A. INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

Report by Werner Lubbe | Photos by: De Wet & Kie Photographers, Jessica de VilliersVideo production: Jessica de Villiers SA Carp Angling expands International Participation In February this year, the Belarus National Carp Angling team arrived in South Africa to fish a historic test match against the Protea Carp team at the Nyl Dam in Mokopane. It was a high tempo match producing a lot of fish with two of the SA pegs reaching the magical One Tonne mark! It was a great success, and on the back of this marvelous tournament another invite went out to potential carp angling nations. Israel accepted the challenge and in late May were on their way to SA to take on the World Champions at the Nyl. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans and the flooding of this part of Limpopo had the dam closed for several weeks. The Israeli team was on their way however so the carp angling facet of SAFBAF had to offer an alternative venue, which led to Roodekoppies Dam and the Roodekoppies Angling Resort on its western shore. Day 1 On Tuesday 24 May 2022 the two teams lined up for the singing of their National Anthems and the raising of the flags. It was yet again an emotional moment as the flags were proudly hanging in the light breeze as anglers wished each other the best for the tournament. Travelling abroad is always a challenge for any team, and especially for carp anglers having to fish for 72 hours. Tents, tables, stretchers, stoves, pots, buckets, lights, stands and indeed much more outdoor camping equipment is not something you stick into your baggage, and requires a helping hand by the hosting nation. Personal equipment such as terminal tackle, rods and reels already take up much of the over-weight baggage brought along, but anglers always make a plan and several local angling friends assisted by providing the Israelis with a fully equipped camp on every peg. Understanding the area in front of your peg is arguably the most important part of making quality decisions with respect to where to target the fish. The teams took good time getting this right and plotting all the data on their charts. The range finder is an important piece of equipment to ensure accuracy. The second important point on the agenda is to set the table and ring the dinner bell – for the fish, that is! Here, two distinctly different strategies were evident with Israel opting for large oval feedballs being introduced with the spombing method. They fed this mainly at a distance of about 120 metres. It was hard work and they took turns to get the job done. The Proteas opted for the slingshot, and used two different sizes and types of feedballs. They had the pre-made hard molasses balls that were rock-hard, smaller and more dense. These went like rockets and they could be introduced much further out, up to distances of 160 metres. Then they also introduced larger balls they made on the peg. These contained particles, boilies and a lot of chick-chick and dry feed, and were introduced at around 135 metres. The Isreali team was out of the blocks first and even before late afternoon both A and B zones had weighed fish. Here Vlad Fainerman boasts with their first fish of the tournament. As the sun set, the Protea pegs started catching – here Janu de Beer releases a beautiful 10kg specimen into the glorious golden glory of the sunset. The youngest angling pair of the tournament, Sakkie Wannenburg and André Fourie, started with good quality fish straight away with their second fish of the tournament pushing the scales past 13kg. What a proud moment for these young anglers, their very first test match in the green and gold, and they are into prize fish straight away! What they did not know at this stage, was that they would eventually walk away with new PB’s for both of them as well as gold medals in the team and peg categories. By 06:00 the next day, SA was in the lead in A & C zones, but was lagging behind in B zone with two fish against one. Sakkie and André started with a bang and already stood at 70kg, with three fish more than 11kg already on the score sheet. Here are a few great videos to watch and enjoy: 1 – Protea Capping ceremony: https://fb.watch/dkdnN6Yg12/ 2 – Opening ceremony: https://fb.watch/dkdvyZi1yt/ 3 – Start of the International Tournament!: https://fb.watch/dkdyOQX18k/ 4 – For Anglers Live – LIVE from Roodekoppies with Protea team manager Johan Hopley and Thomas de Wet of De Wet & Kie Photographers: https://fb.watch/dkdDAvw6IC/ 5 – First day highlights: https://fb.watch/dkdH8m6JOS/ 6 – 25 May at 07:24, SA vs Israel Carp Angling Tournament – Roodekoppies Dam: https://fb.watch/dkdMaZbuUc/ 7 – SA vs Israel Carp Angling Tournament – Roodekoppies Dam. Weighing at Sakkie and André!: https://fb.watch/dkdQHOF2iy/ 8 – SA vs Israel Carp Angling Tournament! It is the quiet time of the day, so what preparation does Peter van Mosseveld and Christo de Beer do? We have a chat to them!: https://fb.watch/dkdU0cQ6RX/ . Day 2 The day kicked off well and quite a few fish started coming out. The morning bite continued until after 10:00 and the officials weighed a good number of fish. Team Israel on Peg 1 in A zone started catching early and the smiles from Roman Poluksht and Raviv Arielly tell the story. André Fourie with another 13kg-plus fish. A Personal Best for Sakkie Wannenburg would earn him the traditional (congratulatory) … dunk at the end of the tournament! A cool morning requires adequate clothing, especially if you are landing a fish while alone on the bank – Christo de Beer shows how it is done. The Israeli team on C zone took some time to get on the sheet, and here Nikolay Brigorenko plays their first fish. The activity picked up from about 07:30 with The Bank Angler media team broadcasting all of the action live as it happened. The videos and live broadcasts kept everybody at home well informed and made this a spectator sport! Because of the shallow water and long grass an ad hoc rule was implemented to allow both anglers in the water to safely land these large fish. Christo with the bait of choice that made all the difference. Small baits like this wafter with half a pop-up brought regular bites. Orange and white – seemed to be the preferred selection. A well organised camp layout improved efficiency and facilitated order of thoughts and