The LBGT (held last week in Angola) was once again a great success with good fishing that improved each day as the four-day event went on. In the end, total catch totals included 21 blue marlin, 15 Sailfish and 18 White marlin (all tagged & released except one blue marlin that was boated).
In addition there were 5 wahoo, 7 yellowfin tuna over 10kg with largest 35.5kg and 117 dorado over 8 kg with largest 25kg
The winning team and by a significant margin, was TEAM DELTA who amassed an impressive 5205 points with 7 white marlin, 1 blue marlin and a sailfish. This included an incredible 5 white marlin on the first day. There have only ever been 3 white marlin caught in all the years of tournaments in Angola and they beat this in one day! They blanked on 2nd day but caught another white and a blue on 3rd day and topped it off with their 7th white on the final day.
In second place was JIKULA O MESO with 3459 points the result of 2 blues, 2 whites, 1 sailfish and dorados. On the last day they became the firtst boat in Angola to catch a boat grand slam
In third place was TEAM NAUTICO with 1blue, 2 whites and 2 sailfish plus tuna and dorado for 3319 points
In fourth place was MARLINHEIROS with 2 blues, 1 white and 2 sailfish plus tuna and dorado for 3049 points
TEAM DELTA won a very special prize which the funds for air travel, hotel accommodation and practice charter fees to participate at the IGFA WOC in 2013 so you can be sure they will be going!
Although white marlin have been caught there occasionally this event produced a lot of them and many raised and missed too. After 4 days 18 had been tagged & released with TBF tags and two more were released after the event.
The reason for this appearance must be to do with the much cooler temperatures we have had along the Angolan coast since mid December. Normally in February the sea off Lobito is in the mid to high 80s ºF but this year the water barely reached 77 ºF and was 70 ºF in the bay. Blue water was much further offshore and boats were catching them in 1000+metres 25+nm offshore whereas normally boats rarely need to venture further than 12-15nm from coast to be in good blue water and fish the drop off.
Most were caught in water of 74-76ºF. None of these fish were boated and all were released with a tag and hopefully they will pop up somewhere else to shed some light on their route to Angola!
