Big Game Fishing – Trevally slam fishing tournament |19 May 2023

Overall winners team Rasta Shark (Photo: Contributed)

Team Rasta Shark take Trevally Slam’s top prize

Team Rasta Shark are the grand winners of the Travelly Slam fishing tournament hosted by the Seychelles Sports Fishing Club last Saturday, gathering a total of eight teams, proudly sponsored by EKU.

For the tournament all species of the commonly known ‘karang’ were eligible for points and prizes, therefore the teams were strongly encouraged in releasing as many fish as possible, as per the International Game Fishing Association rules.

The event began early in the morning with the teams sailing out at around 5am and they were only allowed to fish in the Mahe Plateau (ten nautical miles).

For the competition all fish had to be caught using a rod and reel, no lines or electric reel was allowed. Usually at the end of each tournament all fish caught are weighed at the Seychelles Sports Fishing Club (SSFC) headquarters at the Marine Charter, but for the Trevally Slam no fish were weighed.

All catch was measured using SSFC-provided measuring tape and was recorded on video to qualify. Teams had to hand in their video evidence at 2pm to the weigh master before the prize-giving at 3pm, all competitors had to wait for the weigh-in process to end to acquire the final result of the tournament.

At the end of a long and saline day, team Rasta Shark clutched the tournament with an overall score of 2660.10 points, while the runners-up were team Soolyman with 1860.50 points.  Team SexSea came in third, not far behind, with a score of 1835 points.

Team SexSea also managed to catch the longest Giant Trevally of the tournament which was a length of 56.5cm.

Going down the ranks, team Paola finished fourth, ahead of team Tsunami who took fifth place.

Team Heineken were ranked sixth overall, followed by team Divinity, pushing Rig Runner to the last spot on 541 points.

Several prizes were awarded in different categories, including the longest yellow spot Trevally also known as karang plat which went to Team Soolyman with a catch of 95cm.

The prize for the longest Bludger Trevally locally known as karang balo went to team Rasta Shark with a catch of 89cm.

Team Paola managed to hook the longest Bluefin Trevally karang ver which was 46cm.

At the end of the tournament, a total of 11 species of Trevally were caught, including Giant Trevally, Blue Fin, Bludger, Yellow Spot, Manik, Horse-Eye, Brassy, Threadfin also known as the African Pompano, Black Tip, Island Trevally and Coastal Trevally.

Big Game fishing brings many challenges and excitement to the sailors but in the end the satisfaction of being the best among the best and wining amazing prices pushes the teams in producing better performance each year round.

Next on the agenda of the Seychelles Sports Fishing Club is the South East Monsoon Sailfish tournament scheduled for July 1.

Neil Sirame