TUNA MASTERS

2018 Atlantic Boat Club Offshore Championship

(Published in the July 2018 issue of Ski-Boat magazine)

Article by Kirsten Veenstra, photos by Sean Todd

THE Atlantic Boat Club in Hout Bay, Cape Town, hosted the inaugural Tuna Masters Invitational Offshore Championship during the week of 16 to 21 April 2018. Located in picturesque Hout Bay, the Club has often been referred to as the “home of offshore tuna fishing”. Hout Bay Harbour is conveniently centrally located to get to the fishing waters, whether the fish be in the north, the west or down at the canyon in the south. Typically in the April to June offshore fishing period, the big yellowfin tuna are often more prevalent in the west and this year was no exception.
With regular catches of yellowfin tuna weighing more than 80kg, the Tuna Masters boated some world-class. The event is a great addition to the Cape sport fishing calendar, along with the Two Oceans Tuna Derby which has been held annually during early November for the past 20 years.
The Tuna Masters has a unique format where an Elite Division fishing on 10- and 15kg line was held alongside the local sports anglers fishing 37kg lines.
This year’s inaugural event saw 17 boats competing and three days of great fishing. The scoring changed from one fishing day to the next, making for nailbiting excitement. Sponsors Raymarine Electronics, Constantiaberg Landrover, Magsons Marine and Seaport Supply Cape Town came on board to contribute to a really great event.
Despite the two beautiful yellowfin of 91kg caught by the anglers aboard Tuna Cat-Cha, it was the consistent daily aggregate achieved by the team aboard Seriola which made them top boat. Tuna Cat-Cha came in second overall with Kazkazi in third place. Simon Walker and Andrew Fraser fishing on Tuna Cat-Cha each caught a 91kg yellowfin and won the prize for the heaviest fish on a 37kg line.
Among the Elite anglers, top honours went to the team aboard Kraken, with the Atlantic Boat Club old boys of Gerard van Bonde, Kevin Hodgson, Dale Nicholay and Andre de Jager just beating the current SADSAA Tuna Nationals team of Chris Pike, Marius Coetzee and Delano Goldberg who were fishing with Nish Ebrahim on his new Magnum 2750, Monish. Frank Scholtz — fishing on Bluwater with Rian Raubenheimer, Patrick Christodolou and Dawie van Zyl — caught the heaviest tuna in the Elite Division, a magnificent 68.8kg fish.
This highly successful event will be a permanent feature on the Western Cape sport fishing calendar.
To find out more, email <info@atlanticboatclub.co.za> or visit the Atlantic Boat Club website on <www.atlanticboatclub.co.za>.

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