Last week The Suidpunt Deep Sea Angling club once again hosted the Marlin Competition. This annual event is a great drawcard for deep sea anglers and a wonderful highlight on the Struisbaai calendar.  This year 27 teams from all over the country took part and the competition ran for six days of which only two were not fished due to poor conditions.

The club catered all meals for the teams and there was a wonderful vibe at the evening dinners.  Earl and I hosted Andrew, who was the communications officer and we were appointed the official photographers for the week!

The rules of the competition were fairly complicated but this is how I understood them.  A marlin had to be landed, photographed, a DNA sample taken then released.  A video of the fish swimming away also had to be taken.   The angler/boat who caught the last fish would be declared the winner – this was so that their enthusiasm would last to the bitter end!

Three fish were landed.  Osprey caught the first, Woes Lekke the second and Salti the third.

On one of the evenings Andrew was the Auctioneer and some generous bids were made for the wines donated by some local estates.

The auction raised R39 000 for the club.  Thanks to all the bidders this will be put to good use a Suidpunt Deep Angling Club.

On Friday there was a pirate party at The Club which was great fun.  Earl and I were the judges and we found it difficult to choose so in the end gave one individual prize and one group prize.  There was no female prize and I was the only girl to dress up and the judge can’t win!

The organisation of this event was mammoth.   The caterers did an amazing job and kept us all well fed.

Struisbaai, I think, thoroughly enjoyed having the anglers visit for a week and each afternoon the harour was a fun place to be as the boats returned from sea.