Sportswave fishing success at Ponta

This event is currently the biggest jetski fishing competition in the world.

East Coast Radio Sportswave presenter and reporter, Alain Tardin, competed at Ponta and won.

Let me allow Alain to tell you the rest of the story...

Well, after my 12-2am show on Sunday, I hit the road with my girlfriend, Nordika Nel, and headed for the Kosi Bay border. I was going to have a nap before we left, but the excitement of getting to Ponta do Ouro to get some fishing in before the comp overcame the tiredness.

After a drive of around 4-and-a-half hours, we finally arrived at the border. The South African side is nice and painless, but once you hit the Mozambique side things get complicated.

Once we got through several officials searching the car, we were well on our way through the sand dunes to what was going to be our home base for the competition. Brendan and Kirk from GoFish were kind enough to put us up with them in their villa which was awesome. The airconditioned rooms are life changing after a hot day on the beach.

So we unpacked and I was eager to test out my new fishing machine. The guys from Racetech Yamaha were amazing in sponsoring me one of their new Yamaha Waverunner Fx1800s. It is complete with every fishing bell and whistle possible.

We headed out for a quick practice session and shortly after launching came across a pod of dolphins that were playing with the ski for a good couple of minutes. It was awesome to see them so close in such clear water. Really amazing animals to watch in their natural habitat.

We headed a little deeper and put out some lines. We were rewarded shortly after with a nice size couta which was unfortunately the last one we saw!

Day 1 had kicked off and after a quick and easy launch we made our way to the popular Pinnacles spot where Nordika managed to get stuck into not 1 but 2 very nice size yellowfin tuna in the 30-35kg region. She followed these up with another 2 nice size yellowfin but unfortunately only 2 of each species is allowed to be counted. I, on the other hand, lost a nice wahoo and landed a smaller yellowfin. The rest of our day was pretty quiet and frustrating as everything we hooked seemed to get taken by the local sharks.

Day 2 saw us determined to get as many points as we could, having being taxed so badly by the sharks on the first day. Once again we got stuck into some nice yellowfin and kingfish, only to have a repeat of day one by fighting for our catches with the local taxman.

It seemed as if we weren’t the only ones, as many of the anglers were losing lure after lure to the taxman. This becomes a very costly and frustrating exercise - but still exciting nonetheless.

So after a long second day we headed back and made our way to the prize giving. Nothing more festive than all us anglers talking about the ones that got away over a few cold ones.

It was comforting to know that we weren’t the only ones who had struggled on the second day.

It was truly great to hear that Nordika had managed to secure the ladies title for 2014 with her great catches.

This was followed up nicely with her and I also winning the doubles title.

After some very tough fishing we enjoyed a nice meal and instead of all of us partying up a storm, we ended up having an early night.

I must say in all of my years of fishing this is definitely the most enjoyable competition I have ever fished in and we will definitely be back next year to hopefully retain the titles.

I'd like to thank all the guys that made this trip possible for us. The guys from GoFish for the accommodation and all their help. Stephen from Mascor Toyota for sponsoring my awesome new 4x4 as well as Patrick from Racetech Yamaha for making me proudly a Racetech Yamaha team member.

I must also mention Kingfisher for the awesome and successful fishing tackle we used at Ponta.

Next week Andre Bloem and I plan to head out to tackle some of what our Durban waters have to offer. We also hope to show you some great ways to cook your prized catch - but first we need to catch the fish, of course.

Stay tuned to East Coast Radio Sporstwave and the East Coast Radio website for some more fishing action to come...

- Alain Tardin and Andre Bloem

Twitter - @ECRSportswave @SportswaveAndre @AlainTardin