Huge marlin will lure international gamefish anglers to Zululand

THE boating of one of the largest blue marlin ever caught in South Africa is set to lure more international big game anglers to Richards Bay.

Marius Botha had the strike of his life on board the boat ‘Rough Rider’ and brought the whopping 1 068lb (484.5kg) giant of the sea to the weighing scales at the Richards Bay Ski Boat Club (RBSBC) last Monday evening.

After a full day on the water, the fish struck Botha’s line just before 3.30pm and ran a distance of about 850m.

‘That is when the fight started,’ said Botha.

A true team effort, after about an hour, Botha, along with fellow anglers Jacques van Wyk (skipper) and Michael Fourie (wireman), managed to reel the fish in to about 50m from the boat when it ran again, covering a distance of about 400m.

This continued until shortly after 5pm when the fish took its last run, of about 300m.

‘We started getting a bit despondent at this stage, but about 20 minutes later the double line came out of the water and we were able to pull the fish in.’

Too heavy to be pulled onto the boat, the team towed it in to port.

‘The sight of a ‘grander’ (billfish over 1 000lb or 450kg) is as rare as it is impressive, and fishermen will travel the world to get the chance of catching such a specimen,’ said Gerrie Delport, Commodore of the RBSBC which recently hosted the Bonanza competition where all marlin were tagged and released.

To add to the satisfaction of the catch, 150kg of the high protein meat was donated to various needy organisations, including the Zululand Observer’s DICE (Do I Care Enough?) CSI project, while the rest was divvied up among all security guards working in the vicinity, the anglers and their families and friends.

While this catch, and sight of such a specimen on the scales garnered much negative attention on  social media, Botha, Van Wyk and Fourie do not kill every fish they catch.

‘Collectively, the three of us have hooked and brought to the boat about 400 billfish, and only 35 of these were not returned to the sea alive,’ said Van Wyk.

‘This fish was aged between 15 and 20 years old, while the average age of blue marlin is 21 years.’ Botha’s grander is the second caught in the world this year and only the third ever caught in South Africa.

Of the three caught in South Africa, this one is the first to have been caught on a stand-up tackle with a 130lb line.

Last year, a total of 21 granders were caught around the world.

‘This grander is the only one caught in Richards Bay and is a massive draw card for international anglers to visit the area,’ said Botha.

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