MFF ORIS Comp: Discussion

[EmicMalta]

well done for the winners and for the organization

[shanook]

moon just an approximation of ur request. We were about 10 miles off filfla 280 degrees from Filfla. the lure was a surface splasher (looks live a svenstrand) and in Pink...........

[framerc]

I would like to say thanks to everyone on Alongi competition.

[fishfinder]

Thanks to all organizers for this event. We had the inspection at Birzebbuga and it was very professional. Next year we should inform MMA so that they will inspect the piers and fine all the irresponsible boat owners which left there boat for days moored on the pier leaving no space for others to load the fishing gears.

at 6.00am we got a big strike which with seconds took nearly all the line until we had to hold it on our hands. Thank god it unhooked itself cause it was something big trying to pulling me and Nando overboard


then we had no more strikes and we've tried a lot of different lures but still we had a lot of fun and we're looking forward for next year.

welldone to all winners.

[skip]

Well done to all those who took part in the ORIS Alongi Competition, from the 56 registered boats we had a couple of drop-outs due to mechanical issues and one this morning on their way down to the start point.

25 Boats were checked and left from B'Bugia Jetty, 12 from Msida, 3 from M'Xett, 9 from Gnejna and 5 from Marfa and the process began this morning at 02:00 in Msida where the competition officials met to start the checking process. It was great to find most of the boats ready as requested for inspection which helped things move quickly. We then proceeded down to B'Bugia to start the lengthy checking process of the 25 boats and started off straight away as several boats were already alongside waiting for their inspection.

The last boat was checked at 04:00 after assisting another boat that needed a jump start and all boats went out to hold near the breakwater for the 04:30 departure. This is the point where you the competitors should have helped each other out....when it came to the start. Despite our numerous requests to proceed slowly and with caution when annoucing the start, a large number of boats proceeded at an unacceptable speed, endangering their fellow participants  

The officials on board ORIS 1 then proceeded from B'Bugia back up to Msida to proceed out to the fishing grounds, whilst the officials on board ORIS 2 made their way down to Mellieha to meet up with the 8.5 Zodiac Pro Open RIB powerered by twin Evinrude ETEC 200hp kindly provided by competition sponsors RLR Yachting. This RIB was an essential part of today's competition and I would like to thank Darius Goodwin and Kurt Casapinta from RLR who hosted us for the day as skipper and crew. The RIB was alongside waiting for us fuelled up and ready to go take us round to the West Coast.

At 06:00 the competition support boat Seafox owned and skippered by forum member Colin departed from M'scala with Tonio Darmanin from PaqPaq in order to start fishing and filming the competition. A very special thanks goes to Colin who very kindly provided his boat complete with crew to host Tonio and help him get some fantastic footage out on the fishing grounds. Colin played a paramount role in today's event that I'm sure you will all appreciate when we get to see the edited version of today's filming. In fact Colin caught 5 Alongi 6 Alongi and landed 4 5! and I'm told we have some great footage of the 6th Alonga escaping underwater

ORIS 2 arrived on station at 07:15 to check out the finish point at Hamrija Bank before proceeding to Wied Iz-Zurrieq in order to pickup the PaqPaq camera man, we headed out West looking for MFF ORIS vessels and met up with several boats to conduct some filming. ORIS 2 transported the camera man up to the Seafox who then managed an outstanding double hookup all caught on camera!

After some time ORIS 2 then ferried the camera man all the way back in to Wied Iz-Zurrieq at an average cruise speed of 24 knots, finally speeding up to 33 knots for the last couple of miles in order to meet the tight schedule that was in place so that the camera man could make his way to the airport and board the Aircraft for the filming of the finish point.

At 11:15 ORIS 1 and ORIS 2 arrived on station in the finish area and began to deal with the various radio calls, SMS's and mobile phone calls coming in annoucing early retirement from the competition. There were issues with range reception on the VHF not helped by people speaking over each other making it virtually impossible to reply back and get confirmations over the VHF!

By 11:45 ORIS 1 was anchored in location with support vessel Seafox alongside whilst ORIS 2 held position around 0.5nm further out to help direct the incoming vessels heading for weigh-in which kicked off on time at 12:00 with the first boat Ya Ya skippered by John Tabone. The aircraft kindly provided by European Pilot Academy was on station by 12:25, flew over the weigh-in area before heading out to Filfla to film the incoming boats. It continued to film the outer area before coming back to the weigh-in area and flying a racetrack pattern based on the finish point as a holding fix with the PaqPaq camera man leaning out the aircraft which had it's door removed for a better view!!

