The Port Vila Game Fishing Club, Tusker Game Fish Classic was held on the 28th & 29th of November 2009 and was run out of the Anchor Inn with a total of 19 boats and 54 anglers. It was also great to see many international anglers coming from Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia to experience some great Blue Marlin fishing. Start fishing on Saturday was at 7am after a spectacular shot gun start in Port Vila Harbour. The seas were great for the weekend with 10-15 knots and seas to 1-1.5 metres.
Nevagivups team this year consisted of Rodney & Gayle McPhee, Michelle and our Skipper Captain Charles Wheeler. Unfortunately this year saw Rodney spending the whole weekend in bed with a mysterious illness so this left the girls to do battle with the rest of the field. Saturday saw Nevagivup tagging and releasing two Blue Marlin on 15Kg line class after raising four Blues for the day. Michelle encountered a nice 140Kg Blue Marlin and after an hour the fish was released. In between the next Blue, Gayle landed a nice Mahi Mahi, then we were pulling our hair out with a small Blue that just wouldn’t hook up, he took the lure 5 times before he gave up. Then half an hour later, Michelle was onto another Blue, after a 10 minute fight a small Blue around the 60Kg mark was tagged and released. After being on the troll again, Gayle hooked up to a nice Blue around the 100kg mark, after an hour into the battle with the fish just out of tagging range, the line gave way, bugger! What a great days fishing though, this put Nevagivup into the lead with V-Factor in second place. There was a total of 4 Blue Marlin tagged and released for Saturday. There was also a great range of other species bought to the weigh station as well.
Sunday morning saw the fleet head out early as start fishing was at 6am, the seas were calm and we were excited to get amoungst the fish again. As it always goes, we couldn’t even raise a fish for love or money! V-Factor was on fire on Sunday and tagged 2 Blue Marlin on 15Kg. It was neck and neck with two hours left of fishing so Charles decided that we need another species to get us over the line as there was only 1Kg separating 1st and 2nd. Gayle landed a nice 10Kg Wahoo that would have done the job but V- Factor could do no wrong and ended up with their second fish for the day. There was a total of 8 Blues tagged and released on Sunday.
Sunday evening saw the presentation held at the Anchor Inn with the last man standing draw and the presentations. The end results were great for the girls; Michelle took out Champion Angler overall (2nd year running), Champion Female Angler (2nd year running), Gayle with best Wahoo for the tournament and Charles took home Champion Skipper (3rd year running), not a bad effort from the girls and many thanks must go to our Deck Hand Andrew who did a wonderful job.
If you are after a great weekend of fishing and social fun, then you better get in early for next year as I’m sure that it will be bigger and better than this year!