After 4 years of planning and postponing we finally met up in in The Dokas Restaurant and Bar in Mindelo on Sao Vincente.
54 of the 58 expected participants together with a couple of the skippers and crews, listened to the opening words
from the Tournament Director Toine van Ierland, EFSA Netherlands secretary Miranda Koop , a representative from the Mindelo council and the president of the Mindelo Sportfishing Club.
The EFSA European Game Championships was a 3 in 1
combination with The PENN Challenge which is a charity tournament and the Dutch EFSA National Championships.
Last but not least this event is also a qualifier for the Offshore World Championships in Quepos Costa Rica 2023 2 Charity goals
Comunidade Sao Pedro and Operacao Carinho were presented with a €1000,00 donation and a promise of a larger donation dependent on the proceeds from the Charity auction to be held at the end of the tournament.
Hein Hoogduin, the weigh
master, explained the rules and called all 18 teams up front to draw their boats. All teams received a bag with competition shirts , rules , daily registration forms, a pen and 25 tokens, per person, for drinks for the rest of the week.
Micau
Tavares arranged a lovely buffet with local dishes for all to enjoy accompanied with drinks for everybody. The national tv covered the evening.
Day 1 started off with a sturdy
breeze,5 bft, which made the water quite choppy. During the day the wind died down. Some boats stayed in the marlin alley and others crossed the channel and went to the islands. Calls were coming in over the radio throughout the day making it very
exciting. Day winners were Peter Ouwendijk and Frans van Oss from the Dutch team The Untouchables with 5 marlin.
The Finnish team -Tight Faces- Eerho Terho , Aarno Holopainen, Matti Sepäiä , Janne Laurila - fishing for
the Netherlands came in 2 nd with 4 marlin. This team are true novices when it comes to marlin finshing. Catching 4 on their first trip ever.
3 rd place was for Ireland A , Warren Doyle , Christy Cloak , George Mc Cullough and Shay Mc Donnel, catching
3 marlin. This too is a team which consists of first timers.
In total 33 marlin were caught on 18 boats. That’s an amazing number, even to the local skippers. Cape Verdi sure lived up to the stories everybody heard.
Day 2 The air was buzzing with good vibes. The wind was up to a 6 bft. Everybody was rearing to go. Just like Monday all boats sailed up to the front of the harbor and waited in line for the 7:30 call.
No
running allowed to keep the slower boats in the competition. It was an impressionable sight to see 18 Game Boats waiting in line and moving off at the same time.
As soon as the call came in over the radio the boats spread out to their chosen fishing
grounds. Once again the radio was alive with chatter. Marlin were being raised all over the place. There were 33 marlin caught by the end of the match. Many more were raised. One team managed to pitch 6 and loose them all, finally blanking after
all their effort and hard work
Clube Pesca Nautica a Desportiva,Fernando Nunes , Filipe Bispo , José Amado and Victor Teixeira, Team CPND Albufiera for short hauled in 6 marlin. What an accomplishment.
Broadbill team 1, Gert-Jan Oldenboom,
Patrick van Lankhuizen and Arjan Biesheuvel came in second place with 4 self-pitched marlin. 3 rd was Gibraltar B Charlie Lara, Lester Chipel , Peter Cosquieri , Dom Currer,with 3 marlin. 33 marlin in total despite 4 boats blanking. Could this
tournament go any better??
Day 3 the weather turned for the worse. 7bft made fishing very difficult. The blue water had been pushed out even further towards Sao Antao. Boats and anglers were
struggling to find fish and draw them up to the surface. Toine van Ierland called it Rock’n & Roll’n, and that it was. High waves 3 to 4 meters coming from all directions as the skippers maneuvered their boats in a zigzag pattern. A far cry
from yesterday. Not much chatter on the radio which didn’t do the moral any good.
Once back in the harbor all eyes were towards the skyline to see how many flags were flying. Only 13 caught and released. Ireland A managed to hook a 11.6
kg Wahoo. Unfortunately it was to light for the Non-Pelagic prize. Minimum weight had to be 30kg
Yesterday’s blankers came in as day 3 winners. The Reel Dutch Fishing Team: Toine van Ierland, Hein Hoogduin and Klaas Hoogduin managed to pitch
2 marlin giving them 2200 points. This also meant that Randy Baker on the Dacia was best skipper for a second time.
Team Sequoia: Paulus van de Berk and Roland Baks had 3 marlin, unfortunately 2 on 130lbs rods giving them only 1800 points.
Team Marlil: Martin Kets de Vries , Bob Hentenaar, Frank and Miranda Koop, caught 2 marlin but didn’t pitch the baits themselves leaving them with 1600 points. The wild weather made it very difficult and to nobody’s surprise 9 boats
blanked today.
The 4th and final day. The weather gods were in our favor. Sun bursting through the clouds , wind down to 5 bft again. It was anyone’s game. The skippers were eager to win with 4 boats
in line for first place. John Smith and Roel van Orsel, Team The Dutch Anglers on the Sea Quest probably had the best day of their lives. The first time Marlin anglers had a triple hookup.
The team ended the day as winning team with 5
marlin. Samir Rahal and Mahmoud Mroueh from team Dakar came in second on the Nha Cretcheu. Ireland A managed yet another second 3 rd place with 2 marlin.
Ireland A and The Dutch Anglers were the only 2 teams to have fish every day. Ireland even
had the luxury of dropping 1100 points seeing only the 3 best results counted. It didn’t help them much in the end as they ended in 7 th position.