Dear Angler
We are about to start writing chapter 2 of the league season and after a rather quite opening salvo, the boys and girls had fortuitously believed that the big catching day was around the corner. False Bay had been teeming with bronze whalers since our last inter-club, but this week we were at the West Coast. There was relatively little wind to speak of and the little that existed swirled around from the south to south west. Those fimiliar with west coast fising would know the expression of fishing the dam, as Uncle John Vickerman would call it, you were lucky if you saw a wave or two the entire day. The water was flat like an typical angler made "flopped" pancake and there was generally a lack of colour in the water with the water temperature being relatively cold, flat oceans, very little kelp in the waters and by all accounts an apprehensive day to be at the ocean for the sun starved Cape Town crowd. The "Spit" area had the usual gusty winds with cold water, but areas of Varkenvlei and the "Lappa - Soverby" area had glorious sunshine with a gentle breeze.
Saturday 31/10/2009
The teams for the captain's meeting at the Veldrift Hotel at 8.00pm the Friday evening and all agreed to the fishing areas that stretched from "die Lappa" Dwaarskersbos area to "die Spit" at Langebaan. Competition master Dion van Zyl also made reference to the pertinent rules of the competition as well as Willie van Heerden giving the members no quarter with regards to our environmental and nature conservation pledge as anglers affiliated to WCSAA. The competition time was to start at 07.00am to lines up at 17.00pm with the weigh in conducted at the Veldrift Hotel after lines up. The time for action was on and all the thinking and dreaming had to lead to real action and reminds me of Laurence Peter's saying: "There are two kinds of failures: those who thought and never did and those who did and never thought". Strategy and planning over this season is becoming more and more critical for the success of anglers and their respective clubs and great captains with true leadership ability is the backbone for their club and the members success.
At first glance, the clubs overwhelmed the area of the Spit and with a couple of smoothhounds coming out literally within the first minutes, many more was anticipated. At least 100 guys crammed the area and the expectations were high for the day. Varkenvlei and the Lappa area was hot with a breeze and is really a zone that the flatfish is targetted to make an impact. Most clubs opted to cover as much ground as possible until the fish came on the bite with the Spit arguably the most concentrated segment particularly as we started on the low tide and this would generally be a good time to target them.
Tygerberg were again out in full force and the Red brigade could be seen all over the place. Wherever you turned, Tygerberg was present with Captain Jacques de Bod leading from the front. At Varkenvlei he landed 11 size sandies, an electric ray and a spearnose. Greg Dubber caught a beaut weighing in at over 15kg's as well as a smaller blueray and sandies. At Soverby, Andro "spekkies" Rossouw landed two eagle rays and a couple of sandies and partner Mielie Fourie landed two fantastic duckbills in the 15 - 20 kg range. Mielie had Retief Krige of Police to thanks for helping him with one of those catches and it just demonstrates the camaraderie amongst the league's anglers. Never mind the fact that Mielie launched himself when his line broke and the fish nearby, just able to hold on - picture Bud Spenser diving full stretch to just hold on before the fish gets away - indeed a sight for sore eyes. Thys Kemp snr and jnr ended up with blue rays each with Junior also getting a nice size spotty at the Spit. Others contributed with the odd sandy or ray and not quite what such a big club had hoped for at this venue.
Four Oceans had a lacklustre day catching a huge amount of sandies but only a few that measured the requisite minimum to count for points. Riedwaan Abrahams and Ebrahim Davids made some good starts with thorntails, rays and sandies but ran out of steam as the day wore on. I was fortunate to land a nice sized spotty just before lines up at the Spit and some other like Brendon, Paul, Darrel all contributed with their share of sandies. The biggest cheer however was reserved for Marissa Little who scored her first points in an inter-club as well as being the first ladies points scored for the club. Not a great outing but I'm sure they will rebound going forward.
