CARP NATIONALS 2010

Enigma

Moderator
24 MAy and I hosted a clinic at the Vaal with suspiciously little tackle because mine was all packed and ready for the Carp Nationals

We left for Bloemhof the 25th Sunday and were got together at Die Hoek for final team talk and psyche for the comp.

The Team, Dean Pelser (SuperCast -  Banjo Ebony and others) & Pieter, Jason (Misguide) and Derrick, Craig (Enigma) and Marius (Catch 1195)

Monday 26 and pegs are drawn.

A zone Dean and Pieter

B Zone Jason and Derrick

C Zone Craig and Marius

Marius and I were not to chuffed as C zone is notoriously difficult with the deeper water being further offshore and only 2 ever winning bags comming out of the C zone.

The weather was overcast and cold with 30% chance of rain for the whole week and it was full moon (not good for Carp)

We soon got settled in and were ready for the onslaught but from all reports from the guys fishing the Bonanza we wouldn't be getting big bags of fish this time around.

Camera was out of commission and it looked like a low pressure systme had settled in over the dam (both not good news)
 

Enigma

Moderator
Fishing Day 1

We decided to approach day 1 as we would conventional angling and rigged with #8 Tri-Blades (8714) on 0.25mm Fluorocarbon hook links

We also rigged up the 13' T53 with 0.16mm C+ Hypercasting and 4oz rigs and started fishing out at around 180m. 

We then set about turning fresh popcorn feed, maples, peanuts, kaboems and boilie chop into 30kg of fresh 70mm feedballs.

By now we could see fish were rolling at around 120m so we decided feeding the bait in at 120m was the way to go.  We put in 30kg of fresh feed at 120m and the set about putting pre-prepared feed and 20kg of boilies in at 60 and 80m

I re-cast at 120m and before I could set my swingarms my reel took off on a screamer of a run. I felt the initial run and commented to Marius that this was going to be a Gold Medal fish if it wasn't a Catfish.  20 minutes later and with 0.16mm line I landed a 17.7kg Catfish.

The fishing was abnormally productive and all through the day and first night we caught fish on the 120m mark.  We also caught 4 x 6kg+ fish and by the 24 hour mark we were in 2nd position in the zone with 91kg of fish and Dean and Pieter were in good 2nd position and Jason and Derrick, there first compo together in a 8th position (10 teams)

On night 1 I woke up to some cussing and rather crude comments about Catfish.  From inside the tent I could see Marius putting the 0.25mm S-Missile high viz line through it's paces and the 13' Prophet was bent down into the solid carbon butt and he was muttering some unmentionables about catfish and now it had headed off to the right across all the other lines and was trying to wrap him around the weighing station.

I shon my Petzel out from the tent and caught the distinctive orange of a nice size carps tail.  I screamed at him to ease of as it was a medal class fish.  True as nuts, a long common coming in at 6.682kg and which would evetually earn 3rd position in the top 3 fish category.
 

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Enigma

Moderator
Fishing Day 2

By now we were up to 94kg and normally by now we'd be on 25-50kg and end on 800-1000kg.  This looked good.

Looked good but wasn't good.  We fed 2000 x 70mm feedballs and 60kg of boilies and settled in for the big smash.  By 01:00 we had slipped back to second and the fish were gone(they never arrived is more like it)

Around 03:00 Marius found the fish schooling about 40m from the bank in under 2m of water and we managed a good morning session and by 09:00 when the bite tapered off we had taken back the lead and put 30kg on the Gauteng anglers.

Dean and Pieter were so far ahead in their zone they wouldn't caught and now they had their eyes on the 1st place overall which was 47kg ahead of them.

We decided to go for broke and fed the last 40kg of boilies and another 1000 feedballs and set out for the smash (didn't happen)  The swim was flooded with small fish so we upped the hooks to a #4 with a longer hair to keep the smaller fish of the hooks.

Once again I got stuck into a mother of a catfish and landed another 20kg fish on 0.25mm and once again we managed another 6kg plus fish.

 
 

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Enigma

Moderator
Day 3

It was a nerve racking night, watching the Gauteng and Free State anglers sacking fish all night long at a rate of 6 to our 1.  By now we feared we had slipped back into 4th spot as Loutjie and Gilbert were also nailing the fish.

First daylight weigh in and we could see what was going on.  Gauteng presented 20 fish to the weigh in but 18 were under the 1.5kg minimum mark and the 2 that qualified couldn't have weighed more than 3.5kg (cumulative)  Same thing happened with Free State.  We presented 9 fish 33kg so all the worries seemed of no consequence.

