B National Western Cape

[GGY]

The scores are measured in mm, but stupidly the points are allocated in cm. That is how it is in the rules, which needs to be changed internationally.

[dtayl13]

I agree. Its always puzzled me. Its not logical

[Saloon 2000]

The joys of competitive fishing. Stress, confusion, posturing, confusion, pride, boasting, posting, roasting, confusion.

[Andre]

Im interested to hear about the fishing. The top 5 guys all got more than 20 fish in the 5 sessions. It must have been tough fishing. How long were the beats, how did the Stillwater sessions go?
What was the vibe and the camaraderie like. Was it a good competition?
I believe that there was a team from Free State who were an invitational team, with Jaques Marais and a couple of other big names. How did they do?
David...tell all pleeeeezzz.

[Gerrit Viljoen]

Im interested to hear about the fishing. The top 5 guys all got more than 20 fish in the 5 sessions. It must have been tough fishing. How long were the beats, how did the Stillwater sessions go?
What was the vibe and the camaraderie like. Was it a good competition?
I believe that there was a team from Free State who were an invitational team, with Jaques Marais and a couple of other big names. How did they do?
David...tell all pleeeeezzz.

Big names? lol

[Andre]

Seriously. I heard that there was n invitational team made up of some former Protea guys who have been out of comp for a while.

Big names? lol

[dlampert]

Do you see any of their names on the Individual list above or see any Free State teams on the team list?

[Andre]

Duuh no, that's why I asked. It was an invitational team... basically means their scores don't count. Louis De Jager told me about it before the event. That's why Im asking.

Do you see any of their names on the Individual list above or see any Free State teams on the team list?

[Saloon 2000]

Duuh.

Haven't we spoken about this?

[dtayl13]

As far as I know there were politics surrounding freestate and I don't know the whole story so I am not going to comment. The big names didn't fish because then they would not be allowed to fish A nats. The fishing was surprisingly good. Weather was brilliant although the wind was hectic on lakies for session 2 and there was an annoying downstream wind for the last session. Two sectors were on Lakies and 3 on smalblaar. Lower smalblaar was definitely the toughest sector with a fish getting you a top 3 finish for the session there most sessions. There were some good numbers that came out there but it was quite beat dependent. For example in my session there I pulled 7 fish. If you look at the history of the beat Korrie pulled 6 and I think another oke pulled 4 so for a sector where not blanking almost guarantees you a top 3 finish those numbers are very good. The lower sector consisted of Molenaars, SB1 and SB2. The middle sector consisted of SB4 SB5 and hotel (not sure exactly where SB3 fits in). The numbers there to win a session averaged about 5 fish and about 5 people out of 8 in a group would catch. Upper Smalblaar upper was transport beat and half of SB6. It fished very well with 7 or so fish needed to win a session. Generally the river conditions were very nice. The water temperature was quite warm which meant capitalizing on the first half of your session on lower smalblaar was imperative. Also the numbers of bass in the river are vast which made it interesting trying to pick out the trout as for some strange reason everyone went to streamers which still puzzles me. The fish were mostly very happy to come up to a well presented dry so although it was quite tough it was extremely enjoyable fishing. Fish size was good and they pulled really hard. I don't know the sizes being caught mostly but I got 2 fish of 37cm and one of 36cm in my lower SB session which are really nice fish. Middle and upper the fish were smaller with most of the ones I caught being between 26cm and 30cm.

Lakies has slowed down a lot since April, May, June, July when the numbers per person per day often exceeded 30 fish. The dam was divided into the half which includes the inlet and then the rest of the dam. In the first session 5 fish were needed to win the inlet side after which some sessions were won there with 3. I don't know what everyone else was doing, but Nikolai caught on little jigs and a blob and I caught mostly on natural bumbles. The water has cleared up a lot. Retrieves were mostly very slow. The other sector produced similar numbers but the fish were taking on slightly faster retrieves and were hitting streamers more aggressively. Fish size for lakies was between about 34cm and 43cm. For my sessions there there were lots of browns coming out. out of the 8 fish I caught there 2 were good sized browns. I know nikolai also caught and so did Albe Nel. Although the numbers coming out of lakies were not high most people caught there which was good.

I think everyone really enjoyed themselves. I know I did. There was nothing ugly that happened. Everyone just seemed to enjoy themselves, enjoy the waters, enjoy being with like minded people and meeting like minded people. From my side I really enjoyed fishing a comp that isn't so serious. I haven't had so much fun fishing comp for a long time.