MANS SA's 2010 UITSLAE - LOSKOP DAM

 

Die mans kampioenskappe te Loskopdam het plaasgevind vanaf 13 tot 18 Februarie 2010.

Gauteng Noord oorheers die kampioenskappe met hul vier Senior hengelaars onder die top agt hengelaars en hul twee veterane onder die top vyf hengelaars.  Baie geluk aan Gauteng Noord met die skitterende uitslae.

Boet Rabie van Gauteng Noord wen die kampioenskappe met Michael Stammer van Gauteng  tweede en Mike Kruger van Gauteng Noord derde.

Keith Humphreys van Kwazulu Natal wen die Veterane met Lieb Grabie van Gauteng Noord tweede en John Arnold van Kwazulu Natal derde.

Gauteng Noord wen die span kompetisie in beide die seniors en veterane afdelings.

Suid Kaap is tweede by die seniors en Sentraal Gauteng derde.

Kwazulu Natal se A en B spanne kom tweede en derde in die veterane afdeling.

 

Volledige uitslae op uitslae blad.

 

Baie geluk aan al die hengelaars wat presteer het.

EFSA TOURNAMENT

SCOTLAND

 

The ladies Protea angling team departed for Johannesburg International airport on Wednesday 29^th of July and arrived in Scotland on the 30^th of July.  Once the team had found their feet and had settled down, contending with their luggage which had gone missing for two days. The 31^st of July was the practice day, the England team were kind enough to borrow the ladies the necessary rods, reels and tackle until there luggage arrived.  The following day it was off to registration, the ladies received there boat draws for the week and familiarized themselves with their boats and met their co anglers and skippers alike.  On the Sunday was the parade of the flags and the official opening ceremony.  At the welcoming that evening we received a fine traditional Scottish welcome.

 

After all the formalities it was down to business.  The competition was fished in two parts.  The first four days was an open line class competition and the team fished hard in the trying conditions.  Ladies, juniors and seniors fished together on different boats every day and fished a specie format.  Each specie had a token and the anglers fished against the anglers on their relevant boat, working on a percentage system.  Completely different experience to the way the LTB anglers in South Africa fish.  Each boat having approx. 8 to 9 anglers from different countries.  Not knowing too much about the different techniques for each specie, the ladies found this very difficult.  Never the less the ladies fished hard and lasted the four days, unlike some other countries

The results for the boat championships were as follows (141 anglers)

 

• (120)    Helen Mothersole

• (130)    Benita Fisher

• (132)    Belinda Eberhardt

• (134)    Charmaine Schroeder

• (136)    Vanessa Stammer

 

The second leg of the competition (1 day only), was fished with 6kg issued line class.  By now the ladies had got the hang of things and pulled out all the stops.  This leg of the competition was measure and release and the anglers with the most length (total) percentage system per boat won the competition.

Once again ladies, junior’s and seniors competed against one another on their relevant boat drawn.

The results for the line class competition were as follows (137 anglers) 

• Helen Mothersole                    2^nd lady / 22 over-all (913 length)

• Belinda Eberhardt                   4^th lady / 49 over-all (975 length)

• Vanessa Stammer                    7^th lady / 101 over- all (151 length)

• Benita Fisher                           8^th lady / 108 over-all (185 length)

• Charmaine Schroeder              9^th lady / 114 over-all (161 length)

  

An outstanding achievement was achieved by Helen Mothersole for coming 2^nd and receiving a silver medal in the line class section for ladies and a gold medal for catching the most fish on one day by a lady during the competition.

The ladies had a wonderful time and earned the respect of their fellow anglers.  They were asked to return for future EFSA events as they would give the true die hard anglers a run for their money with the knowledge and determination that our ladies had gained.

 A sincere thank you to SALTBAA for allowing us the opportunity to represent our country and to partake in such a prestige’s event.

 

Yours in Angling

Belinda Eberhardt

(Captain Protea Angling Ladies Team)

Zone 6, Kariba Lake

Zimbabwe

Zone 6 U/21 the Skippers  tale

 

The first time I heard the name Kariba was in the late seventies movie “The siege of Kariba” or something like that where a terrorist group took some hostages and threatened to blow up the dam wall. Since then Kariba had a special place in my heart. A team of Special Forces set the hostages free but I must admit that Kaptein Takuza would have done it on his own, a story for another day. 

