JUNIORS
By Lyn Adams Photos by Justin Klusener
T
HIRTEEN provincial junior angling teams took to the waters off St Lucia at the end of June to be part of the 2022 Gamefish Nationals — five U16 teams and eight U19 teams from five provinces, plus two SADSAA teams. Southern Gauteng Deep Sea Angling Association’s executive committee took it upon themselves to host this event as junior development has always been their passion. As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem recalls, “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls”. SGDSAA went all out this year, with many sponsors on board and great
50 • SKI-BOAT September/October 2022
goody bag give aways as well as hoodie jackets. At the opening ceremony the excitement was palpable, with many new faces and new caps here to test new techniques in new fishing waters. With the launch being through the St Lucia estuary mouth, that too brought on some jittery nerves. Day one saw NSRI launch and land upside down, so that immediately put the skippers on their toes for the mornings launch. Some boats felt the power of the sea and got their teams drenched during the early morning launches, but it’s all part of the fun of beach launching. Thankfully all the other boats launched safely and were soon behind the backline and off fishing.
Beach Control Gina and Flagman Nick had everything under control and performed their duties very professionally. The five U16 juniors teams showed great enthusiasm from the start, and the Natal team showed their dedication and commitment to species angling, taking a good lead from start to finish. Free State, Southern Gauteng and Gauteng watched daily at the gallows for Natal’s catch. Southern Gauteng’s U16 team, under the guidance of skipper Brad Mcclaren and Quinton Olivier, brought some great catches to the scale. Among these was a potential All Africa and SADSAA Junior wahoo record. Melchior Wilmans’s 20.66kg wahoo was bigger
