THE LIGHT TACKLE
BOAT CHAMPIONSHIP
(February 9th-18th)
Many thanks to Joseph van Huyssteen, who wrote this article –
from which we’ve taken excerpts!
The Light Tackle Boat Angling
leg of the games took place
in Mosselbay over a six-day
period with Day 1 and 2 set
aside as practice days. This
time round only the Senior
South African, Namibian and
Zimbabweans teams were
represented.
As part of this Games, a
festival competition was also
held, with two Ladies and
one Invitational Senior Team
- consisting of Protea anglers
who’d previously fished in the
senior team. More about the
fun part of the competition
later.
Victorious Protea Side – World Games LTBA winners
SALTBAA has been attempting for years to anchor LTB angling on the FIPS-M world
calendar and this competition was a showcase to achieve this long-time goal. FIPS-M
sent two people to evaluate our style of fishing and they were impressed with the
amount and size of fish landed on 4kg line.
The LTB angling rules were adapted to be more fish friendly which resulted in no
gaffing at all, completely taking the blood sport element out of it. Furthermore, in
the FIPS-M tradition, only the allocated bait given to every angler could be used,
which had the anglers complaining bitterly about the amount. In the end it worked
out well. Catches mostly consisted of Hammerhead and Hound Sharks but a few
edibles were also in the mix.
Landing big fish with a scoop net is not easy and congratulations to Arend Brink
from Namibia for his Cob of 30kg and Anton Williams for landing a 21Kg Diamond
Ray. These were the two biggest fish of the competition.
As the favourites, the South African senior team did us proud to walk away with the
gold medal but on Day 2 Namibia came close. Zimbabwe won Day 4 clinching the
silver medal.