For those who don’t know, the Zone 6 competition is a Light Tackle Boat angling tournament held every year in December between the SADAC countries, but for the last couple of years only Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa competed as well as a Zone 6 team which consisted of the previous year’s winners. Almost like the rugby Tri Nations. 

Lake Kariba is big, much bigger that the piece of water between Cape Point and Hangklip, the expanses is such that the water goes over the horizon, in fact the lake it is more that 300km long and most places over 50km wide.

Why it’s called Lake Kariba I do not know, maybe it was a lake before it became a dam.  

Kariba is well known for Tiger fish but some of the other species are a mystery on its own. Eastern Bottle Nose, Cornish Jack, Vundu, and Chessa. What is a bigger mystery is that some of these are only found below the Victoria Water falls. Once you have seen them you do not even want to drink the water which means swimming is out of the question as well and if you are still not afraid the crocks will definitely get you. Some of the fish we did know is Barbel, Squeaker and some of the bream species.  

The competition was held over a 3 day period making up 3 tests and the competition was limited to 5 fish per specie with minimum weigh restrictions as well as a scoring factor, which mean that scares fish were given a higher score. For instance a 7kg Tiger would score the same as a 250 gram Silver Barbel. Life is not fare but who cares. 

With the political problems in Zim and most of the people with boats gone we had to take our own. With Cape Town 3000 km from Kariba we had to look for a small boat to tow. Eventually a 14.6ft, very narrow centre consol Trimcraft, later to become known as the Little Red Boat, with a heavy duty trailer and 40 Yamaha was purchased in Plett and 2 days later we were on our way.  

To commit suicide is easier than to get through Beitbridge border post. With no papers for the vehicle we had to grease some palms, they were full of smiles and me 4000 rand poorer. But it was worth it, only 45 min to clear customs on both sides whereas the other South Africans took almost 4 hours but at a cost of a mere 350 rand. 

Numerous road blocks consisted of a 44 gallon drum in the middle of the road and toll gates all over the show, only a hand held out for 1 USD or 8 rand.

 

I skipped for the two of the Zone 6 U/21 juniors, de Wet and Hannes, both winners from previous Tri Nation competitions but there is no advantage when you go to Kariba and compete against Zimbabwe on their home waters. The other 2 members of our 4 man team were both U/16’s with uncle Tommy as the skipper. 

The first 2 days were set aside for practice and the third was supposed to be a rest day. With us not getting fish on the practice days we decided to try again on the off day, a wise decision we can now say. We were pointed to a bunch of trees and off we went, bang, bang and we were into big Squeakers.

 

Day 1:

We woke up to rain and thunder and it took us more than an hour to get to our fishing spot.

De Wet brought a 1.5kg Tiger, a Barbel of 2.5kg, Eastern Bottel Nose of 1kg and some squeaker and Silver Barbel to the scale and ended 7^th for the day. 

Hannes only brought 5 squeakers and 4 Silver Barbel to the scales and came 3^rd. We were surprised. 

Some of the other boats brought big Tigers, Barbel and even Vundu but with the scoring system against them our minds went into overdrive.

 

Day 2:

With the results from day 1 the stage was set and we were ready for day 2. We were going to catch small fish that it worth a lot of points and we did. 

Hannes was full on Squeaker and Silver Barbel, with De Wet on 4 each and battling to full his quota we had to decide what specie next, so we went for Bream, something we had never targeted before in our lives. Anchor the boat in 1 to 2 meters of water and drift into the weed with the wind and then start dipping your earthworm into the openings. Soon De Wet was starting to land various species with Hannes short on his tail. Great fun I must say. 

Once again we went to the scales with a small bucket of fish and won the day with a first and second place.

 

Day 3:

Same tactics as day 2 but the Squeaker and Silver Barbel did not play with, all undersize, must have been the rivers that started to flow after the previous days rain .The Breams played there part and the anglers finished 3^rd and 6^th.

