Guinjata Shows Off

By Quentin Clark

Photos by Justin Klusener

IT’S been 11 years since a Rosebowl has been hosted in Moçambique, but Guinjata Bay, its ocean, weather, restaurants and community really came to the party delivering what was certainly from a fishing point of view the most productive Rosebowl hosted in the last five years.

Twenty-five boats from the Southern Gauteng zone entered the competition and made their way up to Guinjata in March for the greatly anticipated event.

Guinjata SFC got off to a great start on Monday morning in seas that could be described as slightly unpleasant. Johnny Boy, one of only four boats that launched, nominated for 37kg line class on Monday. They successfully released their first marlin just after 2pm. At the end of weigh in on Monday Guinjata were leading the field by quite a margin, mostly thanks to the marlin, but their gamefishing boats also came to the party with five boats in the Top Ten for the day.

On day one 43 fish were brought to the scales but the marlin released by Johnny Boy was the only billfish.

The weather improved considerably on Tuesday morning and the fleet had a relatively easy send-off. This would prove to be the only day that did not produce a marlin, but Guinjata managed to keep the top spot with four of their boats in the Top Five behind Fin Rider from TSC which took the day with their haul of three species.

The biggest fish on the day was a 17kg yellowfin tuna caught by Tarreck Byrne aboard Prime Zulu.

Day three belonged to Johnny Boy. After losing a marlin the previous day, they managed to bag two before 11am. Johno Joseph skippering Little Hooker also successfully released a marlin, helping the Makaira surge that was imminent. Guinjata’s gamefish boats also produced, and five excluding Johnny Boy were placed in the Top Ten for the day.

Marlin were proving to be where the points lay, and the two released by Johnny Boy on day three pushed the Guinjata team well ahead of the pack.

This was not missed by some of the other clubs, and the following morning would see almost all the Makaira boats, and several East Rand Boats start targeting marlin. Marlin Frenzy was about to begin.

Johno Joseph on Little Hooker took the day in a ding dong battle with Johnny Boy as they radioed in hookups and releases throughout the day. In the end Little Hooker had three and Johnny Boy two. Wessel Grimbeek on Maestro had an amazing day, calling in a double hook-up and successfully releasing both marlin. Two hours later he called in another double, but this time they unfortunately lost the fish. Attitude from Makaira and Silverback from East Rand also managed to release a marlin each taking the total to nine marlin for the day. The marlin released by Attitude made it four for Makaira for the day, pushing them beyond Guinjata into the lead.

Marlin caught off Johnny Boy.

Anton Lingenfelder was out in the marlin grounds with his 10kg setup and although he had three marlin on during the day he failed to get even one next to the boat and under control on the light tackle.

This day also produced 58 fish at the scales, the most for the week, with Wednesday having 56 and Monday and Tuesday 43 and 42 respectively.

Johnny Boy was the top boat of the 2020 Rosebowl.

Little Hooker came second.

Maestro came third.

Mike Correira with a beautiful cuda caught off Prime Zulu.

Friday produced only 31 gamefish, the least for the week, but by this time Guinjata had woken up as well and sent its fleet to the deep for marlin to try and wrest the lead back from Makaira.

The marlin hook-up calls came in regularly throughout the day, and once again Johan Eloff and his crew on Johnny Boy came through with the first marlin of the day. Guinjata had done the calculations and they needed to get two more marlin than Makaira to take the lead. It was touch and go all day, but Guinjata got a marlin from Johnny Boy, one from Shipfaced and the last marlin of the tournament from Prime Zulu, this on 15kg line for a few extra points.

Only one boat from Makaira got marlin on Friday but Trawling Sable dashed all hopes for Guinjata when they reported a double hook-up and release on marlin and shortly afterwards another release to take their boat total to three for the day.

Maestro and Silverback also released a marlin each for East Rand Boating, bringing the marlin total for the day to nine again and the total for the tournament to 21. It should be mentioned that marlin on Bucket List and Attitude were disqualified earlier for being caught beyond the competition rules.

The last day produced the only qualifying sailfish for the week, and was caught by brothers Collin and Mike Green on Reel Screamer. When they told us they’d caught it on the 600m mark it we realised why not many had been seen in the week. The only other was a close disqualification of Michael Jobert’s fish on Dreamcatcher.

FINAL POSITIONS Makaira club took the top spot (767.6 points), Guinjata came second (641.28 points) and East Rand Boating third (475.75 points).

Johnny Boy, with an amazing six marlin in the week, was pronounced Top Boat and also produced the Top Angler — Tristan McGregor who was the only double marlin angler to get some of the scarce bycatch. Little Hooker came second and Maestro third.

Tarreck Byrne and Mike Correira with a greater barracuda caught off Prime Zulu.

Four anglers got two marlin each — all three of Johnny Boy’s crew (Tristan McGregor, Bruce Swatton and Lynton Swatton), and Petrus Geldunhys on Little Hooker.

Top Lady was Annalene Grimbeek with an 8.3kg dorado.

One hundred ’cuda were brought to the scales, but it must be said that at least 200 more did not make it as they were undersize. The small rat ’cuda were in abundance and took anything you put in the water.

The fishing in the comp was electrifying, with this being the first competition I have been involved in over the last ten years where every boat brought fish to the gallows. As far as Rosebowls go, Guinjata produced 70 fish more than any of the previous comps in the past five years, proving once again what a superb venue this is. It may answer a few questions anglers have about the Chinese trawlers as well.