Remington Gold Land Gold at the Golden Anniversary
29 October 2011
Mana Meadows
The 50th Anniversary Kariba Invitational Tiger Fish Tournament has truly been one to remember. Long after the fishing-shirt tans have faded, the tiger have been mounted and the excitement has eventually settled, the lasting memory most of the 1000-plus anglers who attended KITFT will take away from the past week is that it has been a happy one.
The festivity was enjoyed across the board. There were the die-hard KITFT veterans. There were the spiffily dressed professionals whose year-long (in some cases life-time) dream had been to win the 50th. There were the novice anglers who'd never fished a tournament before, the ex-Zimbabweans who came home from all corners of the globe just to "Fish the 50th". There were the international visitors who chose this tournament as the one to return to this special country and see just how much we have got back on our feet.
This year the trophy, along with what must be the indescribable pride of winning the 50th, belonged to Remington Gold. With a total score of 171.855 and the heaviest catch and highest score on all three days of the tournament, they were convincing and deserved winners. In second place was Team Nissan with 153.38 points, followed by Charter X (145.07 points).
The event has been exciting and excellently organised from start to finish. The incredibly slick running of the event, carried out by the very competent and hard-working KITFT Committee along with their close-knot team of marshals, officials and of course enabled by the sponsors, has been remarked on by competitors throughout the event. Speaking at the prize-giving ceremony Tournament Director Rod Bennett paid tribute to all the sponsors, marshals, officials, committee members, competitors and Charara Site Management for contributing to the overall success of an event that will be remembered for a long time to come. He also thanked Bill Green, the honorary guest flown in for the day from Harare who fished the first tournament back in 1962. At 99 years old, Green bravely faced the Kariba heat and over 2000 strong crowd.
The revelry had begun way before the weigh-bay, and certainly was well underway by prize-giving. For many it many it started at breakfast and it continued into until breakfast the next day. Excellent performances of toot-tapping-hoof-flicking familiar favourites by Bud Cockcroft, Fraser Mackay, Rob Osbourne, The band 134 and DJ Frank Renalds made the night what it was - and indeed their combined efforts over the past week have been a real highlight of the tournament.
More on the fishing:
The biggest fish of the tournament was caught by Reegan Ingram with his 10.8 kg fish. Ingram caught his prize on the morning of the first day of the tournament and the closest anyone came was Keith Lyon Jnr (from South Africa) who caught a 8.17 tiger yesterday. Leeroy Oliver's 8.15 was the third heaviest fish. Reegan Ingram won himself the Riverbird boat generously sponsored by Nashua, Fibercraft and Chase Marine.
Shiloh Swart caught the largest number of fish, catching 31 and earning his team 67.945 points. Rodney Mackay won the trophy for the heaviest total weight of fish (76.675 points) and Brenda Marchussen won the trophy for the ladies heaviest total catch. Karen Kirstein caught the largest fish out of the ladies with her 6.755 kg tiger.
Test of the Best is set for the 24th and 25th of February. Click here to see who has made this year's Test of the Best.
FINAL DAY Morning Photos
Take a look at some of the action we saw on the ponds this morning... More of the action will be available as the day progresses...
Day two round-up...
Remington is still in the lead with a weight of 117.87kgs and 40 fish caught. Next were Team Nissan 104.14kgs followed by F.Neil Bullsharks. Highlights from today included a 8.154 kg tiger caught by Leeroy Oliver of Chinas R Us and a fantastic performance by Bumi Hills Anti-poaching team who landed four trophy fish as well as one over 4kgs. Arthur Browell of Bumi Hills Anti-poaching came to the party with his 6.8 kg tiger which he caught whilst trolling around the cages. "Hopefully we'll climb today. It should be enough to climb that ladder," he said.
Team Stryke Tynserv managed to hang onto their Top Ten spot despite two days of boat problems - culminating in an engine seizure today which lost them six hours of fishing - and a boat. Yesterday they were fifth, today they are sixth.
Gray Mata, who develop custom software solutions redesigned the scoring system at KITFT 2011. The new system allows for live results during the weigh-in at the tournament. The scales, provided by Nicolas Scale Company are linked to a central database where all the results are stored. These results can then be presented digitally on TV screens, computers and the like. Dave Whitehead, committee member says, "Day One was a bit of a learning curve but that Day Two is going really well. This is a new leap for the tournament. It generates a lot more interest as everyone knows what's going on." Veteran KITFT fisherman Ian Harris said that the system "was fantastic and it added a lot of interest to the tournament. It would be nice if in the future we could have bigger displays up for the spectators to encourage further interest," was his suggestion.
Day one sumMary...
Remington Gold lead the pack of a closely placed top three teams - as Mega and Team Nissan are hot on the heels of last year's winners.
Here is a summary of some more news to emerge out of the Day One's weigh-bay:
Rodney Mckay of Team Nissan is in the lead for the individual anglers - Day One saw him catching 12 tiger fish with a total of 32,175 kgs. Dilesh Govan (Stryke-Tynserv), Richard Blythe-Wood (RAM Petroleum Ceveja), Shiloh Swart (Charter X) and Ivor Kesson (Fibrecraft Mercury) are all close behind with total catches sitting between 28.41 (Govan) and 28.005 (Kesson). Jenny Christie leads the ladies coming in at 25 overall with a catch of five fish at a total mass of 18.415 kgs.
- The final number of team entries sat at 268
- 2,864 tons of fish were caught yesterday (6,484 were caught in total three days of 2010's KITFT with 143 teams fishing)
- The total number of teams catching sat at 194 and the average mass per fish worked out just over 2.1 kgs. The total number of fish caught was 1360.
Day one results...