We soon learned that the Gauteng team had inched their way to 20kg ahead of us (after we had weighed the 33kg)

We searched for the fish and soon found them on the dropoff so Marius set about fishing hard on the fish and I got to work with the boilie pipe and fed single boilies at 80m from 06:00 till the 12 o'clock finish with the off fish catch inbetween.  We managed 15 fish to the 3 of Gauteng and 5 of Free State and we knew that the last 40 minutes could mean a win for us.

5 minutes before time and 3 rods go away and we manage 3 fish for just over 11kg and Gauteng presents 2 fish.  Lines up and now to break camp, shower and get to the function.
 

Enigma

Moderator
Results

30 seconds before the lines up signal Dean hooks into a 3kg fish and lands it 4 minutes after the lines up (counts if landed before 15min after the final hooter)

Dean and Pieter,with that fish edge 1.4kg past Johan Fritz and Kallie of Gautend and take the title of SA Carp Angling Champs 2010 with a total weight of 390kg at an average of 2.95kg

Marius and I win the C zone with 319kg vs the 314kg of Gauteng (our last fish caught in the last 10 min of the comp) and we take the National Bronze Medal we also took the highest average weight per fish in the comp with over 3kg per fish

Dean and Pieter take 2nd biggest fish and we take 3rd Biggest fish (only to realise after issuing of the medal that the first fish we caught was the actual 2nd place fish but what the hey our team took 2nd and 3rd biggest)  GN took biggest fish with 6.86kg

Gauteng successfully defended their 2009 title with a 2nd, 1st and 2nd position (5 points)

We took 2nd position with a 1st, 6th and 1st (8 points)

Freestate took 3rd with 4th, 2nd 3rd (9points)

North West 10pt

Central North West 19pt

Northern Cape 19pt

Gauteng North 21pt

Eastern Province 21pt

Central Gauteng 25pt

Mpumalanga 28pt

Total fish 2121 (above 1.5kg barbel excluded)

Total weight 5,706kg

Average weight 2.69kg

Our team medal tally (one of each)
 

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Enigma

Moderator
I must say the guys from the Bloemhof bonanza didn't do some of the pegs any favours.

The numbers of dead day old chicks washed up showed that catfish had been chummed in the area and Johan and Marcell van Heerden had been pegged on one of those feeding spots.

Their first 20 fish were catfish between 18 and 27kg (all weighed) and Louwtjie Louwies also managed to be pestered by a few through the 2nd night and his biggest came in at just over 25kg (Lovely fight but not a fish you want to catch in a Carp comp)

 
 

Enigma

Moderator
Haven't got the dates of screening yet but the champs will be on the Competitive Angler on SS1, Vaskap on ASTV and on the Bank Scene DVD

Special mention and thanks to Misguide who at very short notice got involved after the withdrawal of one of our team members.  In his own words, His Arse was burning to get preparing for the 2011 compo

I think we have unleashed a monster here and although he's been a R&S competitor all his life he seems to have really enjoyed the close competition (seldom a huge bonus fish bumping an angler up the ladder - graft all the way)

It must be said that although they ended in 6th they were for 70% of the comp within 10kg of 3rd and 30kg of 2nd

Thanks to all the good wishes and support from the Sealiners.
 

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Kumz

Sealiner
Wow Super stuff !!!
Well done to you guys !!!
Misguide / Impi ... we will just have to check him out this week @ HITW ...!!!
Impi carry some boilies ..;)

Now i must try this freshwater thing ..Enigma when i get back i am coming out with u guys !!! :)
 

Otto

Senior Member
@ Enigma - Congratulations and great feedback. What caught my eye in your report is the volume of ground feeding that it takes to be successful at such a comp. The other interesting factor is the way the fish move around and away from prepared swims.

 
 

Reefman

Sealiner
Brilliant report as usual Enigma, and once again you keep setting the standard with regards catching fish...! Congrats on the results!
 
A pity the weather didnt play along to get the pegs to the 1500kg mark. Congrats on all the medals and trophies to all you guys.
@MISGUIDE: glad you enjoyed it mate. Will only get better in future.
 

Trophy

Sealiner
Hiya Enigma,

Well done on the fishing and a great report!

If that Marius in the pics...then he looks totally different.

Well I guess it's been about 20 years since I last saw him LoL!
 

christodeb

Senior Member
It would be nice to see how many sealine members participated in the Nationals. The list so far that i know of is:

Enigma
Catch1195
Misguide
Christodeb

Please add the other names in posts below. Misguide actually sat next to me, but i only found out now that he is a sealine member.
 

Naruto

Sealiner
Thanks for the report. And congrats to all. Would like to attend a comp like this and see what it is all about.
 

silver_foxx

New member
Great report & congrats to all the winners. Sounds almost unreal....I'd love to see such a spectacle someday....to think having a huge catfish on your line as just a nuisance....wow!
 
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