ORIS 1's team of officials did an outstanding job of weighing in all the boats in what turned out to be difficult conditions towards the end, after the wind picked up earlier than forecast and started to kick up a bit of a swell, kindly supported by the crew of Seafox that helped with the ropes. Sadly several boats either did not have or did not deploy their fenders or they were not suitable for the size of their boat making it dangerous to come alongside. On several occasions ORIS 2 intervened by transporting the fish and 1 crew member directly alongside ORIS 1 to conduct the weigh-in, which was essential in the case of the Princess Claudia which looked to be around 38 feet and would definately be unable to come alongside the 27 foot vessel ORIS 1 !!

All vessels that where within 250m of the weigh-in station at 13:00 waited to be weighed-in, this was completed by 13:20 and both ORIS vessels left the area for their respective home ports. On the west coast of Malta I can confirm that the wind/waves had picked up to a Force 4, however the RIB dealt with them easily powered through at 23knots for an extremely comfortable and dry ride - impressive stuff made me want one!!

After several months of planning with Antoine from ORIS, Joe The Gaffer, my fiancee Mandy, Shanook and the ORIS team, working late at night over the past 4 weeks it was fantastic to see the competition conclude with no incidents at sea and to hear that all boats made it back to base safe and sound. We spent several hundred hours planning this event, the behind the scenes work is of course not seen by you guys and this year was especially challenging given the fantstically high number of boats who took part.

I would like to thank all the Competition Officials and Judges who dedicated their time to carry out this competition with us, without them this would not have been possible. The support boats and their crew for co-ordinating activities on the water, Tonio from PaqPaq for coming to film our competition, and our numerous sponsors who provided us with fantastic prizes.

And of course the main sponsor ORIS Swiss Watches who not only equipped all boats with T-Shirts, Flags and Caps, so that all crew looked extremely smart and easily identifiable, and dedicated a support vessel complete with judges and officials, but of course offered as first prize the €1900 ORIS 'Der Meistertaucher' watch won by Francis Mercieca and his crew.

[alfadelta]

Thanks to the participants whoever took part in making this event a success. A Special thanks goes to Tonio of PaqPaq and Colin Borg Cardona who did not take part in the competition to help the organisers by taking Tonio out for filming!

[BIKRI]

Congratulations to the organisers of this competition. Today was a very memorable day for us as we just managed to catch 2 bluefin tunas which we duly released. We managed to land the first one on the boat for a quich photo session and released it immediately. The second one was much bigger and snapped the leader at just half a meter from the boat in the last fight. It was very easy to land the second one with a gaff but we did not want to harm the fish. As the fish went down the soft lure got out of the hook and Steve GB dived for it cause both fish were caught on this lure.
Unfortunaltely at around noon we were chased by th Sea Shephered, as were reported to be catching tuna, all the way to Cirkewwa trying to ram us occasionally. Luckily we managed to escape without any harm  Now we are planning to participate in the Porto Rotondo big game fishing competition Pics will be posted later as the skipper is still sleeping!!!

[SEAFOX]

Thank you Skip, Antoine & Alfadelta together with all those hard working committee members...plus of course all participants who did all they could to make this occassion a special one. The event was superbly organised depsite a few unfortunate mishaps by a couple of those taking part. I recall one guy who came to weigh in his fish stating.."I had to jump start my engine this morning and there's no oil in the sump"...what guts, risky but this chap would not miss the day!
Being one of the most recent member to join it was a real pleasure for me and my crew to assist the Forum & Tonio of Paq-Paq in producing his TV programme, I assure everyone that it is going to be impressive cos I saw some of the footage and its just fab. We eagerly look forward to another competition. I wont take part, as always, but my services would be available......On a final note I wish to correct Nick..we got 3 strikes x 2 Alongi each. We put in our rods & lines at sea at 7.30am. We landed 5 (Not 4!) and lost one right near the boat close to the outboards which Tonio has on film. It's an impressive underwater shot seeing the fish get away and dive. Of course ther are several other shots showing not only the fish being reeled in but also underwater ones ...Thank you all for a wonderful & enjoyable day, its been a pleasure getting to know you... Colin & the Seafox Crew-Neville & Naski

[viper]

hi,i wish to say thanks to all the organisers that made the competion happen.i was very happy to compete as it was very well orginised.
THANKS !!!!!!!boat name jacob.

[Jonathan]

Well done and thank you to everyone who was involved as an organiser, sponsor, backup support, filming crew etc! Definitely the best organised fishing event I've ever seen in Malta 

[baghira]

Yep youre right guys................
Thanks for the organizers.

It was my first opportunity to go with my rib fishing.... I never went fishing.........and it was a wonderful experiance..... The boats in the early morning at sea were amazing...Then we headed out, and it was my first time out at sea that far, seeing malta disappearing..
Me and my buddy had enormous fun..............

We were amazed that we rarely met a boat out there out of all the 57 boats!!!! Where was the camera!!!!!!!!!!Did you take any shots of me/? That would encourage others to take part in next years competition...

