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The last day, we all turned up on time and promptly as we went even earlier today, in fact we were the first boat to leave the marina
We started to head out to the fishing ground, which turned out to be about 10 to 15 miles North West of St Georges. Why change a winning formula.
We had a better day of it today, our team had now got to know each other better and we all got on famously, we were all keen to give it our best shot and had been talking to other anglers the previous day trying to understand our short comings.
Just before noon, Ziggy hit into a Dorado, which promptly jumped out of the water by about 6 feet and made a spectacular site, he was in the fighting chair under control and enjoying every minute. Whist Ziggy was mid way through fighting his fish, my reel exploded and line started to peel off we were into a double hook up, again another Dorado.
Kevin & Ziggy with the day's Dorado catch
Both fish were successfully landed onto the boat and at the first opportunity both Ziggy and I congratulated each other.
Shortly after noon it was Ferdinand’s reel started to scream (wonderful sound) and it became very clear right from the beginning that this was a much bigger fish. After a 20 minute battle the fish had been brought to the side and photographed then released. It was a sail fish at last and we were on the point’s scoreboard, which was a big relief to the skipper, but did nothing to improve his communication skills with his customers.
Ferdinand reeling in the Sailfish
Sailfish alongside the boat
The day ended with a meal and the prize giving ceremony at the yacht club, with Hard Play 2 taking the first prize, as it did last year, so well done guys and see if you can make it three in a row next year.
Team Yes Aye at the Awards Dinner
Hard Play II the Tournament winners
The lay day was spent at the Grenada Yacht Club, were several local restaurants and hotels had a stand, which they would present there signature dish from the kitchens for the fishermen to try, what a good idea and the food was plentiful and excellent, oh yes and the local breweries had provided free beer and rum, all this starting around 12.00 in the afternoon.
Our team was doing well on the eating and drinking, at last something we can take part in!
We mixed with the other teams and crews and a very good time was had by all, the Jamaican team were the life and sole of the party, but you needed a good few beers to begin to translate what they are saying and it seemed to work, especially drinking the rum.
We all meet at the boat for 6.30 start to get underway to our fishing grounds, the skipper was very quite barely talking to anyone on arrival, he must be keen to get underway and make amends for yesterday, I know I was!
We started to head out to the fishing ground, which turned out to be about 10 to 15 miles North West of St Georges. The day was very sunny, the sky was blue and the wind was about 12 knots, so calm seas, perfect conditions! (dajavou)
We went to exactly the same fishing place as the following day, at times on the following day we could see other boats, which were much further south than we were and after a short while we were on our own no other boats in sight, listening to the VHF radio of other anglers who were hooking up, having strikes, fighting fish and ultimately releasing their catch and scouring points in the process.
The same routine again, half strikes and missed hook up’s with ‘Sail Fish’, how does he (he being the skipper) know that they are ‘Sail Fish’ must be experience.
We get a couple of ‘Sail Fish Strikes’, which turn out to be small Barracuda, which were successfully landed on the boat, we caught three small Barracuda in total for our days catch, again no points awarded for this, but maybe they should have been as these fish could imitate ‘Sail Fish’ perfectly. The highlight for the day was when we got a strike and the skipper thought one of us had missed it, were upon he would come out with no end of verbal abuse for missing, yes you guessed it, a ‘Sail Fish’, only to land a small Barracuda, I congratulated the skipper by commenting it was nice to see how enthusiastic he was.
Back to base, the next day was a lay day, were no fishing was to take part and all the crews and fishermen were to take it easy have a chat about the fishing over a few cold ones.
A 5.00 O’clock start on the boat to get up and get ready for the competition, luckily for me, we were already based in the lagoon in St Georges, which is short dingy ride to the yacht club were our boat YesAye is moored and the rest of the fishing fleet.
The start today included a parade of the boats around the caranage and then onto the start line, were at 7.00 o’clock a count down was commenced to start the event and get all the boats were under way, which was a very impressive site.
Bimini start - all boats motoring off from the start line
Bimini start
We started to head out to the fishing ground, which turned out to be about 10 to 15 miles North West of St Georges. The day was very sunny, the sky was blue and the wind was about 12 knots, so calm seas, perfect conditions!
Bimini start
All the fishing tackle was supplied by the skipper and the bait and setup was done by Alby who was the local hired mate on ‘YesAye’. After about a 30 minute journey we were putting out the lures on the back of the boat to start our trolling activites.
Throughout the day you could hear on the VHF radio how the other boats were doing as they were required by the rules to call in to the control centre any activity they had encountered.
We had a number of half strikes, which is that the bait has been taken by a fish, but not wholly committing itself, plus most of us on the were beginners to saltwater sports fishing. The skipper had briefed us on what action we should take should we get a strike on our designated rod. The instructions were vague to say the least and I resorted to talking to Ferdinand who had clearly done this before.
The day continued for us in frustration as we were getting hits on the lures but could not get hooked up with the fish.
The only real opportunity came when Ziggy’s rod and reel leapt into life screaming of line at an incredible rate, by the time we had got Ziggy to the fighting chair to tackle the fish it had already spit the hook out.
The day ended with one Wahoo caught by myself and no points for YesAye and the skipper Gary Clifford, who was very disappointed with our performance and resorted to swearing at his customers throughout the day when one of us would miss a ‘sail fish strike’. Ziggy had ideas that he was wearing the wrong hat and he would change it the following day.
Kevin's Wahoo, the only catch of the day
Well we have signed up for the Billfish tournament and our boat is called “YESAYE” with skipper Gary Clifford, who is one of the local boats operating out of St. Georges.
We emailed Gary with our request to join his current team of anglers and after a short wait, we had a reply and I would be the last angler. The competition is run every year with boats arriving from some of the other local islands, Trinidad, Tobago, St Lucia, St Vincent and even a team from Jamaica.
A total of 45 boats have signed up for the event, our boat was currently out at sea getting in some practice with Karin and Ferdinand from Germany, who we meet when they arrived back from there trip.
After paying our entrance fee in the Grenada Yacht Club, we were introduced to another one of our fellow anglers, who is from the UK, Liverpool and his name as he likes to be know is ‘Ziggy’, who turns out is on an extended holiday here in Grenada and like me thought it would be fun and a good idea to take part in the competition.
We were all introduced and were given brief instructions on what we should do the following morning, which was turn up early at the boat ready for departure.
