Just Another fishing tale – Rasspl Africa nationals 2015
On the 29th of April this year RASSPL anglers from all over South Africa converged on the tiny seaside village of Kidds Beach in the Eastern Cape. This was to be basecamp for what promised to be South Africas’ and Rasspl’s biggest rock and surf pro event ever and im sure most who attended will agree, it certainly was. With over R820000 worth of prizes on offer and 160 anglers participating, the biggest question on everybody’s mind wasn’t , who was going to win the vehicles or walk away with top honours but rather, was the typically unpredictable weather and sea conditions of this region going to play ball. With everyone registered on the system and settled into their accommodation venues by 8pm that evening, it was time to have supper and hit the sack to dream about baits and strategies for what was going to be a cracker of a tournament!
With the 1st day of the 3 day event kicking off at 7am on the morning of the 30th, all 160 participants made there first cast into a relatively calm sea, although quite dirty from the Keiskamma river flowing out into the sea and westwards toward Birha, great catches are always expected and become the norm along this pristine piece of coastline. The area for day 1 would be between Keiskamma and Birha river mouths. The sea temp was a tad cold so many of the seasoned anglers tried their luck at enticing a early morning raggy but amazingly it was not to be, in fact not one single raggy turned up for the entire duration of the 3 day event, this on the ultimate raggy coastline in SA, go figure. The weather prediction for the day was not a good one regarding wind though with a 60km/h southwester set to arrive by midday so anglers knew they simply had to make the very most of the early morning session. Kowie angler Darian Keeton and Borders’ Trevor Browne, took full advantage of the morning lull in wind by landing a 12kg kob and 7.6kg white steenbras respectively early on day 1. This was unfortunately not to set the tone though as by lines up at 3pm those same fish would secure biggest and 2nd biggest edible species on day 1 with the rest of the edible specimens coming in well under the 4kg mark. Biggest shark was a 6kg striped cat shark caught by Border angler Roger Lutge. Not too bad though considering that the monster southwester did in fact show up as predicted although some would argue, gusting even harder than 60km/h! It really did blow us off our feet, anglers took comfort in the fact that the prediction for the following 2 days would be exceptionally great with little to no wind predicted.
Day 2 arrived with very calm wind conditions but the sea still on the grubby and cold side. The show must go on though so at 7am all anglers having walked to their spot along the Kiwane coastline made their 1st cast into a sea, to everyone’s surprise, completely littered with as much seaweed as you can imagine! It was quite severe I must say with the arm muscles taking a beating pulling in huge clumps of the stuff, terrible to say the least. Darren Kurz from Border managed to evade the weed and wrangle a very impressive 7kg white steenbras far right of the Kiwane river mouth with southern capes’ Riaan Conradie managing a healthy 4kg kob. The wind may have played the part but make no mistake, the fishing was tough with big bites being a luxury! Once again a Kob and Steenie took top honours for the day concerning edible species with a 3.5kg lesser sandshark topping the shark category. one single blueray decided to grace us with its presence on day 2 with another Border angler, Andre Botha, being the lucky one landing a beautiful 10.6kg specimen on light tackle, great achievement!
Most anglers I spoke to at the end of day 2 reckoned Day 3 was thee day that both sea and weather conditions would be most favourable for some great angling, well lets say these predictions were half right. The area for Day 3 was big with boundaries being from Chulumna river mouth to a distant igoda river some 25km apart. Anglers were spread out nicely and yes, the conditions were certainly more favourable than the previous 2 days, still though the water temp was low resulting in the least amount of fish being caught on day 3.atleast the weed was gone! This was however the day that some big fish would make an appearance! Western Provinces’ Aiden Aspelling leading the charge with a truly impressive 77kg blacktip shark which also turned out to be a new rasspl Africa record and biggest shark of the tournament. Another amazing catch was a 4.4kg bronze bream caught by another western province angler Derek Niewoudt, this was a strong contender for catch of the tournament as any bronze bream over 4kg ranks up there as a top catch! Anthony Davis of Border managed 2nd spot for the day with a 4.5kg kob but top fish and most outstanding catch of the tournament went to “Mr. Reliable” himself, Shawn Mey from Southern Cape with a steamtrain 10.2kg white steenbras, caught at the death I might add.
With day 3 over and the rasspl Africa nationals all wrapped up it was time to pack the rods away, hit the showers and get all dolled up for prize giving festivities. Western Province won the gold with Hosts Border scooping Silver, Southern Cape rounded the trio off with a hard fought bronze in third place. Top individual angler went to Mike Bailey from Western province and top lady went to southern cape angler Lauren Ambler . Top masters angler was Border angler Colin Scheepers with eastern province Youngster, Daniel Dickinson taking the Top Junior position. With prize giving proceedings over, all attention was diverted to the 6 lucky anglers that each drew a Ford ranger key earlier. These 6 anglers had caught the biggest of 6 pre-determined species in the 2014/2015 franchise season and they would each get a chance to start the Ford Ranger double cab bakkie with the bearer of the key that started the van, winning the vehicle outright. Borders Derek Nicholson was up 1st but unfortunately to no avail, Steven Rodwell Odgen all the way from Namibia was up next but his short curse let us know he too wasn’t successful. Southern Capes’ Roudolph Tome was the 3rd angler to try and after a few moments saying a short prayer in the drivers seat, turned the key and the engine rumbled to life, just like that he was the owner of a brand new Ford Ranger Double Cab worth R300000! The remaining three anglers, Wade Labuschagne from Kowie, Southern Capes’ Ricky Taylor and Derek Niewoudt from Western province were only left to applaud and congratulate Roudolph. For these three unfortunately, The big one had got away! Better luck next time.
An important fact that must be mentioned was that We were lucky enough to have a research team from the Rhodes university ichthyology and fisheries science department headed by Dr. Warren Potts to watch over preceedings for the duration of the tournament with loads of data being recorded and samples taken as the fish were landed. This data, as Dr. Potts explained is a vital tool in accurately monitoring the health and abundancy of all coastal fish species effected by recreational shore angling. A total of 1486 fish were caught during this nationals event covering 32 different species with a total weight of 947kg. The real winner of this tournament was the fact that 947kg of fish was caught but more importantly successfully released back into the ocean! Bare in mind that this was on three relatively bad fishing days and only over a three day period, just imagine what devastation can be done in 1 year across South Africas entire coastline! This most certainly puts into perspective the damage that is caused to fish stocks by not practising catch and release on a regular basis. Rasspl Africa is proud to be partnered with Rhodes university in conserving and preserving our rapidly depleting fish stocks and we put forward the challenge to all anglers, be it an organization or individual across South Africa to step up and follow in Rasspl Africas’ footsteps by practising catch and release….its the right thing to do.
Written by Shane Smit – Border Blacktips