 ON YOUR MARX! — 2009 Mercury OET Bill and Gamefish Tournament — A 300.2kg black marlin wins the race — By Erwin Bursik
FROM the sublime to the ridiculous is what the weather inflicted on the year-end Mercury OET Bill- and Gamefish Tournament. Mother Nature hurled her wrath on Sodwana Bay during the weekend preceding the Monday November 9th start, and the beastly easterly, with its sustained power, put paid to the first day’s fishing. At 7.30am the weather committee called off the fishing for the day when the few craft that had ventured out reported unfishable conditions.
Tuesday was a “kyk weer” and another hard day on the beach was enforced.
Then came the break. Despite all the fancy weather services predicting otherwise, we had three very pleasant fishing days that allowed all the boats to fish the extended-hour days.
Now in its 32nd year, the OET boasted the full complement of craft permitted in terms of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife regulations. Each year this formidable array of craft seems to get bigger and better. It always gives me great pleasure to watch the daily launch, mentally revisiting the early 1980s when 30 craft lined up herringbone-style on the beach for the big marlin tournaments of that period.
Back then they used rubber rollers to manually push the craft from their beach parking spots to the sea at Jesser Point. It’s very interesting to compare the style, size and quality of the craft of that period with those of today, and the comparison of methods of launching and retrieving boats also gives one food for thought. I think back to the blood, sweat and tears, along with raised hackles and stress levels, as boats were manhandled up the beach under the hot, early afternoon sun, compared to today’s crews who stand aside, sipping beer, while their huge craft are mechanically winched up the beach.
What next? Where to from now? What will this scene look like in 20 years’ time?
Read the full story in the January/February 2010 issue of SKI-BOAT.
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