Taking The Gold

The 2019 Black Bass World Championships hosted by South Africa on the Vaal River will be remembered as a match of wit and epic skill. Elite anglers from fourteen countries brawled for three days under difficult fishing conditions for the Gold Medal of international bass fishing. The annual tournament attracted many of the world’s top anglers, all of whom enjoyed two pre-tourney practice days to pattern the river, a task encumbered by changing weather patterns, drenching rains, seesawing water levels, lethargic mid-summer bass and a test defined by master levels of difficulty. Although fishing remained overly technical with many meagre bags and in some cases, nothing more than a goose egg, South Korea’s Park Mu Seok, winner of six KSA (Korean Sportfishing Association) Classic titles summed it best when he said tough conditions work well to separate top anglers. The top five teams, including world number one ranked South Africa, found and executed successful, winning patterns. In some cases, as weather and river flow changed so too did fishing patterns. Bass moved and anglers adapted. Here’s a look at the top five Vaal River attack strategies. Korean pairing Park Mu Seok (left) and Kwak Min Keun. SOUTH KOREA (5th place) South Korea Team Manager, Ham Mun Hyung said team members had never fished the Vaal River and began practice days power fishing with crankbaits, spinnerbaits and topwater lures. Ham said they attacked the river with typical mid-summer tactics employed in their home country but soon learned it was not an effective Vaal strategy. “The results were bad, and we switched to finesse styles of fishing,” Ham told me. The Korean anglers searched for ledges with hard bottom and soon found what they were looking for along the outer edges of docks at Millionaires Bend. One hard-bottom drop off from 3 to 4 metres held fish and they began catching them on both Drop Shot and Free Rig presentations with small 4” plastic baits. Team members concentrated on the area to get a limit of fish and then scatter to find bigger ones. The Free Rig as used by the Korean anglers. “The Free Rig is a Korean thing,” Ham said and described it as a finesse technique that employs a free sliding mojo type weight with an eye in one end. The weight is pegged when fishing deep and free sliding when fished shallow. “If they had just one more day, the Korean anglers would be in the top three,” said Victor Bridger, EBass angler and skipper for the Korean team, who spoke of the team’s tenacity and ability to adapt. The Korean team amassed a total of 44 bass for the tournament, one short of a perfect sweep but failed to amass the weight needed for a medal finish. The Italian team managed to land a few good quality fish. ITALY (4th place) Eddie Peruzzo, Italy Team Captain said the fishing was difficult this year, more so than in 2017 when he fished as a team member at the XIII Black Bass World Championships. At that time, bass were spawning and downstream from Emerald Casino. “We were not so lucky this year. We didn’t have a lot of spots upstream . . . but we tried all techniques,” Eddie said. The Italian anglers, well known for extreme finesse fishing relied mostly on light tackle tactics with a good result, earning them a position in the top five. They fished 4” and smaller soft plastics from Italy, such as the Molix brand, mostly drop shot with 6-7-pound test line. One of the Italian boats was unleashed for power fishing with experienced angler, Jacobus (Jack) Galleli, the first European angler to qualify for a BASS Classic. Jack used a spinnerbait around trees in the Suikerbos River area to buy a few larger fish for the team. He landed one of 2,7kg but unfortunately lost a few heartbreakers that could have changed the game. “It has been very difficult,” said Michele Fanfani, Italian team angler and editor of Bass Fishing Magazine in Italy. “We cannot find groups of bass, they are all spread out.” Germany’s Lukas Riplinger (left) and Toni Wiese. GERMANY (Bronze Medal) Lukas Riplinger of Team Germany agreed that mid-summer fishing on the Vaal during periods of inclement weather posed difficulty for all anglers. The European bass champion suggested that extreme conditions called for extreme tactics. “We had to fish very slow. That was the key,” said the angler from Freiburg, Germany. Lukas employed several techniques, among them various 4” grub baits, stretch 40’s and 5” wacky rigs, all tied to 4-pound test line. Lukas also caught a few bass around laydowns on a spinnerbait. Team mate Thomas Engert said he fished predominately drop shot in 10-15 feet of water with a 1/32-ounce weight on either 6- or 8-pound test line. Thomas also caught fish on a lipless crankbait. Australia’s Peter Phelps (left) and Julian Smith. AUSTRALIA (Silver Medal) Australia angler Kris Hickson said team members developed a daily strategy for filling bags in one specific spot that included a standing tree near a boat dock. The area was rife with bass and they rotated boats in and out to fill bags of five fish. The bass were holding in 15-20 feet of water and eagerly attacked weightless senkos. After each of the three Australian teams filled their bag, they set off to find bigger fish. Julian Smith, born and raised in Germiston, South Africa and now a twelve-year Australian resident utilized the team’s community fishing spot but found two other patterns to his liking. Julian found bass amongst trees tight to the shoreline and attracted them with unweighted senkos. Best of all, he developed a great pattern where the Klip River met the Vaal. Inflow from the Klip River formed a colour line where dirty water met cleaner water, and within the colour break there was a slack water spot, Julian said. He and partner, Peter Phelps caught their bigger fish in that defined area on a spinnerbait. The Australian team also weighed 44 fish, one short of a perfect bag for the three-day tourney, awarding them a second-place silver medal. Martin de Kock and Darryl Quinton picked apart key areas on route to gold. SOUTH AFRICA (Gold Medal) South Africa Captain Justy Varkevisser said changing weather and water conditions posed significant challenges during the tournament, but team members adapted and persevered. Tactics remained similar throughout the three-day tourney but fish holding patterns did not. “We had a good first day, thanks to the BIRDS,” said South Africa’s alpha angler after the first day weigh-in, referencing his Humminbird fishfinders. Team Captain Justy Varkevisser and SABAA President Craig Fraser capitalised on big bites each day. Justy said bass held off the shoreline and on deeper structure during practice and the first tournament day and the use of high-end fishfinders awarded them heavy bags. Torrential rain and worsening weather conditions drove bass shallow and tight to the shoreline the final two days, but the team adapted. Ruan Wahl and Charlton Hewitt in action. Protea teams employed a dual approach with one angler throwing a spinnerbait and the other a small plastic finesse bait. The veteran anglers pitched and cast deep inside the willows and tight to the bank far upstream on the Vaal and into the Suikerbos River. Behind the glitz and glamour of the World Championships is a team of highly dedicated “investors”, namely Junior SABAA members who volunteer their holidays and dedicate their free time to ensure fish are released safely, errands are run, the weigh station site is clean and organised, and that the weigh bags SABAA has supplied to transport the fish in are safely run from the stage to the check in area. It’s early mornings and late evenings, and the reward? A fast track on tournament info and the added bonus of knowing that thanks to them there will be fish in the Vaal left to catch.