EFSA Big Game Fishing Championships And Exotic Bottom Fishing Boat Cup

THAILAND
NOVEMBER 20th until DECEMBER 4th 2004

Alltogether 87 participating members and further 30 guests took the invitation of the EFSA programme. The chosen area was Phuket island with the good fishing possibilities in the Andaman Sea, as well as the excellent accommodation and restaurants of the Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort as our host hotel, was selected by EFSA Chairman Horst Schneider.22 teams participated in the open team trolling game fishing Championship and in the open team exotic boat fishing Cup. 16 teams from the 9 represented EFSA Nations competed in the further trolling championship, limited to a maximum of two teams from each member Section.

It was not so easy to co-operate with the crews of the special "Thai- Big Game Fishing Boats", as most of them did not speak any English or European language. As the success of fishing depends in some degree to the quality of the communication, some of the teams had problems some days. The influence was not that big as the teams changed their boats each day. In general one can say that the fishing was good, the cheap chartered boats for the kind of fishing useful and the majority of the crew members extremely polite.

As well as various sailfish and some small marlin, barracuda, bonito, cobia, dolphin- fish, jacks, king-mackerel, rainbow-runners, Spanish-mackerel, spearfish, tuna and wahoo were caught during trolling. The exotic fishing brought further bottom species to the scales; grouper, rays, shark, skate and snapper.

The Winning EFSA Teams:

EFSA OPEN TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP GAME FISHING TROLLING 2004:
		Position Points	Competition Points
Champions	DENMARK B	74	373	KJELD PEDERSEN, KLAUS R. PEDERSEN, JAN RING, ERIK CARSTEN NIELSEN
2nd Place	GERMANY A	64	503	KURT MUSKAT, HOLGER DAMERIUS, BRERNHARDT BOLDT, DANIEL BOLDT
3rd Place	NORWAY OPEN	62	480	EGIL HOLMEDAL, AUD H. HOLMEDA, ST. PARKINSON, GEIR SOLLAND
EFSA NATIONAL TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP EFSA GAME FISHING TROLLING 2004:
CHAMPIONS	DENMARK B	74	373	KJELD PEDERSEN, KLAUS R. PEDERSEN, JAN RING, ERIK CARSTEN NIELSEN
2nd Place	GERMANY A	64	503	KURT MUSKAT, HOLGER DAMERIUS, BRERNHARDT BOLDT, DANIEL BOLDT
3rd Place	SOUTH AFRICA A	45	373	TREVOR HANSEN, TIM CHRISTY, ANTON GETS, HENRY KOSTHUITZEN
1st Place	SOUTH AFRICA B	83	154	JOHAN BESTER, WILLEM PRETORIUS, BRENDON CRONEY, ROB HEMPHILL
2nd Place	GIBRALTAR A	70	99	JESUS BALBAN, VALERIE BALBAN, JOHN GONZALES, SUSAN GONZALES
3rd Place	SOUTH AFRICA A	67	59	TREVOR HANSEN, TIM CHRISTY, ANTON GETS, HENRY KOSTHUITZEN

The Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort offered all participants its excellent facilities. The welcome party, the meetings and the unforgettable prize giving with the gala dinner, each organised with folklore and local music, took place at this luxury hotel area. The spirit of the beautiful and clean country, with its beautiful flowers and scenery, especially the nice and very polite people, will stay in the mind of the EFSA Thailand visitors.

Kurt Muskat