WCSAA Gordon's Bay competition

Introduction

The annual SASAA Development Nationals were held in the Western Cape from the 30th January 2008 until the 1st February 2008.  Invitations were drafted and forwarded to all the relevant affiliated associations and the last minute finalisation of details is still the order of the day.  A late withdrawal of the team from Northern Gauteng was forthcoming at the 11th hour and they should honour the costs fo the tournament which they are liable for.  We had 6 teams accepting the invitation to compete that arrived either on Monday the 28th January or Tuesday the 29th January 2008.

Central Gauteng
Eastern Province
Kwazulu Natal
West Coast
Western Province
Zululand

The team list had full compliments of 6 anglers with the exception of West Coast and Eastern Province with 4 anglers each.  The convenor’s meeting was held at 3.00pm with all the Captains and Managers of the respective teams present.  A number of issues were agreed in advance in order to alleviate any confusion at a later stage that could potentially create a dampener on the event.  Suffice to say, nothing was left to chance and all teams management and captains were acutely aware of what the rules of the competition and the conduct required to avoid any issues or disputes. 

Opening Function:

The opening was a spit braai held at the Gordon’s Bay Yacht Club.  With a beautiful setting, this was an ideal forum for the respective teams to engage one another.  Each team was handed a brochure that was professionally put together to act as a comprehensive guide to each angler and their respective management teams. 

The brochure included some of the following items

# Welcoming message from the WCSAA President, Mr. Nols van Zyl
# Comprehensive list of rules of the competition
# Team photographs of all the participants
# Contact details of all the relevant tournament officials
#  a separate card with all the details of the weigh master and weigh officials
#  Contact details of all suppliers of food, tackle and accessories

Each team was handed their SASAA Golf shirt and soft drink allocation as sponsored by Peninsula Beverages.  A great afternoon was had by all and by 9.00pm all participants had retreated to their accomodation to prepare to the tough angling days ahead.  The organising committee lead ably by WCSAA Vice President Malcolm Paul did a great job and the biggest cheer certainly has to go to Pierre du Preez, WCSAA secretary who covered all the logistics and day to day activities with aplomb that merits a distinction category on any report card. 

NSRI was on standby throughout the competition and regular patrols by the police ensured participants and officials safety.  The bait organisation was superb as per SASAA specifications with additional baits of yellow tail heads added on days two and three to afford the anglers more chance of hooking the big fish.  A big word of thanks to Willie van Heerden and Henning Venter for their superb handling and distribution of the bait allocations.

Day 1

The areas were agreed to at the Captains meeting and day 1 covered the stretch from the Fence at Macassar to Eerste baai which is about 500m from the Monwabisi holiday resort.  The water temperature was a bit on the cold side with a slight south westerly blowing that became progressively stronger as the day wore on.  Kwazulu Natal set the early pace and within the first hour they had successfully landed two nice sized smoothhounds weighing in at around 20kg’s each.

The water colouration looked great and whilst the water was a little colder than the preceeding weekend, it was expected that some serious pulls would be received.  This was however not the case with not many teams hooking the big ticket items.  The hard work however always pays off and for those who perserved, the satisfaction of the pull, albeit small was just as rewarding for the anglers.  The upside to the average catch on the first day however meant that all the teams were in the hunt to claim the championship which is always desirable and a runaway first day could have had an adverse effect on the anglers mental approach.

Whilst it was KZN that triumphed after day one, it was evident that all the provinces were in with a shout at the gold as the score to beat was no more than 130kg and with the big denizens of the sea out there, all and sundry must have felt confident going into day 2.

Day 2

Day two saw the areas from Mnandi car park to the NSRI station at Strandfontein being covered.  The cliff areas around van Zyl’s, bird sanctuary to Allerman se draai was excluded only on the grounds of security and safety reasons, as the police and NSRI could not provide enough manpower to “guarantee” the participants and their respective entourage safety.  Early morning seemed to deliver some decent results with similar conditions to day one existing. 

A Slight south westerly early morning becoming more pronounced as the day wore on with water temperature not breaking through that magical 19 degree celcius level. Early morning the Western Province boys staged a good comeback with Ebrahim Davids and Shaun Fester both landing two 14kg cob in quick succession and a decent size bronze whaler of 60kg landed by Shaun Sanders at Blue Waters.  This comeback followed by some really hard angling by the West Coast boys who impressed with their fantastic work rate set up a great showdown to loom on the final day.

