Rain fails to dampen spirits and fishing heats up

By Elizabeth Ah-Hi 18 April 2018, 12:00AM

Angler Damien Meredith was grinning from ear to ear while his asiasi weighed in at 49kg making it the catch of the day on Monday.

Rainy weather on S.I.G.F.A’s first day of their tournament did not dampen Angler spirits as the competitors weighed after a day out in the sea. 

“A bit of rain is good because the more activity in the water the better the bite. When the sun is shining and hot, the fish don’t come up. Luckily there was not much sun today.”

Damien fought the 49kg Asiasi for 20 minutes and according to his team mate, Ben Meredith, he did it all while standing up,

“He did it standing up instead of sitting in a fighting chair.” Ben said proudly “we don’t have a fighting chair on the boat so that was really impressive.”

Damien admitted that the asiasi was a formidable opponent when he estimated the fish to be 10 kgs lighter than him self making it almost an equal fight.

“I’m about 10 kilos heavier than the fish,” he laughs. “I was so happy when I finally caught it.”

Following the record catch of a Marlin in the weekend, Ben said that the competition was getting more quite serious and likely to remain that way till the end when they will reunite with their friends again,

“When it comes to fishing, we are always competing against each other,” said Ben. 

“In tournaments like this – we don’t even know our best friends. That’s just the way it is until after the tournament  - its just fishing. It’s the one week of the year we look forward to where we can go out and enjoy ourselves.”

Greg of Troppo Fishing said that they were hoping for more chop in the weather conditions to up the ante a bit more but still considered the first day a success despite 

“The worst the conditions the better really , you want the chop – It’s all about getting the right amount of movement in the water so sometimes the rain can cool the water down,” said Greg. 

“It can add to the bite, some species bite better in the rain, the yellow fin usually bites better in the rain but really what you want is water movement. So today it was raining and still quite smooth so it was a slow day. But its good to see some nice fish weight even though the fishing conditions weren’t perfect.” 

Angler Damien Meredith is from the boat, Double down, captained by Trevor Meredith.

By Elizabeth Ah-Hi 18 April 2018, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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