Zyg’s Gregorek Fishing Expedition Pakistan 2009
A very memorable week has ended. PGFA | The Pakistan Game Fish Association and its members have had the privilege of taking Mr. Zyg Gregorek angler extraordinaire on numerous fishing trips for monsters of the deep. However, the monsters were not in a biting mood. From the structures around Keamari, to Karamat, 123 and beyond, banana, 50 meter, Churna, dill ka pathar, hayat, gadoria, batti, wreck and just about all our main fishing locations were covered. We were beaten by green algae blooms covering the whole of khadda, bad weather, and a poor time of the season. Down but not out at all, we still persisted and fished our hearts out with one of the most enjoyable and vibrant characters it has ever been our pleasure to fish with. While target fishing it is really an all or nothing affair, we tried our best to get a monster fish but such is the sport of fishing that we were not able to achieve this specific result this time.
However, we did achieve a lot in this week. When viewing our fisheries from an outsider’s point of view we have realized that the destruction of our marine ecosystems is in a far more advanced state than even we realized. The PGFA is definitely on the right track as per what Zyg confirmed as we have all the objectives and are at various stages of working on our quest to save our seas. The potential is immense or else an angler of Zyg’s status would not have come here. Even though we all know that this time of the year is not optimum, we still made the most of his visit and fished 6 days out of the 8 he had available (we lost two days to bad weather).
We landed drums to Grouper, mackerel, barracuda, trevally and other fish and while targeting fish on bottom and drift fishing these results were quite decent. Trolling was not a major part of our aim and we focused on bottom and drift fishing.
We have learnt a tremendous amount from Zyg on the intricacies of bottom and bait fishing. But the greatest thing Zyg has given us has been the down to earth manner in which he meets people, freely shares information with all, NEVER gives up and has some very useful anecdotes which we can use “You only have a chance if you are out fishing, if not, you stand NO chance” being one of our favorites. So let us all pay tribute to Zyg by stepping up our commitment to save the marine environment, keep trying to catch better than average fish, and target fish with the same gusto and joy that Zyg manages to muster. As a close, I will say:
“Come to us o monsters of the deep, we will kiss and caress you and may be release you”
Little About Zyg
Zyg Gregorek has been hailed as the world’s greatest fisherman after becoming the first to claim big game fishing’s ultimate prize.
Zyg, 65, spent 18 years on his quest to catch all ten game species of billfish, nine of shark and eight of tuna.
In the world of big game fishing, bagging a specimen of each target species is known as a royal slam. Mr Gregorek is the first person to claim a full house of royal slams since records began in the 1950s.
Mr Gregorek’s quest took him a total of 150,000 miles, to South Africa, Australia, Mauritius, the Galápagos islands, the US, Madeira, Ascension Island and Mozambique.
He completed the full house when, off San Diego, he landed a 200lb thresher shark, a fish
he has tried to catch since 2004.
He was awarded his Shark Royal Slam by the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) for landing specimens of blue, hammerhead, mako, thresher, tiger, great white, tope, whaler and porbeagle.
He had previously also been awarded the Billfish Royal Slam to add to the Tuna Royal Slam he won last year.
Rob Kramer, president of the IGFA, based in Florida, hailed Mr Gregorek as “the world’s greatest fisherman” and described him as “totally unique”.
He said: “There are many awards out there for fishermen and anyone can throw in a line,
get lucky and pull out a record-breaking fish but this is something else. To achieve one
royal slam is impressive but to get all three is unheard of. He is the first and may be the
last. These awards really are the considered the big one, the holy grail. They are spectacular— travelling to exotic places and chasing a specific species of fish.
“It is not about luck — you have to research, to know exactly where to go and when. Zyg is a character and by definition he is the world’s greatest fisherman.”
Mr Gregorek, of Halwill, Devon, said that the achievement was “the end of a personal journey”.
He said: “I’ve certainly been around and I’ve had a fair few scrapes to get there. I owe a hearty thanks to my family and all the other skippers and crew who helped me. It’s cost a bomb but was worth it in the end. As long as I have my strength, I’ll go for big fish.”
He caught his first shark, a 40lb blue, off Padstow in Cornwall in 1996, followed by a 100lb mako in the Black River, Mauritius.
His 1,300lb great white he caught in Struis Bay, South Africa, in 2000.
“Tope and blue shark are plentiful in British waters, and I have caught them many times. I did catch a massive tope once which would have been a record-breaker but the captain had had too much wine and dropped it as it was being brought in,” he said.
“I caught the great white using a whaler shark as bait but the bull sharks are the real fighters.”
He is only the second man on record to catch all nine species of shark and the only person in history to catch three different species of shark over 1,000lb.
Gregorek told members of the British media he had been chasing the thresher shark since 2004 in trips to California waters, finally catching one this past May to complete the slam. Besides the thresher, the IGFA’s Shark Royal Slam consists of eight other shark species including hammerhead, blue, mako, tiger, white, tope, whaler, and porbeagle. He started his pursuit of sharks in 1996 in British waters catching a blue off Cornwall and later a tope and porbeagle off Devon. Two of his sharks were over 1000 lbs.; a 1300 lb great white in Struis Bay off S. Africa, and an 1100 lb tiger shark off Cairns, Australia.
The 69-year old IGFA has six royal slam "conservation" clubs. The slams consist of the angler catching all IGFA recognized species in certain categories.
The Billfish Royal Slam recognizes anglers catching, or catching and releasing nine species within the angler’s lifetime including Atlantic and Pacific sailfish, Atlantic and Pacific blue marlin, black marlin, striped marlin, white marlin, swordfish, and spearfish. Gregorek said some of the fish, like species of tuna, were caught while he was on the hunt for marlin.
The IGFA’s Tuna Royal Slam consists of an Atlantic or Pacific bigeye, blackfin, bluefin, dogtooth, longtail, skipjack, southern bluefin, and yellowfin.
While Gregorek’s obsession is fishing his profession is also the same. He and his wife Rose, own an estate on 170 acres called Anglers Paradise, with a series of villas which also encompasses more than a dozen lakes for fly and light tackle sportsmen to catch and release a variety of freshwater species including trout, carp, Wels catfish and golden orfe. “To complete all three slams is the culmination of many years work and the end of a personal journey. Ive certainly been around and Ive had a fair few scrapes to get there,” he told the U.K. media.
"I owe a hearty thanks to my family and all the other skippers and crew who helped me. Its cost a bomb but was worth it in the end. It has also been very humbling. Some of the crews who have helped me have been very poor. In Mozambique the crew asked if they could keep my catches because they were big enough to feed their entire village."