The biggest news to emerge from Day One of the Special 50th KITFT anniversary was that the Riverbird boat sponsored by Nashua (with trailer, Mercury 125 Motor and Boat Cover) may have been won by Regan Ingram with his tiger-fish of 10.8 kgs. Ingram said he has fished the tournament about six times before this and his previous biggest was around 4kgs. Ingram is from Team Brewster and his monster fish was the only one he caught today. His catch was made at the bream farms. We will see over the next two days if it is the biggest through the Nashua weigh bay - a long wait if your name is Regan Ingram!
There was a number of other bonus fish caught today - second biggest was Ray Finaughty's (Luipaardsvlei Brahmans Team) 7.89 kg tiger-fish which was caught in the Gache Gache area. Finaughty said the fishing was tough today and he and his team will need to "think out the box tomorrow" if they want to do well.
The stillness of the lake seemed to be a problem all round and most teams interviewed in the morning said that the calm water had been a hindrance to their catches. Water temperatures were high and in the late twenties while air temperatures sat at well over 30 degrees Celsius.
The tournament itself got off to an impressive start with around 500 boats participating in the mass start at 6am. Lousie and Danie Swart, respected veterans of the competition were reported to be "legless" on day 1 soon after the start when their motor lost it's gearbox! They did manage to replace the boat and finished the day with 19 fish.
When on the move in the earlier hours of the day the weather could almost be described as balmy - with flat still waters where the silver-blue of the lake faded into blue-silver of the sky - the horizon virtually invisible with only the occasional fishing boat a pale moth against the hazy shroud. But tomorrow anglers will be hoping for more wind, and hopefully, a little bit more action.
Reporter: Mana Meadows
2011 pre-tournament buzz...
Today marks the anniversary of 50 years of official Kariba Invitational Tiger Fish Tournaments. And what a pre-tournament buzz! Charara campsite is bustling, Patterson Bay is jam-packed with houseboats and the lake was frenetic with boats busy with last minute scrambles to test "spots", gauge water temperatures and ascertain depths.
The Captain's Meeting was the most packed it's been in ten years. Team entries (they closed today) sat at 267 teams - with an impressive foreign turnout representing nine countries. One team each entered from Mozambique, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Swaziland... and Norway! Nine Zambian teams entered and an incredible 35 teams from South Africa are present. 2010's tournament saw 143 teams entering - with only 16 of those being foreign.
We'll keep you informed on the latest from the weigh-bay at the close of the day but for now all we can tell you regarding the fishing front is that things were looking pretty quiet. Or at least that's what the anglers we spoke to said... Brief stops around Antelope and Tsetse islands, Gache Gache river mouth and the bream cages revealed very little action. There were a number of theories behind it. Some said the lake water hadn't yet warmed up enough, others said the water was too high, and there were also suggestions that the stillness of the water may have been playing a part.
Danie and Lousie Swart fishing for Nashua said, "Something needs to happen within the next few days. But they are around. They're swirling around."
Reporter: Mana Meadows
2011 Registration Complete...
All the big names are back and we have loads of new ones. The 2011 Kariba Invitation Tiger Fish Tournament team entries are now available.
Click here to view the teams...
It's only a day away...
Rob Osborne, Bud Cockcroft and Fraser Mackay entertaining at the Long Bar
One day before Tournament and Kariba is heating up. Temperatures are sky high (rumours suggest that Wednesday will see temperatures above 40 degrees) - and team entries have climbed to over 250. Today is the last day for teams to enter.
On the entertainment side things are looking just as rosy with the Monday night line up featuring a trio of some of Zimbabwe's favourite songsters performing at Charara's Long Bar - Bud Cockcroft, Fraser Mackay and Rob Osborne. They will be with us throughout this special 50th Anniversary and we look forward to them upping the tempo as the tournament progresses.
With the dryness of the countryside making for drab pickings, much of Charara's wildlife is venturing onto the greener pastures of lodge gardens and campsite lawns. Elephants, jackals and zebra have all been spotted within close proximity of various Charara lodges and guesthouses and there was much excitement in the MedGen camp at Charara NAUZ site when a male hippo browsed within metres of the MedGen campsite. Ben from Harare said it was the first time he has ever seen a hippo in the wild - the closest he has been to a wild animal were the semi-tame rhino at Imire Game Park in Wedza.
Reporter: Mana Meadows
Enjoy our pre tournament photo album...
Celebrating 50 Years of Tiger Fishing
KARIBA INVITATION TIGER FISH TOURNAMENT
50TH ANNIVERSARY
The Kariba Invitation Tiger Fish Tournament celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, starting on 26th October the Tournament promises to be the best for many a year.
Interest from teams outside of Zimbabwe has been exceptional and it is estimated that between 250 and 300 teams will enter this milestone in Zimbabwe's fishing calendar.
To celebrate the anniversary a wide range of entertainment including Bud Cockcroft, Rob & Ellie Osborne, Fraser Mackay and Paul Bowen amongst others have been lined up to entertain every evening from Monday 24th October through to Friday.
There will be all sorts of fun during the three days with lots of giveaways and some great prizes to be won.
If you have not fished the Tournament before this would be an ideal time to start, and for those of you who have fished before, get organized you do not want to miss out, it's going to be huge!
Full bar and catering will be provided throughout the week.
50 Years of Tiger Fishing...
Fantastic Prizes
Win a Nissan NP200
Although no one managed to bag a car-winning fish last year, don't worry - The NP200 is back up for grabs at this years
50th Anniversary K.I.T.F.T tournament. ...Here's to leading the weigh and hopefully going home with "the big one".
Learn More...
Nashua
Win a Chase Marine Riverbird Boat, Trailer, Cover and Mercury 125 Motor for the biggest fish over 10kgs through the Nashua Weigh Bay.
Learn More...
KITFT News Headlines
