The Rock & Surf International between South Africa and Namibia was held in Port Elizabeth in mid December 2009, hosted by the Eastern Province Shore Angling Association and based at the lovely Pine Lodge Resort.
The day prior to the competition was a free day for all the teams and the anglers made final preparations to their tackle making sure that all was in 100% condition, while on the other hand the management debated the areas to be fished and tactics to be applied for the forthcoming tournament.
The South Africans decided to have the slides taken out for Day 1, which eventually were voted out for the entire duration of the tournament. This made for much more competitive angling!
Much excitement was evident amongst the teams as the fishing conditions were favourable for non-edible fish and obviously each angler wanted to give his best performance on and off the beaches for their country.
With vehicle access to the beaches being approved by Marine Coastal Management, the old trick of hiding anglers away would not play any major part in this now very open competition, and management would have to tactically position anglers in places that could produce good size fish in the rough but settling sea, although a strong South Westerly was expected during the late morning.
The very foul Paradise Beach area, famous for its abundance of raggies, spotted gully sharks and blue skates, proved to be disappointing, although several of these fish were lost and a few landed it didn't come up to expectations. Meanwhile, back on the Seekoei surf, Wally Watt and Gary Stevens of South Africa were "smashing" the young bronzies. This caused a stir amongst management and within an hour 80% of the anglers were moved to this surf area. With 2 hours of angling time remaining and the tide dropping, the wind gusting to almost gale strength moved the discoloured water from Paradise to the surf, which gave all the anglers a good chance of catching some good fish.
These adverse conditions never put any of the anglers off their mark and some very good fish were caught : Gary Stevens (S.A Seniors) added a 21.7kg gully shark and a 19.2kg eagle ray to his 7 bronzies, Wally Watt (S.A Masters) added a lovely 42.1kg diamond and a 14.4kg eagle ray to his 10 bronzies. Bruno Gomes (Namibian Juniors) was not intimidated by the senior anglers around him and caught a good bronzie of 43.8kg. This area is not known for its edible fish, however Andre Coetzee (Namibian Masters) caught a kob of 12.2kg which was measured and returned to the water alive. Just before lines up, Brian Curtis (Namibian Seniors) hooked a good fish on 0.40 nylon which immediately caused obvious concern amongst the various South African team managers. He eventually landed a giant black ray of 70.1kg, the heaviest fish of the day.
South Africa Seniors : 203.7 points (22 fish)
South Africa Masters : 186.9 points (25 fish)
Namibia Seniors : 154.7 points (11 fish)
Namibia Masters : 146.1 points (20 fish)
Namibia Juniors : 138.1 points (13 fish)
South Africa Juniors : 119.1 points (17 fish)
The captain and managers decided to fish this surf area and although conditions were excellent the day started off very slowly, with a few small raggies landed. SASAA's rule of not driving an hour either side of the high tide added to the frustrations of all the teams because when the fish did start biting, it happened in only one area leaving most of the anglers out of reach. However the South African juniors had a field day capitalizing on this situation with their captain, Michael Minaar, catching a mixed bag of 9 fish scoring 76.2 points - this included a smooth hound of 21.8kg, 4 good sized blue rays and a nice kob. Charl Marias (S.A Seniors) kept his teams score board ticking with a similar mixed bag of 45.6 points which included a smooth hound of 22.7kg.
After the "no driving period" the teams moved north towards the Gamtoos River mouth where there were some deep wading drop offs. Once again the S.A Masters showed their well honed skills by dominating the afternoon session. Their top angler was once again "Mr Grinder" Wally Watt, landing 4 eagle rays scoring 40.8 points followed by Colin Scheepers with 3 blue rays and a nice kob scoring 40.3 points. The Namibian Masters were kept in contention by Chris Affer who caught a nice raggie of 90.7kg.
South Africa Juniors : 341.6 points
South Africa Masters : 341.5 points
South Africa Seniors : 291.4 points
Namibia Masters : 287.7 points
Namibia Seniors : 264.0 points
Namibia Juniors : 164.8 points
The final days angling was held between the Sandsteen Klippe and the Sundays River mouth where anglers found conditions out of this world! The sea being calm and holding good colour, made conditions very favourable for all species to feed, the main target species being the Ragged Tooth shark as one or two good fish could really change the tables for any team.
The S.A senior side sent their "big fish angler", Johan van der Westhuizen, to the Klippe to target the raggies that are normally in that area, but for the first three hours not much happened. Eventually the cell phones started ringing with the news that JJ Warrington (Namibia Seniors) had landed a raggie of 127 kg putting his team back in contention. However Johan stuck it out on the Klippe for the entire day and ended up with 7 raggies and a couple of blue rays totaling 177.2 points, wiping out JJ Warringtons big fish.
Meanwhile up north towards the Sundays River on the deep water drop offs "all hell was breaking loose". Jasper Strydom (S.A Masters) on his first cast landed a fine specimen of 163.2kg - this raggie really put a spanner in the works as the S.A Masters were now in the lead overall. Jasper did it again with his next cast landing yet another good raggie of 82.8kg. A gamble was taken by the S.A Masters management to move two more of their anglers away from the "hot spot" at the Pump House up to the drop offs in the Sundays River mouth area. Colin Scheepers immediately landed a raggie of 63kg and then several blue skates, ending his day with a bronzie of 32kg.
Wally Watt had a field day with his long casts and landed a raggie of 60.7kg, a good bronzie of 40.2kg, a dusky shark and a nice eagle ray. Meanwhile in the middle section of the area, Gary Stevens (S.A Seniors) found a lip where the bronzies where feeding and landed 3 in a row of 46.6kg, 51.7kg and 49.6kg. Amongst all these non edibles, Hannes Botha (S.A Seniors) landed a beautiful kob of 17kg, which was the biggest edible of the tournament. Frans Massyn sealed it for the S.A Masters by landing a bronzie of 35.9kg just before lines up, making their team management extremely happy with the teams results for the day.
1. South Africa - 942.2 points
2. Namibia - 388.9 points
1. South Africa - 823 points
2. Namibia - 559.3 points
1. South Africa - 565 points
2. Namibia - 498 points
1. Jasper Strydom
(S.A Masters) 298.5 points - 6 fish
2. Wally Watt (S.A Masters) 252.9 points - 21 fish
3. Johan vd Westhuizen (S.A Seniors) 240.4 points - 15 fish
4. Gary Stevens (S.A Seniors) 231.6 points - 19 fish
5. Colin Scheepers (S.A Masters) 168 points - 13 fish
6. Brian Curtis (Namibian Seniors) 165.2 points - 15 fish
1. Wally Watt - 21 fish
2. Gary Stevens - 19 fish
3. Charl Marais - 18 fish
4. Mike Minnaar - 16 fish
5. Johan vd Westhuizen - 15 fish
6. Brian Curtis - 15 fish
Compiled by S.A Team Management