2010 SA Shore Angling Championships - Masters Division - sasaa

S A L T W A T E R F I S H I N G
2010 SA Shore Angling Championships –
By Chris Nolan
The Masters Championship
Doesn’t it conjure up a picture of the best competing
against the best? In golf it means the cream
of the crop and with shore angling the same, but
with the difference that in this sport it only
applies to anglers over the age of 50. With this in
mind it means one gets to compete against the most experienced
and wise old anglers you can imagine. Traditionally the
Masters Shore Angling Championship is held annually at Jeffreys
Bay during the first two weeks of February. This year it
took place from 10 to 12 February.
Day 1
Astiff north-westerly
wind, preceded by a
steady south-easterly
wind the previous two
days, met the anglers of
the 11 provinces participating
this year. The fishing
area selected for day
1 was the Gap (A break in
the dunes) north of the
mouth of the Kabeljous
River up to the mouth of
the Gamtoos River. Fishing
was brisk mainly
because of the good
after-effects of the previ-
Diamond ray (40,6 kg) caught by
ous two days’ southeaster
C Gauteng’s J Scholtz.
with non-edible fish making
up the bulk of the
catches – plenty of sand
sharks as well as some nice
diamond and blue rays, with a
few grey sharks also making
their presence felt.
As in golf, anglers also face
handicaps, like the setback all
other provinces faced with the
ragged-tooth shark landed
within the first minutes of the
competition by veteran
National Team angler Mike
Pautz of Southern Cape. As
Mike explained it, “First time in
Diamond ray (39,8 kg)
my life when I cast my first
caught by Border’s P Jacobs.
bait and was ‘vas’ immediately”.
A real “hole-in-one” case!
And with this catch of 158,1
kg the rest of the competing provincial teams started with a
handicap of 158 points to catch up! With the challenge raised,
the traditionally strong provinces like KwaZulu-Natal (KZN),
Eastern Province (EP), Border and Western Province (WP)
slowly started to gather momentum. By the end of the first day
a total of 7 edible and 198 non-edible fish were recorded.
TIGHT LINES The Angler’s Friend June 2010
Ragged-tooth shark (158,1 kg)
caught by S Cape’s Mike Pautz.
The top 3 provinces at the end of day 1 were S Cape (304,6
points), Border (256,7) and KZN with 202,5 points.
Day 2
The area for the
second day’s
competition
stretched from the
first rocks south of
the Kabeljous River
mouth up to
approximately 1 km
north of the Gap.
Slightly overcast
conditions prevailed
with a stiff southwesterly
wind blowing
up to about ten
o’clock before slowly
turning south – this
in experienced EP
angler terms meant a
total turn-off for fishing
– “It’s like a light
switch turning off fishing”.
This proved to
be the case as only 9
edible and 37 nonedible
fish were landed
during the day. Top
dogs after day 1, Southern Cape, must have thought they’ve
used up all their fishing luck the previous day by only netting
2,8 points which put them stone last for the second day’s
catches. Despite this they still managed to top the log thanks
to the first day’s results. Top three places for day 2 was KZN
(83,4 points), OFS (35,9 points) and EP (33,5 points). All of a
sudden Southern Cape’s lead over KZN was a mere 21,5
points!
Day 3
Grey shark (31,4 kg) caught by
KZN’s Wally Watts.
Astiff north-westerly wind picked up during the night and the
consensus amongst the management teams was to fish
the Cape St. Francis area. The area was demarcated from the
southern side of the Kromme River down south to the Shark
Platform at Cape St. Francis. Finding the anglers amongst the
maze of little streets in the residential area posed quite a challenge
at first. After a while, however, it seemed that most
anglers were concentrating their last day’s efforts around
Chapel Rocks and Natal Point, with some trying their luck on
the other side of the harbour at Shark Platform. Only one lone
shad as well as some 96 non- edibles mainly consisting of the
grey shark, blue and diamond ray variety were landed in total
for day 3. With most anglers scattered all over the area, it was
difficult for the respective teams to keep track of the other
provinces’ catches. The result was that no team was sure of
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where they could land up on the total positioning of the
championship.
Prize-giving function
Despite the jovial atmosphere always present amongst the
team members after many years of fishing together, one
could sense the underlying uncertainty of the final outcome
of this tournament. And of course the final positional standings
are kept as one of the final announcements.
Top 6 anglers
The top 6 anglers for the event turned out to be:
Mike Pautz (S Cape)
Colin Scheepers (Border)
Wally Watts (KZN)
Willem de Jongh (WP)
Andre Poisat (EP)
Thabo Prinsloo (KZN)
Mike Pautz was awarded the David Riebeeck trophy for the
angler with the most points, as well as the Kappie Small
trophy for the heaviest non-edible fish. W Volschenk of the
West Coast team was honoured for the heaviest edible fish
as well as the most outstanding fish for his 9 kg, a white
steenbras.
For the first time ever the trophy for the biggest number of
edible fish was shared by T Harding (S Cape) and G de
Gaspary (OFS) with three fish each.
Final Championship positions
With the announcement of the final positional standings one
could hear a pin drop.
Third position: Border. That left only KwaZulu-Natal and
Southern Cape. Richard Prinsloo, convenor of the tournament
committee, was stretching everyone’s limits of anticipation by
playing up the odds, until finally he announced the second
position – KwaZulu-Natal. That meant Southern Cape was the
winning team. This announcement was met with hearty congratulations
from all present.
With only the SA Shore Angling Association’s team selections
to be announced everyone could relax except those anglers
who stood a chance of being selected.
National Team
Team manager: Graeme Kingsley Wilken (Border)
Non-angling captain: Noel Skinner (KZN)
Coach: Dirk Lucas (Central Gauteng)
Team anglers: Wally Watts (KZN), Hennie Klein (S
Cape), Colin Scheepers (Border), Wilhelm de
Jongh (W Province), Mike Pautz (S Cape), Jasper
Strydom (E Province)
Traditionally a second Masters Team is selected to
fish against some of the other national representative
teams during the Gus Köllner memorial tournament
later this year.
The following people were selected for the Masters
Gus Köllner team:
Team manager: Norman Brown (Border)
Team Anglers: Frans Massyn (Zululand), Andre
Poisat (E Province), Ankie Smit (W Province),
Julian Pybus (Zululand), Thabo Prinsloo (KZN),
J Scholtz (C Gauteng)
Good luck to our teams selected for tournaments
later this year!
Gauteng North’s Koos Gerber with a grey shark of 14,3 kg.
Tournament facts and figures
Eleven provincial teams, consisting of 66 anglers, fished over
3 days to land a total of 348 fish – 17 edible fish with a combined
mass of 45,3 kg as well as 331 non-edible fish totalling
2 591,7 kg. In total 2,6 tons (2637,0 kg) of fish were landed
and released – standard policy in SA SAA’s Constitution. At
the same time no fish were gaffed or damaged. All fish dimensions
are determined by means of a tape measure. These
dimensions are used to determine the mass of the fish by
using length/mass scientific tables.
The typical individual yield figure per angler per day was1,76
fish, or in mass terms 13,31 kg. In terms of edible fish, the
yield extrapolated to 0,23 kg per angler per day. With figures
like these for very experienced anglers, how can the average
South African shore angler be blamed for our diminishing fish
resources? And what justification is there for proposing
increased fishing licence fees for our rock and surf fishing
enthusiasts?
Winning Province – S Cape.
28 STYWE LYNE Die Hengelaar se Vriend Junie 2010