 

Prize Giving:

Hannes ended 4^th, the highest of the South Africans and was selected for the Zone 6 junior team 2010, De Wet 5^th, and our boat 3^rd  of the junior boats. In fact this result was such that these 2 juniors scored more than the 4 member Protea junior team as well as most of the senior and lady boats. As a U/21 team we ended 2^nd overall with 2 u/16’s in the team.

 

Our strategy gave us bragging rights but sadly we have no big fish photos to put on the wall which means we will have to go back some day. 

As a final conclusion I can say that the money we have spent on quiver tip rods whilst fishing in previous World Boat Angling Championships was worth every Euro. These rods have very thin and sensitive tips and essential when small fish is the target. Further I can say that you don’t need a big boat with a 300hp motor to do well in Kariba, but it does help to get there faster. 

The star of the show – definitely the Little Red Boat and don’t forget the skipper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next year this competition will be held in Namibia or Cahora Bassa, Mozambique and we can’t wait.  

That is if we make the team. 

Joseph van Huyssteen

Zone 6 U/21 Skipper

9^th, U/21 World Boat Angling Championship

Pornichet, France

 

 

 

Been there, done that and have a couple of T shirts to proof it. 

Yes we are back and can proudly say that we were not last and that we did beat Belgium. The fact that they had a girl in their team is beside the point, or so our juniors tell me. 

Only 7 junior teams competed, 35 anglers in total. The results in the end indicated France 1^st, Italy 2^nd, Croatia 3^rd, Slovenia 4^th, Germany 5^th, South Africa 6^th and Belgium 7^th. 

We started off with a 7^th place on day 1 which set us back and a 6^th on day 2, and 3^rd on day 3 was not enough to make a difference to the final outcome. We needed 2 more days. Germany just beat us by a close margin. Just by the way they also had a girl in there team, build like a small brick outhouse. 

The fishing was done close to shore, 6 to 12 m of water and mainly consisted of Pouting. Apparently the water was too rough to go into the deeper water, but for us it would have been an average day on Langebaan. All our anglers had to cough up and purchase quiver tip rods, an expensive round. 

Points were awarded, 1 for Pouting, 2 for El Dorado and up to 5 for Congers and weight played no factor at all. 

The legal size for Pouting is 180mm and other species were a little bit bigger but the best was when our boys started to catch big Conger’s on the practice day. They lost all sense of reasoning but who could blame them when they are used to catch big sharks and rays. 

5 anglers were catching fish from each boat and the skippers played a major role in the outcome. Some boats would get into the fish and between the 5 anglers they would catch 750 legal size fish and the next boat would only have 50. 

The sad part of the competition was that it was advertised as a catch and release competition but in practice that is not what happened. Each and every Pouting, and it must be thousands, were released back into the sea, dead. Although no official records were released I can not think that of the other species that did survive was not more that 100 in total between 135 anglers which included the seniors. 

Our juniors were well behaved and not once did I have to raise my voice, although I must admit that I cursed the genius who designed the Vuvuzela, and so did half of France. 

What is interesting is to see how these juniors, who speak 7 different languages, get together after prize giving and communicate as if they know each other for years. I later realized that they spoke an international language, fishing. 

What is even better is to hear and see the passion of our juniors when they talk about our sport, fishing. On the way back home they only talked about the next local competition, what they will catch, where they will go and what they will use. Our sport is in good hands, well only until the girls get hold of them, but then it is the same all over the world, or so I was told by other managers. 

The next U/21 World Championship will be held in Germany, May 2010 and I urge SALTBAA to send a team, in fact to each and every World Championship in the future. I know the 2010 dates are not suiting us but that is the best time for angling in Germany.  

The question is if we can compete and bring medals home and honestly I do not see us do this as long as the competition is in waters where the fish are small or until we can practice together as a team before a competition and prepare on the possible conditions. 

As our juniors say “We buy bait we don’t catch it”. 

I suggest that SALTBAA forward a tender to host one of the future U/21 World Boat Angling Championships in South Africa. Believe me the world will come. 

Once again thank you for the opportunity to accompany the juniors, we had a good time and had a lot of fun but most of all it was an honor to represent our beautiful country, especially in Green and Gold.

 

Joseph van Huyssteen

U/21 Angling Manager