It would have also been nice to see the view from the eyes of the organizers, whom I am sure were super happy with the event, and to see all the filming process.

The sea back was a bit rough..........But I was amazed by the consumption of my rib with Johnson 70 hp!!!!!!!!!! 8 1/2 hours started......

Can I hear any news as regards the hookups!!!!!!!!!!! How could it be that amongst all the boats whom caught nothing, then>>>>>>>>!!! Definitely I am not a fisherman..

[twoutes]

Congratulations to everyone who participated, and especially the organizers. I know how much 'behind the scenes' work goes on to make such tournament successful as this one seems to have turned out.
As a matter of interest do you have records of how many captures from total participating boats/anglers, and also what did the most damage on the tuna? Bibed lures vs Skirted Lures.
Can't wait to  see some photos of the events...including fish, and hope that l to get to have a peak at the finished video...even though l am all the way down under, l am very interested in this event.

Congratulations again guys...and gals

[skip]

Hi Joe, the full results from the weigh-in are here http://maltafishingforum.com/talk/index.php/topic,2933.0.html

I know several other boats caught one fish but decided not to come to the weigh-in station as they were too far out and wouldn't make it in time so yes it would be interesting to hear from those skippers.

Baghira, you're right it's amazing how quickly 55 boats disperse into different areas, as one of the camera boats if it wasn't for the ORIS flags it would have been even harder. We already have an idea for next year that might make it easier for filming/locating the boats.....

[The_Gaffer]

Well done to all the participants yesterday, esecially the winners.  We (Team Gaffer) started off yesterday's competition on a negative.  No sonner did we leave our mooring, that I got an alarm that the water pump was not functioning.  Switched off the engine, and a quick inspection revealed that the pump drive belt had got disengaged from the pulley.  Out with the tools and flood light, released the pump pulley tensioner, re aligned the belt, tightened the tensioner, and started up...15 minutes!.  Quick discussion between the team, and we decided to proceed with caution.  The caution being that if the belt got in anyway damaged, then it would be an hour's job in open sea to replace.  Big thank you to Guss and Robby on Spirit of jason for standing by just in case we needed anything...much appreciated.  My mechanical mind kept buzzing all the time, why did the drive belt become disengaged??.  Proceeded down to Birzebbugia at 13knts since we lost a bit of time fixing the pulley.  Half way down got a call from SOJ that they had some engine issue, and stood by.  Robby called shortly after that they were retiring from the competition due to Gearbox problems on one of the engines.  
Stood by at Freeport entrance and at the start, although it was a magnificant scene with over 35 boats at the start point, the scene was temprary marred by some irrisponsible boats who at the word go, speed through the water criss crossing the the paths of other boats.  This was a very dangerous situation and I called out to ORIS 2 to caution.  
That drive belt coming off kept bugging me (I now know the reason and will be down at the marina today to fix it permanently). We reached the 1st ridge and let out a five rod spread.  Proceeded top the second ridge, no bites, no surface activity, nothing.  Did not want to venture out more as I was weary just incase the belt drive acted up again.  Throughout the day, trolled along some (hot) spots on the second ridge, which turned out to be very very cold!!!
Around 10.00am, got one strike but no hook up.  Continued till about 12.00am when we decided to call it a day.  
I knew the bite was active on the 3rd ridge, but was reluctant to go out that far.  Also because during the past days we have had several hits on the second ridge, including a tripple hookup.  So no excuses about that, just wasn't our day.  However, we still enjoyed it, and its not always that I have my sons and future son in law out with me together with my best mate Mundinu trolling.  My young son Luke, kept us entertained with his usual jokes and pranks...Till next year guys...well done to all!!!!

[fin]

SAFETY OVERVIEW

Dear All,

Yet again another brilliant competition is over and reading earlier looking at all the statistics i cannot say other then a huge success.

I just want to report what i am normally engaged to do in this competition which is to overview the safety aspect of things.

All boats participating returned on their own steam. No accidents occured and no breakdowns too, although we heard a few boats were on the brink of not making it back. So overall a success from this side.

There was a report or 2 with concerns during the start and i have heard some had close calls too. Maybe a matter of eagerness overriding sense. We will be looking into the matter as to see how we can eliminate any future occurences. Apart from this little mishap i am glad to say MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

May i thank all sponsors, organising members, venues and most of all YOU, the participants for making this happen.

On a personal note i would give a big pat on the back to my very good mate SKIP from when i introduced him to his very first few fishing sessions a few years back he already had this idea of gathering a fishing community and seeing what the response will be. Today i think i dont need to tell you what has happened as this forum and this annual competition speaks for itself. WELL DONE MATEY and keep it going.

FIN