Cockayne tops at fishing

Mar 21, 2005

LAST week, six power boats, with 19 dedicated anglers on board, converged on the River Nile below Murchison Falls in Uganda to contest the 2005 Murchison Falls International Sport Fishing Tournament.

LAST week, six power boats, with 19 dedicated anglers on board, converged on the River Nile below Murchison Falls in Uganda to contest the 2005 Murchison Falls International Sport Fishing Tournament.

The inaugural event involved a total of 13 different nationalities.

After four, separate hard-fought, half day fishing sessions, during which all competitors were rotated around the various allowable fishing points on the river, longtime Uganda resident Tony Cockayne emerged as Grand Champion on the Sunday evening.

Fishing aboard Classic Africa Safari’s magnificent Sea Master, Tony’s points tally hit an impressive 350 and included a 110lb Nile Perch, two Bagrus Catfish over 35lbs and a 22lb Vundu Catfish.

The runner up was New Zealander Paul Magee, from Entebbe, who scored 200 points with a bag of eight fish, including Bagrus Catfish, Sharptooth Catfish and Tigerfish. Third place went to Swede Gustaf Brew with 160 points. Gustaf’s best fish was a 45lb Nile Perch.

Icelander Bjarni Hardasson, Kevin Sutton and Tony Cockayne won the Team prize. Tony completed his ‘great day at the office’ hat-trick by also taking home the prize for the biggest fish!

In his address, the Guest of Honour, the Deputy Director of Field Operations Uganda Wildife Authority, Mr John Makombo, expressed his huge pleasure at the successful outcome of this international event and asked the organizers to bring it back to Murchison the following year.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});