LOWRANCE SOUTH AFRICA Issue 12 | Page 25

O ur Brand Ambassador and die-hard Lowrance user, Alain Kahn’s passion for fishing goes back as far as he can remember. His father Milton and older brother Jerome were both avid rock and surf anglers, so when three-year-old Alain picked up a rod - he was just doing what came naturally. Growing up in Umhlanga and a�ending Carmel College - Alain excelled at virtually every sport he took part in, achieving half colours for cricket, soccer, golf and athle�cs. But fishing was his passion and the 1000’s of hours he spent perfec�ng his skill off the beaches paid off, leading to Junior Springbok colours at the age of 17. A�er being invited by friends to go skiboat fishing, Alain was hooked and soon he was begging rides from different skippers – the start of his deepsea fishing career. When he was 20, Dean Levy (then at Marine & Boa�ng) sponsored his first boat – a 4.1m Buccaneer with a 40hp Mercury, fi�ed with a Lowrance LCD unit and separate GPS. “I’ve never looked back and have been with Lowrance ever since. They’re so user-friendly and the backup service from Liz and her team is excellent!” Since those early beginnings, Alain has owned four skiboats all ki�ed with Lowrance units, including an HDS-8 and his current Elite 9 Ti unit. This is the perfect unit for a boat under 17 feet – he now has a Cobra Cat 500. Over the years he’s caught many gamefish including Couta, Dorado, Bo�omfish and others. His biggest catch is a Blue Marlin of around 150kg which he released off Ballito in 2016 and several Sailfish of over 40kg. Un�l recently he’s concentrated on fishing the major compe��ons each year and he only started compe�ng in Inter-club compe��ons last year. He was delighted to be awarded KZN half-colours at the end of the season. Alain’s son, 12-year-old Jordan, is also racking up the accolades (see our previous issue) and Alain’s dream is for the two of them to achieve Protea colours for Deepsea Angling. “I would love to be pictured together in our green and gold jackets.” To this end, they’ll be focussing on entering interprovincial and na�onal compe��ons. Watch this spot for reports of their success in the year to come! Alain is the accountant at Natal Powerboats and he has his own fishing lure business called “Bite Me” - which is also the name of his skiboat.