The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls

By Lyn Adams

Photos by Justin Klusener

THIRTEEN provincial junior angling teams took to the waters off St Lucia at the end of June to be part of the 2022 Gamefish Nationals — five U16 teams and eight U19 teams from five provinces, plus two SADSAA teams.

Southern Gauteng Deep Sea Angling Association’s executive committee took it upon themselves to host this event as junior development has always been their passion.

As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem recalls, “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls”. SGDSAA went all out this year, with many sponsors on board and great goody bag give aways as well as hoodie jackets.

At the opening ceremony the excitement was palpable, with many new faces and new caps here to test new techniques in new fishing waters. With the launch being through the St Lucia estuary mouth, that too brought on some jittery nerves.

Day one saw NSRI launch and land upside down, so that immediately put the skippers on their toes for the mornings launch. Some boats felt the power of the sea and got their teams drenched during the early morning launches, but it’s all part of the fun of beach launching. Thankfully all the other boats launched safely and were soon behind the backline and off fishing.

Beach Control Gina and Flagman Nick had everything under control and performed their duties very professionally.

The five U16 juniors teams showed great enthusiasm from the start, and the Natal team showed their dedication and commitment to species angling, taking a good lead from start to finish. Free State, Southern Gauteng and Gauteng watched daily at the gallows for Natal’s catch.

Southern Gauteng’s U16 team, under the guidance of skipper Brad Mcclaren and Quinton Olivier, brought some great catches to the scale. Among these was a potential All Africa and SAD- SAA Junior wahoo record. Melchior Wilmans’s 20.66kg wahoo was bigger than himself!

All five of the U16 teams impressed with their skills, and the skippers commended them for their bravery in the surf and passion for angling. New skipper, Lyle Venske, son of SGDSAA’s Paddy Venske, on Nautimate was the boat to watch, along with Yena LO. At the end of the week Yena LO pipped Nautimate by just four points, with Oh My Sack taking the bronze medal.

The U19 competition saw the best of the best — the SADSAA Blue team — take overall honours. SADSAA White came from the back to prove their angling pedigree by ending in fifth place.The upset of the week came from the two Southern Gauteng teams — Yellow and Green — which took second and third place respectively.

Skipper Mark Cockcroft, the wild card on Watermark known as the boat of thundering waters, pulled a fine catch and moved into third place. It was, however, Leon Orsmond’s Sick Leave that was the boat of the week, with local JC van Heerden skippering Walawala coming second.

The Wednesday night fun night called the traditional “Plakkie” evening saw all the juniors getting their revenge on Tournament Director Neil Coetzer, and a great evening was had by all.

Prizegiving was a very special evening where all the juniors had the opportunity to thank each skipper personally, and meet the new SADSAA President, Chris Schorn, in person.

With the weather playing ball and all five days being fished, it was a very tired group of anglers and skippers who packed up to go home. SGDSAA would like to thank all our clubs and our sponsors for being part of this great event which was the highlight of 2022. Thanks also go to our hosting club, St Lucia, Zululand, for their venue and assistance.

Special mention must be made of the team managers who committed a whole week to guiding and mentoring these young anglers. Some of the managers have been with these teams since U16 level and some have made SADSAA teams and are now leaving the junior section for senior waters.We wish those anglers well for the future.