This is how the action went down for the winning team on the Thursday – the fourth day –
which proved to be their cracker of a day! Before the launch, Stephan spotted fish in the surf
and he went out in the rain and caught a Kingfish off the beach and …“we knew our luck was
in”.
On launching, they sped off to their chosen spot on the 500 up north over the Canyon. The
day had hardly started when Gerald hooked a Striped Marlin at 7.45am (between 400 – 600m)
notching up valuable bonus points for the team, as this was the first fish of the day. Hendri
Prinsloo hooked his Blue at 12 noon. (Both fish were photographed, recorded and safely
released).
Little did they know at just over an hour later, a massive storm would give them the fright of
their lives and put an end to the fishing for the day.
Stephan said, “We got caught in this huge storm at sea, with winds gusting at around 30 knots
– quite frankly I didn’t think I’d ever put my feet on shore again! I was the first to put on my
life jacket and everyone laughed but in the next 10 minutes, everyone else had theirs on too!
Heading back to shore, we drove side-by-side with Captain Fine, praying all the way!”
Once safely back on land, they learned that Sea Cruiser 2 had hooked and released a Black
Marlin, but they were short on bonus points. Team Aura had a double hook-up but according
to the rules, both fish need to be brought in next to the boat and recorded on one video, but
they released one early – which ruled them out of the running for the win!
It was a tense overnight wait for the top team, to see if their score of 488 points would be beaten
the next day – but due to inclement weather, fishing was called off. Team Stefi-Joe were finally
declared the winners!