GRAAFF-REINET NEWS — Two men from Graaff-Reinet were part of the Eastern Province bass angling team who were recently crowned South African Champions.
Mario Nel (ex-Graaff Reinetter) and Bradley Costa were delighted to be part of this winning team!
This year saw many of South Africa's elite anglers representing twelve of the country's provincial teams all competing for glory and the title of SABAA SA Inter Provincial Champions at Clanwilliam Dam in the Western Cape.
The eight-angler Eastern Province team made the long haul to the west coast with tackle, supplies and four boats in tow.
With Monday being a practice day and Tuesday a scanning day, the team did not have much time to understand the dam and attempt to unlock its secrets, so many hours of research and preparation were carried out ahead of time.
On the first day, as soon as the safe light was declared, the boats slowly filed out one by one towards the gate buoys and blasted off to their selected spots all with high hopes.
The aim was to ensure that each boat filled its limit of five live basses each day.
With great teamwork and fishing spot management, all four team boats filled their limits to end the day in a respectable third place, much to the delight of the team.
The Thursday proved to be a lot tougher with a few lost fish and fish becoming a bit line shy, but nonetheless, the team was getting to understand the fish movement more.
At the scales, EP managed to consolidate third place but lost some ground to Gauteng North who were in first place and Natal Midlands in second place, with fourth-placed Gauteng Central breathing down EP's neck.
On Friday, the final day, a change in weather made for a difficult morning for the team but with a few adjustments and totally dedicated effort, fishing to last available minute two of the boats filled their limits in plain sight of the weigh station.
As the final few bags were weighed it was clear that something special was in the making.
The East Province team leapfrogged the previous top two into a fantastic first place much to the absolute joy of the humble EP Team. Boland made a huge jump to finish second and Northern Gauteng took the final podium place in third.
The EP Bass Angling Team is very grateful to Pick 'n Pick for great support, providing team kit and supplies, Enertec Batteries, Cadar Printers, Clover SA, Silver Lake Marine, Williams Hunt/Isuzu and Fuchs Lubricants. Without dedicated support like this, competing and achieving great results at this level would not be possible.
Two Graaff-Reinetters were part of the Eastern Province bass angling team who were recently crowned South African Champions.
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