Oceans 50 had a very good turnout once again and started with most the team at the aptly named "Stywelyne" at 7.00am and were literally immediately onto the fish. The guys placed at the Lappa also joined the Laaiplek crowd and all cashed in on non-stop mainly sandy action. Joe Alves caught a number of sandies and thorntail rays whilst masters angler Derrick v/d Westhuizen caught a 93cm sandy. The team ended up at the Lappa for the big smash that did not quite materialize but ended up getting a fair amount of sandies to close out the day.
Tasmanians opted to split their team with some at the Spit and other fishing the Soverby area. As stated earlier, the guys at the Spit had a bit of a luckless first outing except for Ta Ai who ended with a couple of white stump with 2 or those being real sizers. Club captain Francois Burger led his team from the front and with some of the other teammates cashed in on some fine sandies. Unfortunately not much bigger fish was caught, but they are sure to come back with a vengeance at the next comp.
Goodwood had a mixture of youth and experience placed at the Spit and by 11am most of their guys had left for greener pastures of the Soverby and Varkenvlei areas. Not much known of their activities for the rest of the competition though.
False Bay as usual kept a low profile with their unassuming demeanour into this competition. Renier Kemp was first into the first by catching one of only three spotties that came out at the Spit. This smoke and mirrors approach fooled noboby and it was no surprise that they put up another very good performance for the day. Andre Groenewald, as in the last inter-club was again the star performer. He waded out till he appeared to be but a tiny figure and kept pace with bagging 14 fish which included a variety of rays and sandies. Others like Oom Willem de Jongh kept the flag going with a mixed bag and the best junior on the day and 4th overall is his dynamic son Wilhelm jnr. This youngster has fish blood in his system and will hopefully one day become one of the greats as he has all the attributes for it.
Big Joe le Roux who led his junior troops to what was expected to be a smash unfortunately had to turn around as one of the youngsters got spiked by a blue ray. Let us again re-iterate the dangers of handling and wading through waters where the rays are prevalent. Fortunately, all well that ends well and these youngsters are going to be a force to be reckoned with in a couple of years. All in all another fine win for a determined club and with Willie van Heerden at the fishing helm, they are going to be a tough team to beat.
Two Oceans had a spread of anglers who managed to hook and land size fish. They always have an angler or two making a significant contribution with many other top anglers coming to the party by adding good points. Steve van der Berg caught a few fish but sizeable duckbills and bluerays whilst Greg "noweeds" Kellerman caught 9 fish to set up a good platform. Robbie "guru" Janse landed 19 fish which included sandies, thorntails, eagle ray and blue rays to complete a well rounded performance. The major contributor on the day however was Mike "the island" Bailey who literally had to go to an unseen island to catch his fish. Mike was about 250m in the water standing on little "invisible" rocks to catch a range of sandies and blue rays with most of his blue rays of healthy proportions. His motto is simply that the skills is acquired with effort and he literally was waterlogged the entire day in achieving his goals and by implication those of his club's.
The Police Angling club strategically targetted the Soverby area albeit having anglers at all the other hotspots. Most of the clubs anglers came to the party and caught close to 100 sandies, a fair amount of bluerays, spearnoses and eagle rays. Andries Morland caught 8 sandies and a blueray whilst Retief Krige ended the day with 8 sandies with two jumbo's of 98cm and 101cm. The star of the day was however daughte Kristen Krige who is fast harnessing her natural aptitude for the sport. Kristen caught a Bull ray of 80cm and an Eagle ray of 78 cm's on .20 line without any leader, this all before reaching her teens. Well done to her on her fabulous achievements and pretty soon the only Krige to be spoken about will be her with mom and dad resigned to watching tv while she fishes.
Let's divulge a secret of how all truly great performing clubs work and it can be encompassed in this famous Ralph Nadier saying: "The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers". If all clubs embark on these type of strategies, then our league will continue to strive and prospur and will certainly be the benchmark for competitive angling. Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it - Lou Holtz
Our motto remains to "test the boundaries, as it's not next to you" and a reminder to all our league anglers to constantly innovate. There was about 183 anglers who weighed in fish out of around 300 anglers. Fish that was caught during the day with a total weight of 3 500kg's. 3.5 tons of fish is a really good effort considering the fact that not many big fish was landed and the distribution amongst number of anglers was excellent. The scorer certainly suffered going this plethora of data and we thank him for his stirling work.
