Species angling does it again

THE first-ever Tri-Development International Angling competition was held in Namibia following the recent World Carp Angling success in October 2008, where Namibia returned home with a bronze medal after competing against 15 countries for the first time.

This competition was held from September 11 to 14 and teams that competed were the Species Angling Association team from Namibia and a star-studded team from South Africa drawn from various South African provinces.This team drawn from the provinces had the potential to compete against and beat the South African National Protea Team. The welcoming ceremony was held at the Lapa Lange Lodge, 35 kilometres east of Mariental, with the drawing of pegs that determined the team location for the next 72 hours of fishing. After Friday morning’s breakfast all teams departed to Hardap Dam and fishing started at 10h00. Weather conditions were poor, with the teams experiencing heat, winds, a cold front and rain during the 72-hour competition. After the initial 24 hours of fishing, the Namibian Development team had an advantage of 110 kilograms and this paved the way for a very intense second session. In the second 24-hour session, the Namibians used the poor weather conditions to their favour and increased the lead to 187 kg.The South African team with their years of experience dug deep to try and haul back the lead that the Namibian team had built up over the first 48 hours, but to no avail. Victory and the ‘ gold ‘ went to the Namibian Development team with the South African Development team ending in second place.Due to the Associations ‘Catch and Release’ policy, all fish caught during the entire 72-hour competition were released.During the prize-giving the Biggest Carp was 5.97 kg by the Namibian angling peg of Gerhardus and Marsha Nel. The Biggest Bag of 305.80 kg was by the Namibian angling peg of Tiaan and Janda Nel, while the Best Team award went to Species Angling Namibia Development Team.The team from South Africa consisted of Dean Pelser and Peter White; Stephan de Wet and Herman Benade; Dirk Lourens and Jacques Dreyer; Craig Neil and Marius Rusch.The Namibia Development team was represented by Tiaan and Janda Nel;Anton Seabrooke and Mark Middendorff, Gerhardus and Marsha Nel, Willie Sowden and Marc Schumacher.The Namibian team is now invited to compete at the Carp World Championships in Romania in 2012.

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