Fins fishing team, comprising of Ray Finnit and sons Blair and Gream and his brother Dave Finaughty, successfully defended the Kariba Invitational Tiger Fishing Tournament (KITFT) title, beating 55 other teams in a three-day fishing contest that ended on Friday at the National Anglers’ Union of Zimbabwe site at Charara, Kariba.
BY DANAI CHIGOWE
Though it was a difficult outing for most of the teams, with the second day being characterised by big waves because of strong winds, Fins managed to catch 60 tigers, weighing 120,995kg. Glow Trek Petroleum was the closest after catching 57 tiger fishes weighing 103,765kg.
It was anglers Shiloh Swart and Gideon Benade who contributed most points for the runners-up team, as they caught 26 (47,680kg) and 23 (43,190kg) tigers to clinch the first and second positions respectively in the individuals log standings.
Dave top-scored for the Fins team with 16 tigers with a total mass of 39,335kg to clinch the third spot.
Unfortunately for the Fins and the rest of their competitors, they couldn’t manage to catch a fish weighing 10kg or above to claim a reward that came with achieving that feat courtesy of one of the contest’s main sponsors Isuzu Zimbabwe.
“It was a tough competition, but it’s always sweet to come out tops. Unfortunately, nobody could catch anything above 10kg to drive the Isuzu truck top prize,” Fins captain Ray Finnit said.
This year’s biggest catch was caught on the first day of the biggest fishing extravaganza in the land by Trevor Merrier, weighing 9,760kg, narrowly missing the required target for the Isuzu reward by less than 300 grammes. The second biggest catch was 9,2kg. KITFT tournament director Rod Bennet was, however, impressed by how things panned out in this year’s edition.
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“I’m so glad that we managed to once again hold this tournament which is the 56th edition with 56 teams. Unfortunately, no team managed to take home the biggest prize of a brand new Isuzu KB250 fleetside bakkie courtesy of Isuzu Zimbabwe. Next year we are back again and we promise a bigger and better event.”
The current Zimbabwean record of 16,1kg was caught in Kariba in 2001.
The top 10 teams from this tiger fishing jamboree will now meet at the Test of the Best Contest in February next year.