Many a rod felt the effect of the first pull of the season after a subdued opener however, many of the fish was undersized now that the WP has voted to measure sandies from being a sight fish previously. May many rods more feel the pulls of what we hope will be another fantastic league season ahead. The league league has grown in popularity over the past two years and we thank all those parties and the print and electronic media for their wonderful support in highlighting the league.
Statistics are compliments of Mr. Thys Kemp
Species caught included:
1. Smoothhound shark
2. Sandies
3. Blue Ray
4. Bull Ray
5. Spearnose
6. Eagle Ray
7. Duckbill
8. Gurnard
9. Thorntail
Top Ten Anglers: 31 October 2009
Pos. WP_NO Angler CLUB Weight
1.00 WP346 Mike Bailey Two Oceans 107.50
2.00 WP095 Andre Groenewald Falsebay 79.80
3.00 WP159 Vasilles Kontsidis Goodwood 76.30
4.00 WP074 Wilhelm de Jongh (jnr angler) Falsebay 65.60
5.00 WP036 Robbie Janse Two Oceans 62.70
6.00 WP512 Stephan Coetzee Falsebay 59.20
7.00 WP121 Greg Kellerman Two Oceans 47.20
8.00 WP184 Sakkie Jansen van Rensburg Two Oceans 45.50
9.00 WP554 Iva Stavrev Goodwood 44.10
10.00 WP030 Willem de Jongh Falsebay 43.10
Rounding up the Top Twenty Anglers: Year to Date
Pos. WP_NO ANGLER CLUB Total
1.00 WP095 Andre Groenewald Falsebay 236.20
2.00 WP590 Marc Otto Police 175.70
3.00 WP346 Mike Bailey Two Oceans 129.20
4.00 WP321 Riedwaan Abrahams Four Oceans 108.20
5.00 WP498 Simon Hipkin Two Oceans 78.20
6.00 WP159 Vasilles Kontsidis Goodwood 76.30
7.00 WP440 Fred Rossouw Four Oceans 75.40
8.00 WP074 Wilhelm de Jongh (J.A) Falsebay 70.40
9.00 WP036 Robbie Janse Two Oceans 62.70
10.00 WP512 Stephan Coetzee Falsebay 59.20
11.00 WP436 J. Fourie Tygerberg 59.00
12.00 WP030 Willem de Jongh snr Falsebay 57.20
13.00 WP084 Werner Hertz Goodwood 54.80
14.00 WP045 Joe le Roux Falsebay 52.00
15.00 WP121 Greg Kellerman Two Oceans 47.20
16.00 WP184 Sakkie Jansen van Rens Two Oceans 45.50
17.00 WP554 Iva Stavrev Goodwood 44.10
18.00 WP072 Andro spekkies Rossouw Tygerberg 40.40
19.00 WP124 Chad Bailey Two Oceans 39.90
20.00 WP514 W. van Deventer Two Oceans 35.10
Accumulated Interclub Points at 31 October 2009:
Pos. CLUB PNTS_A PNTS_B PNTS A+B
1.00 FALSEBAY 578.90 193.50 772.40
2.00 TWO OCEANS 522.70 159.40 682.10
3.00 POLICE 351.30 72.20 423.50
4.00 GOODWOOD 290.40 82.90 373.30
5.00 TYGERBERG 271.40 101.00 372.40
6.00 4 OCEANS 237.70 14.40 252.10
7.00 TASMANIANS 52.50 0.00 52.50
8.00 OCEAN 50 18.40 0.00 18.40
Please contact me should you require any additional information or have further queries.
Yours in Angling
Nizaam Hamza
Public Relations Officer
WCSAA
