Once again East London plays host city to another huge angling event, namely the South African Shore Angling Senior Angling Nationals.

Border Rock and Surf Angling will be hosting provincial teams with a total of approximately 200 anglers and officials for the 5 day event, starting this past Monday and ending on Friday, with the Department Economic and Environment Affairs officer Ricky Hannan as beach management and observer. The tournament has the sanction of this department and permits were issued for a certain number of vehicles to access at certain areas under strict control and management.

Kidds Beach township and Palm Springs resort have been woken up and placed on the map with 10 provincial teams (160 plus people) renting houses and holiday cabins since this past Saturday, Tayside garage scoring with 24 vehicles that will be filling up daily over the 5 days and the Kidds beach restaurants and shops having a field day.

On Monday competition started off along the Bhira coastline from Gusha surf to the Mtati River mouth. Anglers were spread out far and wide as sea conditions were really flat and clean, lots of weed and with many a bag of “Lucerne” pulled out it looked like harvest time, which is not that good for the “heavys” like Ragged Tooth sharks or for testing the patience of the anglers. There were some notable catches of Kob (111 in total) estimated weights between 2 and12kgs, Bronze Bream, Black Steenbras etc of which many could not be measured due to them being undersized. When I mention “estimated”, all fish species are measured and not weighed, this is essential so that there is minimum handling and trauma to the fish so that it can be released alive within a few minutes, and no fish are kept. A few small Raggies were landed but were mainly a month or so old, with weights estimated at around 8 to 12kg’s. There were a few nice sized Diamond and Blue rays landed but also on the smallish size. It was interesting to note that Diamond Rays which are usually caught along the Kaysers to Hamburg stretch are now moving around a wider area, which is good news.

MONDAYS RESULTS:

Border 198.8 points ; Eastern Province 189; Central Gauteng 143.8;Kwazulu Natal 119.7; Boland 115.7; North Gauteng 89.4; Southern Cape 73.8; Western Prov 65.3; West Coats 49.6; Zululand 44.2; Free State 23

Tuesday see’s the tournament move to the Hamburg to Dassie Rock area and hopes are high for an easterly blow for discoloured water and maybe some Raggies, especially in the area from the car park rocks to the river mouth. Wednesday is the “rest” day for all to refresh and get new strategies planned.

TUESDAYS RESULTS:

BORDER  370.5, EASTERN PROVINCE  350.2, CENTRAL GAUTENG  342.0,  KWA-ZULU NATAL  279.9, BOLAND  240.8, WESTERN PROVINCE  240.0, GAUTENG NORTH  216.6, SOUTH CAPE  196.9, MPUMALANGA    137.3, ZULULAND  133.3, WEST COAST   124.4, FREE STATE  86.4

Report by: Daryl Parish