SA bass team excels in Spain
The team flew from King Shaka airport to Dubai and then onto Madrid, a short overnight in Madrid and then onto a high speed train into the interior of Spain to Cordoba.
Excitement mounted as the teams from all over the world started to arrive. Teams came from Russia, Spain, South Africa, Venezuela, France, Portugal, Mexico, Germany, Italy, Swaziland and Croatia.
(From the left Kieran Samkin (Captain) Brendon van Zuydam, Greg Schluep Shane Estran, Hennie Korf, Rob Fisher (Manager) and Trevor Brown. The boys at King Shaka anxious to get going).
There was two days of practice where the competitors attempt to pattern a totally unfamiliar body of water and make plans for the three days of competition coming up.
Strategy meeting discussing tactics, rigs and patterns. On the wall two A0 maps showing the dam as it is today and when it was still low in 2004.
After the first two practice days, S.A had a good game plan in hand and finally Day one of the competition arrived. It’s hard to explain the feeling sitting on the boats waiting to head out through the buoys and do the business. The Day 1 weigh in was awesome with plenty of locals who pitched up to create a very festive weigh station with great excitement when any fish over 2kg’s was weighed.
The dam is relatively new and the dam record is a 3kg bass. Rob had been keeping notes of the various bag weights and we knew we had done well and arriving back at the hotel to see the day one positions celebrations ensued after we ended second! A very good start! The Russians were in first place with France in third.
Day 2 was a lot tougher but we held our own but dropped one place to third with Russia still in 1st place and Portugal moving in 2nd place. S.A needed a new game plan for the final day.
After much team talk, homework and pulling out our secrets baits and techniques, we went out with a vengeance, wanting to climb back up the ladder.The last days fishing was intense and the crowd waiting at the weigh station has grown every day and the air was electric with huge excitement!
The weigh in started and there were mixed bags, some teams had found fish and others had toiled. First SA bag weighed was 4,2kg’s and our lips dropped a bit, the next SA bag came in at 5,2kg’s and there was some hope we may have done enough but we need a good bag from Shane and Greg as their little boat came in we gestured to them and they both gave a thumbs up, we were all holding thumbs!
The team dressed up in their step outs and after a very emotional speech by the Captain in our room we headed to prize giving!
It’s very difficult to explain the feeling of putting on the green and gold and with the SA National anthem playing the team went up to collect their Silver Medals, ending in 2nd place in the World Championships, still with Russia in 1st place, and France in 3rd.
(From Left: Rob Fisher (Team Manager), Shane Estran, Gregory Schluep, Kieron Samkin (Team Captain), Hendrik Korf, Trevor Brown and Brendon Van Zuydam)
Well done South Africa bass team!
(File photo:Gallo Images)
- ECRSportswave - Olivia Symcox
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