B Nationals

[Korrie]

The Senior B Nationals are currently taking place at Parys.

It will be interesting to watch the score cards, catches etc, with the current flows, going a bit up and down, some fresh water from the rain entering the system etc.

As soon as I have results, I will post.
Korrie

[GGY]

My Internet Explorer crashed before I could post my reply. Possibly a good thing.

B Nationals rule modifications limited species to smallmouth (SM) yellowfish only. Minimum size 30cm.
Now while the 30cm minimum is not too bad (I would have suggested 20cm), the limitation to SM only does not make sense.

I agree that excluding carp & barbel from the species, since they are not the common fly fishing targets and are generally fished for in different ways to SM, but mudfish are found in the same water, caught in the same way, using the same flies, as SM and should have been included.
I understand they were concerned about anglers (intentionally) foul-hooking mudfish, but the standard provision that an angler is not allowed to handle a fish in the net would prevent this from occurring.


Speaking to the organisers, they did point out that no province had lodged a formal complaint/question about this in the 6 weeks since the Rule Mod was issued. I realised that while I am not fishing, as an experienced competition angler, I could have expressed my opinions to the organisers prior to the competion. I did express these opinions to my provincial B team, but suggested that they raise this matter to a vote at the Captains' Meeting.

At the meeting, 3 provinces voted FOR the inclusion of mudfish - Northern Guateng, Mpumulanga and Boland. Western Province ABSTAINED (no clue why). Both Central Gauteng teams (mens & ladies) voted AGAINST.
Now to me this is a simple majority of 3 to 2 FOR the change, but it would seem that an absolute majority (4 out of 6 total potential votes) was required, so the rule remained.

As a generalisation - with the low flows and a river cooled by the recent rains, with possible cooler, higher water coming, the SM have dropped back to deeper, slower water, and are not around to be caught in the expected numbers prior to the Rule Modification being issued.

RESULTS (vary a little by venue) - lots of mudfish legally hooked and landed. Few SM landed. Due to the rule, this means lots of avoidable blanks. At some venues, anglers are lucking into ONE SM, while the rest are blanking with multiple mudfish.

LESSONS - do not stick absolutely to Rule Modifications if it is going to negatively impact a Nationals.
Communicate earlier and better (I will not make the mistake again).
The goal is for all anglers to be able to catch legal fish, with the best anglers catching lots of legal fish - do what has to be done to ensure that this happens. [This is how the Czech's do it at home and what should happen in Worlds 2014, which is why they will be stocking their rivers and lakes to suppliment the resident fish, as well as allowing mutiple species to count]

FINALLY - I hope B Nationals turns out better than I forsee and that it becomes a true competion of skill, not a matter of luck.

[smallstreams.co.za]

[This is how the Czech's do it at home and what should happen in Worlds 2014, which is why they will be stocking their rivers and lakes to suppliment the resident fish, as well as allowing mutiple species to count]

Once again, we can learn from the rest of the world.

[GGY]

Once again, we can learn from the rest of the world.

Yup. There are certain elements locally that believe that competion fishing should be "hard" and that to have waters with few fish etc makes it harder, so the better anglers will stand out.

I disagree (and so do the Czechs) - the fewer the fish, the luckier one has to be to catch ONE. The more fish there are, the better one has to be to catch lots of fish. (And anyone who has ever fished in a 5th and final session of a Worlds will tell you, it is ALWAYS hard, irrespective of how many fish may be in the water).

[Korrie]

Gary.
I had a long conversation with the organisers. with the low waters, while they where "exploring the fishing etc" a huge amount of muddies, where foul hooked. They took the option to exclude the Muddies, with barbless hooks, the foul hooked muddies, could "easily be unhooked in the net" on the way to the marshal. Creating more controversy. I understood the reasoning, behind it, although I have expressed my opposition to the ruling, as I think that Muddies are technically more difficult to hook in the mouth, compared to SM. As you have mentioned, Muddies, are not easy to remove a hook, from a foul hooked Muddie, But as they organisers said, they dont want to "create opportunities" as there used to be 1 or 2 "wily" fly fishers out there.

[GGY]

Agreed, some anglers will push the rules - hey Korrie ;-) Still better to allow majority of fish caught to count than to try prevent blatant cheating = DISQUALIFICATION (and likely 2 year ban for the angler, who will probably never get to fish for a province again). Better to have lots of possible legal fish and let the numbers sort out the winner, rather than luck.

[Korrie]

Had some feedback
WP have 2 first placings.

[GGY]

I have the full first two sessions lucky results, but see no point in posting detail.

Session 1 = 24 SM blanks out of 30 anglers, with only 3 of the 5 venues producing SM (2 venues were 6 out of 6 SM blanks).

Session 2 was 'better' with *only* 20 SM blanks out of 30 anglers and while all venues produced fish, 2 of the 5 venues only produced a single fish to a lucky angler.

So far, only 14 of the 30 anglers have caught a SM. The remaining 16 anglers are all tied for last place. Only 2 anglers have managed to catch a SM in both of the first two sessions.

Most SM landed by an angler over two 3 hour sessions is 3, or one legal fish for every 2 hours fishing.

All in all, 25 SM have been landed by 30 anglers who together have fished for 180 hours today. You do the maths.

I wish all the competitors luck for Thursdays sessions in what looks likely to be cooler weather and water conditions than today.

[core fly]

Clearly this season has not begun in the middle lower vaal.The past weekend i recorded 19degree water.Thats pretty cool for this time of year,and without rain i think the fish believe they still in winter.

[ArcherFish]

This must be VERY disappointing for the participants, most who have put a lot of time and money into it.