TIGER TALES

2023 Sodwana Hengelklub Tigerfish Bonanza

By Erwin Bursik

JUST after 4am on Friday,22 September 2023, the early arrivals at the slipway into Jozini Dam began to line up as a queue of vehicles towing boats began launching into the pitch blackness of this immense stretch of water.

A little while later all 192 boats and 683 anglers were eagerly awaiting the 06h00 parachute flare send-off to mark the start of this year’s Tigerfish Bonanza, hosted by Sodwana Hengelklub of Pongola.

As 6am approached, the boats jockeyed for position around the yellowflagged control boats, and anglers watched the rising of the starter’s outstretched flare hand as the seconds counted down.

Within seconds of the flare leaving its holder, the roar of almost 400 outboard motors shattered the early morning tranquility as the 2023 fleet of craft jumped onto the plane.The game was on!

Whispers of tigers frequenting the area upriver towards the railway bridge where the Pongola River enters the dam resulted in many skippers immediately heading in that direction at full speed.

With the sun just peeking over the Lebombo mountains, the sensory overload of seeing the spray and hearing the roar of well over 100 boats racing around the headland and up the river was truly something that only those involved could fully appreciate.

Soon afterwards, the waters of Jozini Dam calmed down as boats settled in their chosen positions to start hunting tigers.With tranquility restored, the anglers got busy, all keeping one ear tuned to listen out for updates from the mobile phone app created to record and disseminate catch information during the event.

Fortunately it wasn’t long before the tigerfish of Jozini recovered from the morning’s rude awakening and started prowling around for breakfast.

The rules stipulated a 400mm minimum length for fish to count, and it seemed those were in plentiful supply.

As EricJames, the digital expert on Mr SKI-BOAT, began to relay the first reports coming through, we felt the pressure mounting.Eventually John Frankiskos landed our first tiger over 400mm and we could take solace in at least being on the leaderboard.

This new app, developed and perfected by KeepNet SA and used by other angling competitions as well, would supposedly overcome the problems experienced by organisers over the last couple of years.

Indeed it did, and it was very interesting being able to follow the continuously updated leaderboard and see which anglers were catching fish.We carefully scrutinised all the accompanying photographs of tigerfish being measured to assess our competition.

Of course this can also be an extremely frustrating exercise when one’s own team is not producing!

Weather-wise, this year we had excellent weather with a slight to moderate north-easterly wind prevailing on both fishing days, making fishing both practical and comfortable.

This extremely popular event that draws a huge attendance has been in existence since the mid-1990s and I have personally fished it since 2001 when it was largely attended by inland water anglers.Nowadays all boats are welcome, and the vast majority are ski-boats that fish both out at sea as well as on Jozini.

For this year’s event the Sodwana Hengelklub organising committee managed to acquire a substantial number of prizes that included a R100000 first prize for the overall largest measured fish of the tournament, and second prize an aluminium craft with a Yamaha motor.The top 15 measured tigerfish all won prizes for their respective anglers.

The 2023 committee excelled themselves with the overall highly sophisticated stage design and digital portrayals of the sponsors supporting this event, providing an overwhelming display of support to those companies and individuals who make this event possible.

A huge thank you on behalf of all the sponsors goes to Simeon van Heerden and his committee for going the extra mile with regard to sponsor recognition.

While fishing conditions out on Jozini Dam were very good,and 334 tigerfish in excess of 400mm were recorded,the big tigers were hard to find.Despite that, on day one a big fish of 660mm was caught by Sunel Sonnekus and that topped the leader board for the first day.

With another day of fishing still to go,the competition was wide open and catching a fish bigger than 66cm was definitely possible.The next day Sunel’s fish was unceremoniously removed from top of the board by three longer tigerfish.The biggest of these was Mia Tinkhof’s 670mm tiger, followed by Nicholas Gumbi’s 665mm fish.These fish were estimated to weigh between 4.6kg and 5kg.

I must also mention the process anglers had to go through when catching a measurable fish, and give credit to the organisers for making sure all the tigers were released in good condition.

After a tenacious fight, someone onboard had to video as we quickly placed the caught tiger on the provided KeepNet length mat to measure it, and then carry on recording to show the fish released and swimming away.These videos were then uploaded on the app to create the leaderboard.

We found it a lot more convenient to stay at our selected “honey hole”and release the tigerfish we caught rather than rushing to a weigh station to weigh them as we have done for so many years.

This is a win-win situation for both the tigers and the team.It puts far less stress on the fish and saves the team from having to up anchor and take a possibly long run to a weigh station, all the while doing one’s level best to keep the fish alive and strong enough to swim away after officially being weighed.It also saves fuel and time and the frustration of returning to “your” spot only to see another boat settled over your “honey hole”.

Time on the water is always the best,but there was another aspect of this event that really warmed my heart. With so many teams camped on Sodwana Hengelklub’s property very close to the Golela Border Post,whenever we walked from our chalet to the huge marquee it felt like the early days of Sodwana when we all camped there during the marlin comps.

I relished the sight of so many full campsites,the smell of braais underway,the linking of boat names to the respective teams,and the camaraderie of greeting the anglers.Then there was the gauntlet I had to run,where it was almost impossible to escape having ’n stuk boerewors or a dop and often a chat about the day’s events with every angler I greeted!

What a wonderful experience,and one I really miss at Sodwana.These days when you’re marlin fishing everyone is in fancy accommodation and you virtually need an official invitation to “kuier”.

As I intimated earlier,the final prize giving was very slick and sophisticated, and Simeon and his team got through the speeches and prize awarding at a good pace without depriving those who had won from having their moment of glory to be photographed and to absorb the excitement and glory of their achievements.

From us on Mr SKI-BOAT, a huge thank you for a wonderful competition and an exciting few days of the 2023 Tigerfish Bonanza.Although we didn’t place as high up as we wanted to, we were happy to be 19th out of 192 boats and we’ll definitely see you there again in 2024.