Going into the final day, the rigours of angling in a national championship starting taking it’s toll and the fit in body and mind were going to see the champions rise above the rest.

Day 3

Day three would be won and lost by strategic decisions taken early and KZN executed to near perfection.  Ably led by their senior members including captain, Marius Nortje and Dean Naidoo, they put in a huge final effort and landed a number of bronze whalers which immediately put the pressure on the opposition.  The “scratch” anglers put further pressure on the rest of the field by catching a number of sandies whilst the bigger bait guys hooked and landed even more bronze whalers to create the gap that they needed. 

Central Gauteng put in a good performance with a beautiful ragged tooth shark being caught by Ryno van der Merwe, which also was the prize fish for the competition weighing in at 107 kg’s and able supported by Leon Swart’s bronzie of 40kg’s.  Zululand were also not to be outdone with Shaun Mathura of Zululand who landed two decent sized bronze whalers with one weighing in at 37 kg’s and 55k kg’s respectively. 

Although it is true that a largely number of toothy predators frequented the False Bay coastline it has to be emphasised that this is not a testosterone laden bloodsport and every care is taken to catch and release these beautifuly specimens and place them back in the most efficient and effective manner.  Of all the species landed, each specimen was safely and with care put back into the water with not a single fatality reported.  Well done to all the anglers, management and weigh marshalls for upholding and practising our conservation minded philosophy that can only bode well for our sport.

The closing function was held at “The Bistro” at the Strand Waterfront and what a fantastic way to end of a great week of friendship building.  With a great setting and anglers finally able to relax, the anxiety still prevalent though until the final outcome of the championships was announced.  The Anglers and their management teams put in a great effort, both physically and emotionally over the three days and those effort were rewarded with a gold medal for the team effort and individual invitations to those who excelled to the prestigious Gus Kohlner championships.  These anglers achievement belies any fame or monetary incentive and the greatest gift has to be the ability to fish and compete against the best.  The motto therefore remains to “test the boundaries, as it’s not next to you”, as only the smart and calculated decisions of competitive anglers will result in the success we all crave.

Statistics are compliments of Records Officer, Mr. Thys Kemp

Species caught included:

1. Blue Rays
2. Bronze Whaler
3. Bull Ray
4. Cob (Dusky)
5. Shad
6. Duckbill
7. Ragged Tooth
8. Sandshark/Lesser guitarfish
9. St. Joseph
10. Smoothhound/Spotty

Top Ten Anglers: Development Nationals 2008 (kg’s)

1.         Marius Nortje                             Kwa Zulu Natal               132.30
2.         Ryno van der Merwe                   Central Gauteng             120.00
3.         Shaun Mathura                          Zululand                        106.80
4.         Dean Naidoo                              Kwa Zulu Natal                  98.30
5.         Shaun Sanders                         Western Province              71.50
6.         Albert Thirling                            West Coast                       61.40
7.         Ebrahim Davids                          Western Province              56.00
8.         Juan Cronje                               West Coast                       53.10
9.         Leon Swart                                Central Gauteng                49.20
10.        Andrew Hayward                        Eastern Province               41.70

Final Inter Provincial Standings:

1.         Kwa Zulu Natal                           335.30kg

2.         Western Province                       230.20kg

3.         Central Gauteng                         202.90kg

4.         West Coast                                167.50kg

5.         Zululand                                    151.80kg

6.         Eastern Province                         91.70kg

Gus Kohlner invitational:

1.         Marius Nortje                             Kwa Zulu Natal              
2.         Ryno van der Merwe                   Central Gauteng            
3.         Shaun Mathura                          Zululand                       
4.         Dean Naidoo                              Kwa Zulu Natal                 
5.         Shaun Sanders                         Western Province             
6.         Albert Thirling                            West Coast       

Reserves: non travelling

7.         Ebrahim Davids                          Western Province             
8.         Juan Cronje                               West Coast                   

The WCSAA was proud to be afforded the opportunity to host the SASAA Development Nationals for 2008, hope the anglers had a great experience in our city, leave with fond memories and new found friends and wish the next tournament organisers our best wishes