine Mile, Mbibi, Island Rock and Red Sands to name but a few.

Fish Species
With warm clean tropical seas the gamefish are in abundance and a diver can expect to encounter the following types of fish. King mackerel, queen mackerel, sailfish, marlin, barracuda, tropicals, cobia, green jobfish, kingfish, tuna, wahoo. The whole area is alive with reef fish, turtles, rays and plenty of sharks and makes for great diving even when not shooting gamefish.

Competition Day
The weather leading up to the comp was not ideal with a strong southerly front sweeping through the area on Thursday. This made for clean seas but big surf that made some divers opt out of the comp. This was to their dis-advantage as conditions were ideal on the day with 24.5 degree water and very good viz. Unfortunately there was not much current and this can have an impact on the gamefish in this area. Most boats went north to elusive and even further but most divers found it a scratch to locate decent gamefish. The full results are listed below with the hard luck story being of a big marlin that circled a boat twice before swimming away with one of the divers just exiting the water as the marlin arrived on the scene.

Observations
Once again a great comp with coral divers being the ideal location for hosting such an event. Good food, great service and fantastic location. The comp attracting a good bunch of regular supporters who enjoy the competitive nature of the comp aswell as the relaxed atmosphere of coral divers. Next years comp is on the 5 May 2012 and we hope to welcome back our regular supporters from this year again. Safe diving john little.

RESULTS 2011

1ST. DANE SOLOMAN   20KG CUDA  -  BIGGEST FISH
2ND. LLOYD HENDRY  8.3KG CUDA, 3.4KG TROPICAL  -  BIGGEST BAG
3RD. ANDREW JONES  15KG CUDA  - 2ND BIGGEST FISH
4TH. IAIN EWING  CUDA 6.6KG, KINGIE 3.0KG  - 2ND BIGGEST BAG
5TH. JOHN LITTLE  CUDA 8.2KG  - 3RD BIGGEST FISH
6TH. SCOTTVOULES  KAAKAP 4.4KG, CUDA 3.8KG  - 3RD BIGGEST BAG
7TH. ADRIAN KILIN  CUDA 7.7KG  -  4TH BIGGEST FISH
8TH. ALAN HEYDORN  CUDA 4.OKG, SEAPIKE 3.6KG  -  4TH BIGGEST BAG
9TH. JARVIS MORRIS  CUDA 6.7KG  -  5TH BIGGEST FISH
10TH. TERRY DEAN  SNOEK 6.2KG  -  6TH BIGGEST FISH
11TH. CRAIG HARPER  KAAKAP 6.2KG  -  7TH BIGGEST FISH
12TH. EBEN LOUW  CUDA 5.9KG  -  8TH BIGGEST FISH
13TH ALISTAIR LOUW  TROPICAL 4.5KG  -  9TH BIGGEST FISH
14TH. DAVE PACKER  TROPICAL 4.4KG  -  10TH BIGGEST FISH
15TH. GAVIN PENHALL  CUDA 4.2KG  -  11TH BIGGEST FISH
16TH. JOHAN JACOBS  TROPICAL 4.0KG  -  12TH BIGGEST FISH
17TH. CLIVE HOCKLY  CUDA 3.3KG  -  13TH BIGGEST FISH
18TH. LANCE WYLY  TROPICAL 3.2KG  -  14TH BIGGEST FISH