Offshore Classic 2017

Our local Gordons Bay Boat Angling Club's "Classic" is one of the major annual entries in the Southern African offshore angling calendar. Over the years it has drawn big name anglers and delivered record catches. This year's (29 April to 6 May) event, officially known as the "2017 Furuno Offshore Classic", was an occasion of note. With 154 anglers and a total prize pool of over 550.000 Rands - including a 'boat auction' which alone brought in R180.500 - pressure was on to produce. The weather forecast looked good and expectations were raised further when a 110+ Kg Tuna was caught the day before. And indeed the weather held and anglers produced...

Living the Good Life (photo via GBBAC)

"Top Gamefish" was a 132 Kg Bigeye Tuna caught by Jan-Hendrik Delport off the boat Artemis. The fish was first identified as a Southern Bluefin as is evident by the chalk board entry in the photo below. Second placed fish was a 123,5 Kg Bigeye caught by C. Freiss off the vessel Sea Mone. Places 3 and 4 were taken with yet more Bigeyes of 98,8 Kg and 88,7 Kg respectively. The Biggest Yellowfin this year, placed 5th overall, was landed by P. Groenewalt aboard Kokomo and took the scales to 84,6 Kg. The "Biggest Longfin" prize went to S. van Schoor with a 29 Kg fish caught off Magnuficent. Four other Longies of around 20 Kg were weighed in with the remainder from 13 Kg down. Top boats were Sea Mone followed by Kokomo, Artemis, Magnuficent and Blue Diamond. Main sponsors were Furuno, Carry Cat Marine and South Sea Suzuki.

Jan-Hendrik and his winning fish (photo via GBBAC)

Originally known as the "Broadbill Classic", the inaugural event was held in 1992 and won by local angling legend Mike Casserley with a 176,3 Kg Broadbill Swordfish caught off the boat Amberjack. The fish set a new South African 60 Kg line class record - one of "8 or 9" SA records in addition to two IGFA world records Mike has held during his illustrious angling career - which still stands today. With Erwin Bursik of Ski Boat Magazine fame among the competitors news spread fast and the event quickly became known as one of SA's premier offshore angling competitions. Two years later, in an event which included well known Protea offshore angler Nick de Kock and oceanographer Rudy Van der Elst among the entrants, Gavin Manthe was able to boat a 149,5 Kg Bigeye Tuna. Another SA record, in the 60 Kg line as well as All Tackle class, which still stands to this day and which is just 28 Kg shy of the current world Bigeye record.

Boats heading back to port to weigh in (photo via GBBAC)

In their infinite wisdom our government then (mid-nineties) decided to issue a number of "experimental" Swordfish long-line licenses. It took the long-liners approximately three years to totally decimate the resident Swordfish population with Tuna stocks, especially Bigeye and Southern Bluefin, also on the decline during that time. Mike tells me that the last Swordfish he encountered was one which he tagged in 1996. Thus the competition was eventually renamed "Offshore Classic" and has for most of the past few years been won with 80 - 90 Kg class Yellowfin Tuna. The size of the winning fish has been on a recent upward trend however, edging ever closer to that elusive 100 Kg mark which was eventually surpassed last year with a 105 Kg Yellowfin… And while our Swordfish are 'gone' it's good to see large Bigeye Tuna back in the prizes in 2017.

Spectators eager to see the catch (photo via GBBAC)

Many thanks to Mike Casserley, Leonie Penninkhof from Gordon's Bay Fishing Charters and all my friends at GBBAC for the information and well done to the anglers and organizers involved.