TEAM TROPPO WINS THE SAVII GFC "ASAU CLASSIC"

This years “Asau Classic” was held over Friday & Saturday of last week. It was another fantastic example of just how good the fishing is off the north coast of Samoa's BIG ISLAND Savaii. 15 boats and their teams of dedicated anglers competed over two days, experiencing perfect weather, good fishing, awesome hospitality, great comrade and heaps of FUN. As expected, Capt Hoppo, Randy and Tautua fishing aboard our flagship Pure Indulgence, put in the hard yards and came away with the win.

The first day saw plenty of action with most boats landing fish. Team Baby Blue drew first blood, landing a nice wahoo off the north coast of Upolu as they headed for Savaii. Team Fua II was next with a nice masimasi as they headed out of Asau towards the FAD off the coast from Safotu. However, after steaming all night and arriving at dawn to fish their favourite marks Team Troppo, fishing aboard Pure Indulgence jumped into the lead by landing a solid asiasi (YFT). Then team Double Down landed the first blue marlin of the competition. The game was ON! As the morning progressed the hot, calm conditions made for a slow bite. Then boom, Champion SIGFA junior angler Michael Levy aboard Roadie and champion SIGFA ladies angler Maria Gay aboard Fua II both landed solid asiasi. Other teams who were trolling off shore, were also landing asiasi, masimasi and wahoo. Around lunchtime, Randy, fishing aboard Pure Indulgence landed a solid wahoo. Meanwhile those teams working the reefs were landing plenty of inshore species. The afternoon progressed in a similar fashion with plenty more fish being landed.

After the weigh in and the opening of the tournament festivities on Friday night, day two started with Pure Indulgence in the lead. Not by much, but enough to get all teams working on solid plans that could help them jump Team Troppo and put them back in the race. The weather on the second, final day of the tournament could only be described as “Glassy”. Great for boating, but not so great for Fishing! Five thirty am saw some boats heading east of Asau to where the action was on the first day while some teams went straight out the front to where multiple marlin were hooked but not many landed. Some teams gambled big and went up to 40mls west to Sterns Bank. Due to the calm hot water it was slow generally, a slower bite than the first day. However, most teams still managed to find fish. Team Troppo fished Sterns bank for a good catch of a marlin and masimasi. After running to Sterns Bank and finding zip, Nico and Team Baby Blue flew back to just wide of Asau and landed a solid asiasi, while Capt Vaughan and Team Fua II found the asiasi late in the afternoon off the north coast, landing a solid fish after a double hookup. Team Sea Lord landed a good catch of wahoo and masi, while inshore maestro Paul Caffarelli and his team aboard Mageso continued to slay the trevally, sao sao and any other toothy critters they could find. By the end of what was a very competitive two days it was going to be very interesting to learn which team came out on top. However, by the time we made it back to Asau and after such a long hot day there was only one thing on my mind… an ice cold Taula!