strategy. Afternoon time is feeding time again and good preparation is key. Then starts the hard work, casting and casting … … and casting and casting! All the pegs followed strict management orders on when and how much to feed. These are not mirror carp – they are carp in the mirror of the dam! What a beautiful, serene picture – what more can a person want! There is an Afrikaans saying “Die avondstond het goud in die mond!” – meaning 'the evening hour is golden!' It sure is. By sunset on day two, all the pegs were on the weigh sheet and the youngsters on peg 2 were already on 121kg and had four fish over 13kg. The Proteas were solidly in the driving seat and were ahead in every zone. Have a look at the average fish weight per peg – it tells and interesting story. The extreme distances cast by the lads on peg 2 surely brought those bigger fish. Enjoy these brilliant and entertaining videos with us: 1 – 26 May at 07:03. ·Israel peg 1 fish on!: https://fb.watch/dkdYQQebie/ 2 – 26 May at 10:25, SA vs Israel Carp Tournament Ons kuier saam met Janu en Janes – hulle maak gereed om vir die laaste dag se skof aan die reserwe paar oor te gee. Ons gesels met hulle oor die proses van oorgee. https://fb.watch/dke1tGe-PC/ 3 – Johan Hopley sat down and had a chat with one of IsraFish Israeli Sport Fishing Club / ישראפיש - מועדון דייג ספורטיבי's anglers to discuss feature finding using marker floats and a swim chart: https://fb.watch/dke4spf51S/ 4 – Day two highlights: https://fb.watch/dkdVVGTjuN/ The last 24 hours As the third day approached, everybody was hopeful that the fish would move in onto the feed and improve the catch rate. In C zone the SA peg was well in command with Israel only having one fish on the scoresheet. B zone had only two fish each, with SA leading, but with only a kilo. The day was set and everybody braced themselves for a busy day – but what a let down! The catch tempo slowed right down with only a few fish being caught. The Protea team management decided to sub the anglers on B zone in the hope to get some fresh ideas and energy invigorating the swim, but to no avail as the day remained extremely slow with only a few fish being caught. Janu and Janes were on with a fish after dropping one earlier in the morning. Being careful and attentive was key to ensure it landed in the net. Safely landed, it secured a small buffer as by midday they would hand over to the reserve pair for the last day. Lappies Labuschagne, the most capped and experienced angler, had a huge task on his shoulders to turn around the results on this peg. Management expected him to make a difference and get the zone in the bag – no pressure! Within the first hour or two they did exactly that and landed a beaut of 13,45kg. In the meantime, the young guns on peg 2 kept the scoreboard ticking – much slower than before, but they kept on working. The game changer for Sakkie and André was that they were able to feed and fish further out than the other pegs. Their accuracy was exemplary and their distance impressive! They maintained a high work rate on the peg and it paid off. Working together as a team is quite important and they know each other well. The last fish for the day, pushing them to a mere kilo-and-a-half short of 200kg! Peter van Mosseveld using the last ball for the feeding session, coming from the neat ball press that makes life so much easier. Peter and Christo also slowed down significantly and the size started decreasing as well. It is time to feed again, so preparations are made. Hemp is added to get more oily substance in the swim to get it kick started again. Get them in – work, work, work! Time for a quick break. Meanwhile, on peg 1, Roman and Raviv are catching up! Gratitude! Proud to represent their nation, and happy to be in SA! At a venue like this, where extreme casting distances are the order of the day, it is sensible to place the rods further apart, spread out on the peg. Prepared and ready to go. Perfection in many ways … Lappies and Richard topping up the swim for the last time before nightfall. We were eagerly awaiting the fish that would take peg 2 over the 200kg mark – but it was not to be. On the afternoon of the last day, Anton and Vlad changed strategy and started feeding differently, with a different mixture. This change brought only a single fish in the early morning hours … until 07:30, when all hell broke loose! The rig and bait that did all the damage, a small composite pop-up on a Ronnie rig. Perfect presentation. The first fish of the winning streak that moved them to a second peg place overall. It gets a kiss. And another one of eight runs in a row! Nicolay and Vladimir worked hard but just could not get the fish going at any decent tempo. However, when Nicolay hooked this one and it kept running, he knew straight away that it was a big fish. Vladimir stood for a good half an hour waiting for the right moment to land the beast. Look at this ‘propellor’. Biggest fish for the tournament by one kilo – 14,57kg. The money shot – straight onto the cover of The Bank Angler! A last fish or two for the final morning put them well over the 200 mark – 226,13kg to be exact. In the dying moments of the tournament, a mere minute before the siren, Israel struck into this beauty, which was only landed about 10 minutes after the end of the game. A 15-minute grace period after the siren is allowed to land any last fish. Here their opponents from peg 2 joined in the celebration. Peg 1 with their management (Johan Hopley) on the last weigh. With them are the ever-hard-working team of officials – Sheridene, Hannes and Nicky. Here are a few videos to feast your eyes on again: 1 – SA vs Israel Live 27 May at 06:50: https://fb.watch/dke7hApPUE/ 2 – Israel is cooking! Live 27 May at 07:08: https://fb.watch/dkeaTl2aJ4/ 3 – SA and Israel head to head! Live 27 May at 08:57 https://fb.watch/dkeduIV6S8/ 4 – Israel on again! Live 27 May at 09:30: https://fb.watch/dkei3s2HH7/ Prize-giving ceremony The last evening provided the proverbial cherry on the cake with a fabulous prize-giving ceremony. These videos tell the story: 1 – First part of live: https://fb.watch/dkejKNm_iM/ 2 – Second part of live: https://fb.watch/dkelxzm_5A/ 3 – Final highlight reel: https://fb.watch/dkenOo4xc_/

A. INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

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