(Seychelles News Agency) - The Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean are known to have one of the richest big game fishing grounds in the world and it is therefore not strange that the islands’ sports fishing enthusiasts are starting to make the list of people honoured for outstanding accomplishment in the sport.

Following last Saturday’s South East Monsoon Sailfish Fishing Tournament organised by the Seychelles Sports Fishing Club (SSFC) two of the anglers who took part qualified to apply  to become members of two separate grand slam clubs of the International Game Fish Association (IGFA).

IGFA has many different grand slam clubs which honour an angler who manages multiple catches of a designated species in a single day.

Mike Mason qualified for an IGFA Offshore Super Grand Slam for catching a sailfish, wahoo, dorado and tuna, all in one day while Grant Heyer qualified for an IGFA Offshore Grand Slam for catching a sailfish, yellowfin tuna, and wahoo also all in one day.

Mason and Heyer were amongst the anglers who set off on Saturday August 9 at 3.00am local time defying rough sea conditions and strong winds to drop – off their lines in search of the heaviest sailfish, as well as rainbow runner, dorado, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, dogtooth tuna and barracuda.

Special K, Flick it, Island Star, Mimi 2, Ocean Bird, Marlin, Dalon and Kuki were the eight teams that took part in this fourth tournament organised by SSFC this year.

Heaviest fish caught in each category

Dorado 4.78kg Team Marlin

Wahoo 14.5kg by Team Marlin

Yellowfin Tuna 37.5kg by Team Marlin

Dogtooth Tuna 17.5 Team Kuki

Barracuda 55kg by team Kuki

In addition to bringing in the heaviest dogtooth tuna and barracuda team Kuki also brought in a 36.5kg sailfish to win the most-coveted prize, for the heaviest sailfish.

In an article published in daily newspaper ‘Today in Seychelles’ on Monday August 11, team Kuki’s captain Tarak Patel, also the SSFC’s Chairman said the prized sailfish was caught at 8.30am some 5 and a half hours into the tournament.

“We were 50 miles from Mahé when we caught the sailfish. It took us nearly half an hour to reel it in as it put up quite a fight,” he said.

The hardship dealing with rough sea condition and strong winds paid off for Kuki as the team managed to total up 912.5 points in the end to emerge as the overall winner of the 2014 South East Monsoon Sailfish Fishing Tournament.

The other main prize, the Billfish Release trophy went to team Special K which also emerged as the overall runner up with 869.18 points.

Special K was rewarded for having tagged and released the most billfish (such as blue marlins, sailfish and swordfish). The team managed to tag and release 3 sailfish, for which they provided video footage to SSFC at the weigh-in to be eligible for this prize.

This was the second time SSFC had encouraged anglers to take part in its tag and release programme in collaboration with the Billfish Foundation.

“The SSFC SE Monsoon Sailfish Tournament surpassed SSFC's expectations with numerous achievements both locally and internationally that will help elevate Seychelles to the best fishing destination in the World," SSFC Secretary Grant Heyer told SNA.

The next sports fishing tournament in Seychelles will be the SSFC La Digue Offshore Tournament on October 24.

This will see sports fishing enthusiasts converge to the third most populated Seychelles island of la Digue for one of only two tournaments remaining for this year on SSFC’s calendar