KARACHI, Nov 3: The 19th TKO 2008 — The Karachi Offshore Sportfishing Tournament - concluded recently at the WWF Wetland Centre at the Sandspit where angler Waqas Masroor was declared tournament champion for landing a 9.25kg Trevally.

Special Catch of the Tournament was a sailfish weighing 24kg and was caught by angler Liaqat Khan. Before the break of dawn, from around 5 a.m. onwards, anglers started gathering at the picturesque Mubarrak Village to lock horns for the second big fishing event of the season. From the Village, 37 anglers on 13 boats, after collecting their scorecards were flagged-off by Agha’s Sportfishing Tournament Committee at 6:15 am.

The weather was very hot and the participants, that included a lady angler and a child angler participants, between the ages of 8 to 15 years had to brave the heat all day.

The main areas that were scanned by the anglers included Nancowry Shoal, Bauchamp Reel, Charna Island, Hubco, Kaio Island and Kachiani.

At around 4:00p.m the team boats along with their fish started returning back and some teams off loaded their day’s catch from their bigger vessels on to smaller ferry boats, because Mubarrak Village lacks proper fishing piers. From there, the anglers moved on to the WWF Wetland Centre for getting their catch weighed.

At the Wetland Centre, seven species of gamefish were reported for the day. These included Mackerel, Trevally, Mahi Mahi, Queenfish, Grouper, Barracuda and Sailfish, the special catch for the day.

The chief guest for the day, Orooj Ahmed Ali, who is the current saltwater angling champion of Pakistan, alongwith Tournament Director Aziz Agha and Rab Nawaz of WWF handed the prizes to the winners.

Waqas got the winner’s prize while the runner-up angler was Mansoor-ul-Haq as he landed an 8.5 kg Mackerel. Third position went to angler Mohammed Ali Kazmi for his 8 kg Mahi Mahi.—Agencies