Porto Rotondo Big Game - 2010

[chrisxue]

don't need to see pictures,your description of the place is so well put that you can just imagine and see it!!

[baghira]

ooooooolaaaaaa gaffer.
Did you forget anything???  :-)   :-0

[The_Gaffer]

I don't think so Baghira, and when I find the time tomorrow I'll fill you guys in on what happened on Sunday and our ordeal on Monday on our way back to Malta

[Jonathan]

Wow thanks for sharing such an impressive write-up. It is evident that notwithstanding the setbacks it was still a great experience.... looking forward to reading part 2 and seeing some pics!

[Moonwalker]

Nice experience indeed!
So Luhrs is better than Berthram?

[fishfinder]

Prosit Gaffer. we're waiting for part 2 

[The_Gaffer]

Sunday 2nd Day of the event.

Nick wakes up at 03:55, he can't sleep with the excitement and wants to make sure that we don't oversleep. Knowing that both Joe and Antoine like their coffee he puts on the perculator ready to wake them up with the smell of 'fresh' coffee. We all awake at 4.30am and make our way out on to the porch to check the wind.  I had been sitting there for the last 15min, watching and listening to every leaf and branch russtling in the morning breeze, looking up at the dark blue sky, trying to figure out why the wind had not died down as previously forcasted.  Actually it had, however, up here in the hills, the wind plays tricks with you, and because the wind passage has to make its way through the meandering valley and slopes, it tends to get funnelled and concentrated, hense the increase in the wind speed.  I was convinced.  The tournament today would happen.  Ray (Mundinu) prepared round two of the coffee, and we all sat outside the porch discussing the day ahead.  By 5.40am, Nick the driver has ushered everyone into the van and we're all heading down to Porto Rotondo.  

On arrival, Ray and myself rechecked and calibrated the drags to about 3kgs trolling drag and 8kgs strike, even though Nick and I did these on Saturday some of them were out of calibration so needed doing again.  We were definitely using the 30lbs gear rigged up with an array of lures, from Williamson to Pakula, to Rapalas and Yo-zuri, feathered lures, black bart...as I was saying, a whole Sh_t load of lures!! The 50lbs reels were on standby in case we came across the big ones!

7.00am the briefing...the competition director declares today as competition day, albeit with a reduced fishing zone.  A huge cheer comes up from all the skippers present.  In the meantime Nick is busy preparing the boat with the others so that everything is ship shape, we all rush to our boats.  We need to be out by 7.30 to make it to the start line for an 8.00am start.  On board the Luhrs, the excitement is electrifying.  Our on board commissionar...a French man from Corsica, and KaptanJr together with the boat skipper are entering the revised fishing zone coordinates into the GPS, Alfa Delta is his usual self, busy snapping away with his camera, capturing the various activities taking place on our boat and other boats, Nick is taking one last look at the lures and leaders, ensuring everything is well crimped, CLA144, mundinu and myself are busy arranging the rod setup...and off we go. Antoine and Nick head up onto the tuna tower to get the best vantage point for filming/photo's, unfortunately when we approach the start position the skipper orders us down to the deck - he won't take no for an answer!!

We make it to the startline and position ourselves just port of a superyacht.  The Competition judges are calling out to each boat to take up position, and leave enough space in between boats to facilitate the run out to the fishing gorunds...The judge boat, a Pursuit 32 powered by 3, yes, you read right, 3 350HP verados, is setting the pace.  I hear the radio crackling...we've started the count down...10...9....8.....the Luhrs steadily picks up speed and we're already on plane.....7....6.....5......we're doing 20knts, a chopper is filming us, we all keep a lookout for the other boats......4....3......we're up to 23knts...the wake from the other boats is playing havoc with our stability......2....1......my heart is pumping.......LA Gara e' comminciata.....We're off.....the Luhrs is doing 28.9knts.....we whizz past a Storm 36, 2 Bertrams 50 and a Riviera 45 are just in front of us....I ask the skipper to follow them, (I've been tipped).....the wind is blowing a strong force 4, but this is nothing compared to yesterday....various boats head out in all directions, with one thing in common...seeking the best possible fishing ground!!!.

30 minutes later, the Riviera 45 is off the plane, and has already dropped her outriggers....I tell the captain to keep going out a bit further....5 minutes later...we throttle back, and our fisrt rod is deployed, while the skipper deploys the outriggers, we're all busy feeding out line, and snapping on release mechanisms from the outriggers....we're fishing.

As the hours tick away, complete radio silence...its becoming evident that the fish aren't biting today...we try all sorts of trolling patterns...up and down, zig zag, large circles...nothing....time to change the lures...  I spot a flurry of surface ativity, and tell the boat captain to steer in that direction.  The radio comes to life...'Combattimento in corso'....the Bertram I was tipped to follow discretely has hooked up a BFT....we're just 200mtrs away from it....I'm thinking we're next!!!.....again the VHF crackles...They lost it...tough....maybe it'll take our lure now....Nothing.  no bites, no strikes, not even a damn sound out of the reels.

By 3.00pm we are aware of only 2 confirmed catches...not much for the 40 boats taking part.  We loom dissapointed, but we're also happy...happy to have been here, taking part, out at sea....One hell of an experience.

