MARLIN EXCITEMENT AT GUINJATA

The week of the annual Guinjata fishing competition – from 3 to 7 June - started with a blowout on the first day leaving us with only 4 days to fish. Our game plan was to target marlin every day of the competition and to try and get another species to double up on the 80 points we got for a marlin successfully released. Jumbo Swart, Jannie Erasmus, Hannes Smith and skipper of Master Jack, Jakkie Massyn. I have fished this competition for the past 15 years and our best position was 8th place after hooking up on 12 sailfish, releasing 3. Last year with 2 days being a blowout, we started the last day with zero points. We decided to go straight out to deep water looking for a marlin and managed to get the biggest dorado of the competition, an 18,2kg bull dorado caught by Jannie Erasmus, and also released a black marlin earning us 11th place. This year we started on the Tuesday. With the sea still rough and a south wind pumping we decided to go south trolling the shallow reefs to try and get any game fish trolling cona heads, Islander lures and one Pakula lure. We also had a variety of Rapala lures in the water. Unfortunately, the water was green close to shore, and after about 3 hours we had no luck so decided to go deeper until we reached the blue water. This turned out to be a good choice as we hooked up to a black marlin in 250 meters. I was in the chair and we released a ± 80kg black marlin. This was the first marlin of my life. We immediately went back to the shallow water. We drifted bonnies as bait and jigged to try to get another specie, unfortunately, without any success. This marlin was the first marlin released in the competition and we had this prize in the bag. The author, Hannes Smith showing his first ever marlin. Hannes received his prize for the first marlin released in the competition. On Wednesday we decided to go straight out north to the deep blue water to see if we could get a marlin early. We felt that the odds were good to also get a sailfish, yellowfin tuna, wahoo or a dorado. We decided only to troll with conas, this enabled us to pull the lures at a higher speed covering a bigger area. We had our first hookup in 350-meter water, but unfortunately lost the marlin. Soon after this we were hooked up on a second marlin only to drop this fish as well. We felt that the third time we might get lucky and so it was, as within half an hour we were hooked up on another black marlin. Jannie Erasmus was in the chair and we released a ± 120kg black marlin. Jannie Erasmus in the fighting chair. A ± 120kg black marlin caught and released by Jannie. Our game plan did not change and on Thursday we again went out to deep water, and after trolling for about 5 hours we hooked up to a blue marlin that almost spooled the 130-pound reel by the time we cleared the deck. It was Jumbo Swart’s turn in the chair. We realized that we had a big fish on the line that gave us a tremendous fight, but eventually when we had the fish next to the boat saw that it was only hooked in top of the bill. We fortunately never changed our angle on the fish and kept it on the starboard side. The hook was pulled out with two fingers after we had the bill in hand, and we had successfully released a big blue marlin. A blue marlin caught and released by Jumbo. On Friday morning we decided to follow our game plan again and headed out to the deep water. We realized that time was against us as the weigh-in closed an hour earlier on the last day. The pressure was on and we knew that a fourth marlin in four consecutive days would be a new record for any offshore competition fished in SA and Mozambique. We were constantly asked by fellow anglers if we would be able to do it, and on the beach in the morning, we were wished the best of luck from many other anglers. The boat Johnny Boy also released a marlin for the week and Dad’s Dream a sailfish. Just after 10:00 we had a strike but the hook did not set. Then we saw the marlin coming back for a second time and again the hook did not set, but just as we were about to turn the boat around the marlin struck again. This time it was a perfect hook up! I was in the fighting chair again for my second marlin of the week. The fish gave a spectacular show, tail walking all over the beautiful blue water of Mozambique. The fish quickly took about 800 meters of the 130-pound line on the reel and we had to get closer to the fish to get some line on the reel, otherwise we could lose it and eventually we were able to release the ± 150kg black marlin. The ghillie, Chuva holding the black marlin caught by Hannes on the fourth day, two marlin caught by Hannes in 4 day's fishing! We decided that we had enough time to try for another marlin as Johnny Boy and Little Hooker were also fighting marlins. We decided to stay in the area where we had hooked the marlin, and after 20 minutes we were hooked up to another marlin, only to drop the fish after a short fight with Jannie Erasmus in the chair. Our positions during the week: Tuesday – 3rd place, Wednesday – 4th place, Thursday – 3rd and Friday – 2nd place. Any fish of 4kg on any two other days would have put us in #1 spot. Well done and congrats to Paul Du Toit and team Uli Buli on their 1st place. A very big thanks to Status Trucks and all the other sponsors and the committee for a fantastic competition. Team Master Jack has put up a prize of R50 000 for next year for any boat that catches 4 marlin in 4 days or 5 marlin in 5 days! I’ve won the prize for the first marlin released and was also top angler for catching two marlin in 4 days. Next year’s competition will be a fierce one between the marlin hunters and the jigging junkies. We hope to see a lot more boats out in the deep water, looking for that one marlin that will change an angler’s life forever. We stayed in Guinjata Bay at Seabound Guest House who offers self-catering units. Contact Ralph and Celeste Jones at +258 84 493 2099. Jakkie Massyn, owner of the boat Master Jack, runs a guest house and a fishing charter business in Tofo and recounts notable catches by his guest anglers. 1. The boats Master Jack (Jakkie Massyn) and Attitude (Andries Marx) had 13 hook-ups in 5 days releasing 7 marlin between the two boats;2. A 9-hour 55 minutes fight with a grander of Tofo in 600-meter water earlier this year but losing the monster at 21:00 at night; 3. Uncle Jannie Malherbe who rowed the Berg River marathon 46 times caught his first marlin at the age of 80 years in Tofo. For more info contact: Casa Do Mar – Tofo Mozambique: +258 84 027 9048 | info@casadomar-gh.com https://casadomar-gh.com/ Daphne Massyn +27 82 3257 729