Sea Angling Club - Austria

www.mac-austria.at

 

 

13th World Championships- Big Game

Südafrika, Sodwana Bay, Mai 2004

 

Report from our president and WORLD CHAMPION Ingo Heinelt:

 

"

In front of me is a gold medal with the inscription "CHAMPIONNAT DU MONDE DE LA PECHE SPORTIVE EN MER BIG GAME FISHING CIPS-FIPS/M SODWANA BAY/SOUTH AFRICA 2004".

 

On the 29th of April, two Austrian teams took off to fly via Zurich and Johannesburg to Durban , which is on the eastern seaboard of South Africa to participate in the 13^th world championship in Big Game fishing.

 

Team Austria 1: Ingo Heinelt, Johann Matthias Fink and Horst Schmoeller

Team Austria 2: Hans Steinbrecher, Erich Wiche and Karl Zeitelberger

 

The first two days we stayed in the Holiday Inn in Durban , where the official opening ceremony took place. As team “ Austria ” starts with an “A”, we were first everywhere, and I took the chance for a little speach during the opening ceremony, which I ended with following words: “We live in a very small country without a sea, but I hope we can show you how to fish in it.” This statement drew quite some belittling laughter and people were applauding - little did they know what was coming...

 

The day after, we took off using 2 busses to go to the lodge at Sodwana Bay , which is about 450 km north of Durban . Wonderful accommodations were provided, and assured us this was a great trip.

 

First thing was the captains meeting. 32 teams from 15 nations were competing, and the luck of the assigned boats and their skipper & umpire to the competing teams. 

 

On Monday, 3rd of May, a training day was planned. This had to be cancelled because of rough seas. Most teams avoided the risk and stayed in. Sodwana Bay is a natural bay with quite a good surf, and skill is needed to launch and retrieve boats on the beaches and pass the breaking surf.

 

The next four days the comp was on. Breakfast at 5, following transport to the bay, and from “lines in” at 7am to “lines up” at 2pm our attention was on fishing. On the first day, Horst was tackling seasickness, and up until 1:45pm we only had one legal fish on board. (Minimum size for competition was 5kg.)  

 

But then it happened: With only 15 minutes to go a sailfish took my bait and I could land it exactly at 2pm. This was a big thing – based on the points scores, this sail accounted (regardless of size) for 40 points which would put us in the front section of the leaderboard. I released the fish, and we headed back in.

 

As we later found out, this was the only sailfish for the first day, half the boats came back without a fish, and we ended up with the 3^rd place for the day.

 

On the second day the bad luck was ours, and we didn’t catch a fish. Overall, the catch rate was very slim, so we didn’t loose too much ground in the ranking, which took us back to 7^th place.

 

On the third day, after tactical considerations, I put on my stinking t-shirt from the first day, and we all could land a counting fish! We again ended up 3^rd for the day, which brought our team back to 4^th overall.

 

The 4^th and last day was exciting and chaotic at the same time. After a couple of hours we had already 2 counting fish on board. But then the fish went off the bite, and nothing else happened to the finish. In the meantime we were aware of 2 marlin and another 2 sails which were caught by other contestants. And then in a streak of luck, just before finish, we caught a third counting fish. I myself could only land a couple of pilotfish this day, but as this is a team-comp that didn’t matter.

 

The final result of the 4th day was then done behind closed doors, and the end result was not announced until the closing ceremony including the price giving. We just knew that because of the 4 billfish, our result for the day had to be 5^th or worse.

 

It was just like an Austrian lotto-slogan: "Everything is possible". One thing to mention is that on the 4^th day, one of the sails was caught by our second team, Austria 2.

 

Am Abend des letzten Tages hat dann das Gala-Dinner samt Preisverleihung stattgefunden. Die Tunierleitung hat immer nur gelächelt und sich sehr kryptisch und verschwiegen gegeben.

 

And then the price-giving started. First I was awarded with a price for catching a sail. Then I got a price for catching the first sail of the tournament. And then it became suspense-packed:

 

The third place medals were awarded to team France A.

The second place medals were awarded to team France C.

And then they paused... and afterwards the sensational call for team Austria 1 to come up to the podium to receive the gold medals...

 

President of FIPS-M, Marcel Ortan, handed the medals, and with hands on the hearts we listened to and sang the words of the Austrian national anthem while bathing in the sun of flashlights and applause... we arrived in heaven.

 

To the end I can report that team Austria 2 ranked 14^th and achieved to beat all 3 of our everlasting adversaries.

"