At precisely 4.00pm, the competition director declares the tournament closed.  That's it, its finished.  We slowly reel in the lures, put away the rods, and at 20knts make our way back to port again.   We enter port, and head for the refuelling station.  We refuel, and in all...yes here it comes guys...remember the Luhrs is powered by 2 450HP CATs...for 7 hrs trolling, and 30mintes doing 28.9knts, and about 45 minutes doing 20knts, we burn 269lts of fuel.  Remember, there are 8 persons on board, a full fuel tank (1500 litres), and a full water tank.  This is unbelievable.  

We arrive at our berth, and I jump down onto the marina, and make my way towards the PR yacht club to inspect the catches.  In all, 5 boats come in with one catch each...3 pastardellas, and 2 dentici.  The winner, a 22.6kg pastardella, the other 2 pastardella are too small to qualify, and 2 dentici, one of 6 kgs and 1 5.3kgs.  

We head back to the villa in a rush, we need to be at PR by 8.00pm for the dinner and presentation but we get stuck in traffic and with 6 guys all needing to shower it's around 8.45pm by the time we find parking and get there.  We all talk about todays' event, in particular the start of the competition, and the fuel consumption.   We are all amazed by what we experienced today.  

Down at PR dinner, we meet up and mingle.  Dinner is a pasta with red marinara sauce followed by pork, sausages and slightly undercooked Spnott.  We still enjoy the evening, but the days events are slowing draining us of any energy left inside us, so we decide to call it a day and head back to our lodgings to crash out!  

Monday - Last day at Sardinia.

We do not set an agenda for today, rather we all awake around 8.00am after a well deserved rest.  Alfa Delta is busy preparing breakfast, while Nick, Mundinu and myself take off all reels from the rods.  
We have breakfast, wrap up the rods in their protective bubble plastic, into the drain pipes, and pack up the array of fishing tackle.  

At the airport, total confusion.  Our flight is delayed by 1hr.  We originally had a 90min stop over at Naples airport before we board the Airmalta flight to Malta.  We're thinking now, we'll never make it on time.  Ground attendant is telling us we need to check in again at Naples, including all our baggage.  Impossible, we start thinking of alternatives.  Antoine and myself approach the Meridiana desk and pour out our problem to the attendant.  She takes matters in hand, re checks our baggage direct to Malta, but we still need to phyisically check in.  No porblem, Nick is already on the phone to Charles (Clutch_kick)...explaining our problem.  No promises, but he'll look after us.  Our spirits start to lift, we might make it today after all.  We land at Naples and run like mad towards the check in desk for Airmalta.  Nothing...we can't see it.  Its closed.  We approach the meridiana desk, and they kindly issue us with new boarding cards.  Again, rush through security, and finally make it to the gate. Boarding the plane, I send one final msg to the wife..we made it...see you in 2hrs!!.

We land in Malta after an uneventful flight.  Down at the baggege reclaim, we eagerly await our luggage.  1st out are our rods, and our expectations are high that our luggage made it too.  20 minutes later, we're all still looking at the mouth of the carousel, waiting for all our bags...6 pieces of them, including all our reels, lures, and personal belongings.  Nothing.  We head towards the lost baggege desk, put in our claim, and are greeted by family members in the arrival lounge.


So folks, thats a fair account of our experience in the Big Game Porto Rotondo tournament.  We thoroughly enjoyed it, learnt alot from the experience, and hopefully next year the same team can try a different tourney.  We are all now members of Big Game Italia, which will serve the purpose for contacts, networking and sharing experiences.  

PS.  Our luggage has been finally traced, its still in Naples airport, and will be delivered on the next flight out from Naples tomorrow.

[placebo]

simply awesome experience ....... you all must feel winners at heart!

[robby017]

that beats any novel any day.... enjoyed reading every detail, well done to all.

[clutch_kick]

Well at least you guys got to see a 'fishermen' boat show. Although the competition was not ideal, the weather unfortunately is an unpredictable force, at least you guys got to meet and mingle with other people who can teach us a lot! (well some of them maybe).

Unfortunately your Meridiana woes are not an isolated incident.  I had trouble going to Cagliari and coming back also.  I urge you guys to write to Air Malta, maybe somebody will pull Meridiana's ear!  On another note, since you guys were in the Terminal in Naples, there was no way I was going to let my buddies remain on the ground

Now show us the pictures!

[skip]

Alfadelta was our official paprazzi photographer in every sense of the word! He risked life and limb to get some truly unique shots!!!!! That included a wall of water that came straight at him taking photographs and me with the video camera resulting on both devices getting wet with sea water. I think his camera lens faired worse than mine, but only time will tell.

I will try and have some video footage up soon (unedited for the time being) so that you can get a general idea.

[The_Gaffer]

Skip - I can second that post.  We have some fantastic footage and pics shot at impossible angles of that wall of water coming towards us.  For the benefit of our MFF friends here, while the Luhrs was doing 28.9knts, we encountered a rogue wave which was about 3.5 to 4 mtrs high....this wave was demolished, thats the appropriate word to use here, demolished by the bows of the Luhrs, with the consequence that the remnants of that wave after hitting the bow came towards our camera crew. 

[shanook]

WELL DONE (had to shout that) a remarkable experience, makes me wish I was younger........it sounds fantastic.......
thanks for the detailed write up NOW for the pictures..........

[benri]

looks like you had a hell of a time
Pics please!

[polidmar]

Gaffer .. 6points for the fishing ... 10+points for the writing.  Hell .. you should be writing books whilst trolling out there in silence Well done to all