MY TURN | MY BEURT: Dis vakansietyd, maar …

WORDS/WOORDE: Eugene C. Kruger, Editor-in-Chief

Aan almal, Geseënde Kersfees en ’n Voorspoedige Nuwe Hengeljaar!

To all, Blessed Christmas, and a Prosperous New Angling Year

Vir almal wat hierdie maand afsit see toe, wees bly dat die elf (shad) seisoen nou oop is. Hou net in gedagte dat die toegelate vangs is net 4 vis per dag per persoon en die minimum lengte is 40cm. Weet ook dat dis net kommersiële vissers met ‘n lisensie wat elf mag verkoop, en dat die verkoop van elf in KZN onwettig is. Wat kabeljou betref, as die “vis van jou lewe” 15kg swaar is, MOET dit vrygelaat word, so neem gou die foto!

Terwyl ek met wetsbepalings besig is, hier is wat die departement Bosbou, Vissery en die Omgewing in ‘n geskrewe antwoord op ‘n navraag op Facebook geantwoord het.

Die navraag: Wat is dan toegelaat in kushengel?  Wel, streng volgens die Marine Living Resources Act No 18 van 1988:

• Geen vlieërhengel;
• Geen paddle ski of boot (word as ‘meganies’ gereken);
• Geen aas kanon;
• Geen ‘sliding’ – die sinker mag net in gewerp word, nie met die lyn laat afgly nie;
• Geen hommeltuig of aasboot.

Dit beteken dat vanaf die strand of rotse mag jy net ‘n stok en katrol gebruik.   

In Engels is die antwoorde as volg:

• No kite.
• No paddle ski or boat (seen as “mechanical”).
• No bait cannon.
• No sliding done by any other means than casting the sinker.
• No bait boat or drone.

Dit is streng gesproke presies volgens die hengelmetode wat op die hengellisensie beskryf word, naamlik net met stok en katrol. Enige ander hengelmetode is volgens die wet onwettig.

So, kan ‘n mens redeneer, as jy nie ‘n hengellisensie het nie, dan hoef jy mos nie hierdie bepalings na te kom nie?  

Nee meneer, dis onwettig om in die see te hengel sonder dat jy ‘n geldige hengellisensie het, so moet dit NIE probeer nie!

Destyds toe die soutwater hengellisensie ingestel is, het hengelaars wel daarteen kapsie gemaak, en ek kan goed onthou hoe ons in verskeie vergaderings, soos byvoorbeeld in die ou Noord Transvaal Hengelraad, lekker gedebatteer (‘n mooier woord as ‘baklei’!) oor die moraliteit en regverdigheid van ‘n fooi wat aan die regering betaal moet word vir die geleentheid  (en reg!) van die burgery om in die see vanaf die strand of rotse te hengel. Dit was dieselfde met die varswaterhengellisensie. Wat albei lisensies betref, was dit algemeen aanvaar dat hulle maar net nog ‘n belasting is wat op die burgery geplak word. En wat was die ‘wet van Transvaal’ destyds …?

COP29 AND ALL THAT

And then last month there was COP 29, the gathering of the world’s rich and powerful countries bewailing the perceived wisdom that if the utilisation of fossil fuels continues, Mother Earth would, well, just cease to exist as we now know it. The irony of course escaped them all, namely that the ones putting up the worst scenarios were the ones whose oil fields prop up super wealthy governing classes.

The “global warming” threat touted as “an inconvenient truth” decades ago was soon proven to be just quasi-scientific nonsense, so the fear mongers replaced that term with “climate change”, a phenomenon that no one can deny, least of all us recreational anglers. We are acutely aware of changing weather patterns, but talk of an impending  “crisis” is just taking it way too far.

Mother Earth has seen change upon change through the ages. Check: sea shells have been found in the Karoo, so it must have been covered by water at some stage. The sea then retracted to leave us with the typical Karoo semi-desert we know today. Its just one of many other such examples.

I am not a climate change denier, not at all, but I am also not a crisis monger. I accept that wind and solar power can play a role, not as an alternative but as an additional power source to coal. I also agree that nuclear is the real alternative to fossil fuels. I also do not succumb to what I call “climate derangement” . . . To fill in a slow twenty minutes or so, check out this video:

The REAL Problem

What we do have in South Africa today is an alarming water situation that is certainly starting to look like a real crisis, something that has been building for several decades. No need to embroider on what is a true “inconvenient truth”.

No government regulations or scientific debate will fill our rivers and dams; fact of the matter is that as water scientists keep pointing out, its not so much that South Africa is a water-poor country, it is that the country is a maintenance-poor one. Fact: Some 40%+ of the water that Rand Water supplies to Gauteng is lost through old, leaking infrastructure. That’s a man-made problem, nothing to do with climate change at all.

So, what’s a rant like this doing in an angling magazine? The answer is simple and direct, because, dear reader, without water there are no fish; and no fish means no ‘going fishin’! We all must look after every single drop, because if there are no drops, there will be no water, its as simple as that!

Maar nou’s dit tyd om uit te span, om in die oggende die dagbreek met bewondering te verwelkom; en om dan ook die kleurryke skouspel van ‘n hoëveld se sonsondergang te aanskou.

En darem ook altyd ‘n ogie op die poliesman daar voor op die lyn te hou, want netnou gaan dit opwip en die lyn gaan styfspan …  

So geniet die vakansiehengel, hetsy op die oewer langs ‘n dam of rivier, vanaf ‘n strand of rotsbank met brandersproei in die gesig, of vanaf ‘n boot … dis alles deel van ‘n hengelaar se hengellewensstyl, en soos altyd, Take Care.

*Iets oor hengel op die hart? Epos: editor@stywelyne.net

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