We are very pleased to announce the May winners for the two compos we had running during the month.
Follow Us On Twitter And Win
This competition was dead simple – all you had to do was follow us on twitter (@offthechartZA). Then we randomly selected a follower using a cool online tool called twitrand – the random selection can be seen on their site.
The winner was @kayakfishingsa – CONGRATS!! We will be sending you a DVD boxset of OFF THE CHART season 1 as well as an official OFF THE CHART T-shirt. Winning stuff this cool has never been easier! We will be running the same compo again soon, so stay posted!
Upload A Catch And Win
We started up our monthly competition again, but this time with a twist! This time you had to upload a picture of your catch. It didn’t have to be the biggest catch or even the best picture. It just needs to be the most popular. That means if you get all your mates to go online and vote for your picture, then you have a really good chance of winning. And it is well worth it seeing what the prizes are:
Garmin Fishfinder 90 – courtesy of Resolution Health!!
JEEP clothing hamper worth R1000
Basil Manning Voucher worth R1000
And there is also a MAJOR travel prize coming at the end of the year that we will post more details about in the near future.
May 2010′s winner is Michael Setterberg with 121 votes and a very cool pic of a 24kg GT he caught on his fishing ski:
Big thanks to our sponsors:
Resolution Health
JEEP clothing
Basil Manning
Congrats to our 2 winners. We will be in touch soon! Please tell your mates about the upload a catch competition, because the June competition has started!! Go now and UPLOAD YOUR CATCH! It couldn’t be easier to win awesome prizes!!!
One of the greatest attractions to angling is that no two trips are ever the same and each outing brings about its own set of challenges and rewards. After having the greatest Dorado “lure fishing” I’ve ever experienced on our first day at Fujairah, I had set my mind to exploring some of the other opportunities that this unique fishery had to offer. Our guide and good friend FC had explained that often the fish around the tankers congregate in layers, each species on a different level. Having never been much of a diver, I haven’t seen much of this first hand but I’ve been told that it’s quite common.
The “tanker fishing” was very different to anything I’d ever fished before and we found that the species not only congregated in layers, but different species occupied different places along the side of the tanker as well. Basically, this is what we found; Dorado were at the bow and on the surface, rainbow runner were underneath them and appeared to be anywhere from the bow to the middle and rather difficult to catch. Eastern Little Tuna were below the Rainbow Runner and also seemed to be more in the middle. Under all of that the Yellowfin Tuna patrolled, also toward the bow and usually about 30m below the surface. On the stern, right under the giant propellers lived the Greater Barracuda, not the monsters of the Musandam, but enough to tear your Dropshot plastics to pieces and steal a few jig heads in the process.
After the hectic Plug fishing the day before, I had decided to put my drop-shotting skills into practice. The first challenge was getting the plastics through the Dorado. Those speedy beauties have eyes like a hawk, can track your cast in an almost psychic manner and seem to be there the second your lure hits the water. Hooking Dorado isn’t normally a problem on a fishing trip, but when you’re trying to catch what roams beneath them, they can become a little irritating. But usually after you’ve hooked a couple they wise up and let your drop pass safely through to the depths. I was fishing with 2 outfits; the one was a Shimano Aerocast 8ft with a Shimano Sustain 4000 and the other was a Shimano Trevala and a Shimano Twinpower 5000SW. The latter was definitely my weapon of choice, but as luck would have it my first encounter with the Fujairah Yellowfin came on the Aerocast outfit. Hearing that “Shimano music” of the little reel screaming in protest as a tuna raced toward the open ocean was a sure way to get my heart pumping early in the morning. It’s what keeps all anglers coming back for more.
Once we found where the Yellowfin were holding it was a simple case of letting out 40m of line at the bow of the ship, work your drop shot for a few meters and then hold on tight. Nothing prepares you for that violent strike and each one seems to catch you off guard. It’s what offshore drop-shotting is all about. The hard fight that follows reminds you why tuna are regarded as one of the oceans great warriors and even the small ones can really work you, especially if you’re using light tackle. Colours didn’t seem to have a major impact although I found translucent colours like the Riptide Opening Night very effective especially with a pink Astro Jig head. Each drift provided hectic battles with various species, from Dorado and Yellowfin to Bonnies and Rainbow Runners and Rich even managed to snag a Prodigal Son, much to my dismay.
It was a great lesson in summing up the situation and reaping the rewards. Having very competent anglers by your side makes figuring out the pattern a whole lot easier and taking note of what others are doing (especially if it’s working) will make you a much better angler. So here’s to tight lines in the future…
We just got back from a little piece of heaven called Pomene. Unfortunately the weather did not play the game and the fishing was really hard! That being said we still had some good fun on the light tackle in the estuary! It’s just really cool being out there in the middle of nowhere on the water.
Barry In Pomene
We met some great local people who showed us how they catch fish the simple old-school way.
A local named Joseph
It was an amazing adventure and well worth the long haul up there. Pomene lodge was awesome with good food and cold beer!
We are currently (from 13 – 20 May 2010) on location at a new spot doing some filming for a future OFF THE CHART episode. This is just a short note to let you know what we are going to try and catch up there!! We will let you know later where this beautiful piece of paradise is!! For now… its a secret!
We are going to try and catch shoaling GT’s from the side that congregate around estuaries around this time of year to feed on the spawning Perch. We’ll also target a few pelagic species that roam the offshore reefs!!
We’ll let you know how it went with a few images hopefully very soon, watch the series as the year unfolds to find out where!
Watch out for the 4th episode of OFF THE CHART Adventure fishing season 2 on Supersport 1 on Thursday night at 18h00:
“Something tasty if you can catch it!”
In this episode we take a look at the ins and outs of catching Long Tail Tuna! This particular species of Tuna makes for the best tasting Sashimi by far!! The trouble is that it is extremely sharp and not the easiest to hook. We experiment with the different ways one can land these fish and then also have a good long go at the tried and tested method of continually steaming up to a shoal and throwing directly into the feeding frenzy and hopefully get the hook up. Bad ratio but we get our share and it is bitter sweet indeed!!!
“Personally for me, these fish were a nightmare the first trip and I didn’t even catch one. After hooking up on numerous occasions and getting burnt off or the hooks pulling, I still didn’t come right! I had to wait one whole year before I would finally get my Mumbak AF!!” – Richard
So catch the show on Thursday night, and until then, here are some pics to wet the appetite!
More prizes, more prizes and now again… more prizes!!! It seems like we are giving away so much. First we offered free DVD boxsets and T-shirts to the first 100 newsletter subscribers, then we started our new monthly competition where you can win a Garmin fishfinder, and now we are giving away more stuff! But this time it’s by far the easiest to enter. All you need to do is….
We will ship a DVD boxset of OFF THE CHART Adventure Fishing season 1 and a T-shirt to the winner… NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE IN THE WORLD…and did we mention how much it will cost you to enter, win and have the prize delivered worldwide? ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!!
We will determine the winner randomly with http://twitrand.com/ on the 28th May 2010, so don’t delay…FOLLOW US NOW!!!
We are about to launch the competition section of our website. It’s a very simple idea : Upload a picture or your catch and get your friends and family to vote on it. We want to find the biggest catches out there!
Here is what you need to do:
You need to register on the site to upload your catches and qualify for the prizes. If you are already a member then login and head on over to the Upload A Catch page.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
