This unassuming but passionate Bass
fishing couple were in shock when we
spoke to them, but their jubilation was
tangible! “We’re over the moon” Johan
said, “we’ve fished this event for 19 years
and while we’ve come tantalisingly close
at times, the ‘big one’ has always stayed
out of reach”.
To add insult to injury, many-times KZN
angler Merle, has beaten Johan hands
down virtually every time, though one
year he did crack a third overall with a
Bass of just over 3 kg. So, while this vic-
tory was even sweeter for him, it was
not without its drama!
This is his version of how it all went
down:
“An hour or two after launching, we
were fishing at one of our favourite
spots, which we’d previously marked on
our Lowrance units (an HDS 8 Gen 1 and
an HDS 5 Gen 2), when Merle caught a
1.9kg fish. As it looked a bit deep, she
was concerned the fish would bleed out
and she wanted to go and weigh it
straight away, but I was not keen to
leave as the fish were biting! As you can
imagine, she was very miffed when I
said no!” Johan said.
“Luckily for me though, just three casts
later at around 9am, I hooked my winner
(on a DLN10 Lavender Shad Crank lure)!
Of course, there was no hanging around
to get this one weighed, as I thought it