The RBFC 2014 Classic

This is where it all starts...at the Rawai Fishing Club HQ with a beer or two and enjoying the stunning views across Rawai and of the outlying islands.

 Rawai is at the southern end of Phuket and contains the Sea Gypsy Village where we go for our famous fresh seafood feasts!




The Rawai Beach Fishing Club's 2014 Classic boat fishing competition took place on 25th to 27th February. 20 boats with teams of four took part with fishing centred around (but three miles offshore) of the Similan Islands Lat 8.30N and 97.40E.

The boats travelled overnight from several mainland ports ready to start gathering offshore on the 25th (here's four of the Game Boats milling about) for the 0800 start gun. Competitors were allowed to fish non-stop until 1600 on the 27th if they so wished. This meant that the event was very much a 'Liveaboard' event as the boats were so far offshore. Boats that could not accommodate their anglers in this way used the 'Mother Boat' M.V. Phoenix which was stationed close to the shelter of Similan Island Number 4 and where Nok, Phoenix's brilliant Thai chef, conjured up amazing dinners for the 30 of us onboard.

 I know you readers don't know these lads (well, you may know one of them) but these men are all part of our great angling brotherhood and so it's just nice to see the fish they caught and to dleight in their success.

There were some excellent Giant Trevelly caught with the best weighing in at 16.3kg as caught by Anton Arefiev from Russia who fished aboard 'Zoom Zoom' in the Ardent Angler team.

 Wahoo to 12.8kg, Barracuda to 7.1kg and King Mackerel to 7.5kg all featured along with Dorado to 8.2kg, Trevally to 16.5kg and tuna to 10.4kg.

 Happy lads with some hard fighting game fish.....

                                                      One of the participating Game Boats

And here's our friend George Blacksmith. George is from Airdrie, Scotland and is a regular angler out of Weymouth having fished with me aboard the Rebel on a 5 day Channel Island trip last year. George is a very experienced angler and just loves to fish...he's also great fun to have around so it was an unexpected pleasure to discover he was participating. Here's George with a 10kg wahoo which set the standard on Day One.

George also set the pace in the Dorado category with a very nice 4.6kg dorado which was beaten later in the event.

 Monody Anderson from South Africa (but working and living in Phuket) with the 'other species' category winner with his 12.3kg bullhead grouper. Monody's team, KP, fished aboard Chok Taranee and won several species categories with a methodically successful approach to each different type of fish. although the big points are taken by the billfish, Monody's team took first equal place with the Autralian team Fish Darwin fishing aboard Sangtom, by deliberately targetting the 'lesser' fish but catching enough of them to equal the billfish scores with 110 points.

 Another nice dorado of 8.2kg.................taking first place in the Dorado section for 'The Snoodles'..

 King Mackerel...wouldn't it be great if our mackerel went this big.

And another cracking G.T of 15.8kg.

Best marlin measured 167cm and the best sailfish came to 203cm.

Next year's event will be in early March 2015. the event is open to all. if any of you chaps out there fancied entering or even getting a team together as part of a holiday over here that you are guaranteed to enjoy...then let me know and I can set up communications with the organisers for you.