Team Ireland Predator’s African Experience at the World Games

We were soon transported by the South African federation to the Loskop Dam Forever Resort on the edge of the might water on which the championships were to be played. We arrived to another hearty welcome.

So we started the first of two days official training with a few rods and tackle lent to us by great young angler, Marco Jordan one of the skippers for the tournament. Hats off to Marco who having never met any of us before arrived gave us everything he had with him to help us get on the water!

We scored some very fast boats in the draw which included those capable of moving across the dam at 100kmph speeds! We were expecting the fishing to be hard as we had to target and tackle fish species that we had never fished for before in bright sunshine and 30′ heat.

It was tough but we got some action in and explored the waters, then to be rewarded when 8 of our missing bags, containing our clothes, reels and lures arrived. No rods though, that was still missing and sadly to this day has not been recovered.

A plan was put in place for the second day of training and off we went in search of the much sought after fish. We got some bass this time most of which were just under the minimum size limit but we did land a monster of 55cm, around 3kg that our skipper said was a rare catch locally.  We had seen plenty of large catfish but were unable to catch them.

We started the first day of the competition knowing that for both boats to score would contribute to success and additional fish would be a big bonus.  Spots & targets had been shared and myself and Jacek Gorny and Simon Gibson and Steven Powell were designated to fish the first day.  Things were looking up as the Czech Republic and Hungarian Teams having heard of our plight came forward with more rods for us, so we headed to the water with high hopes.

First boat with myself and Jack went off to a further mark discovered during training and where we had caught the good bass. It wasn’t long before my lure was attacked by good solid fish, which after short battle proved to be a lovely bass of 49cm! We were over the moon as this meant we were not blanking! So we stayed on the spot moving up and down, knowing the fish were there and it would only be a matter of time…….We were right and soon after Jacek hooked another monster bass, this time a whopping 50 cm!
We were happy with those two catches and fished under less pressure, which paid off with a lovely catfish caught by Jacek, a nice scoring fish at 55cm.

We didn’t catch any more and returned to shore hoping that Steven & Simon had countable fish too.  As soon as we saw the lads with their thumbs up at the finishing line we knew they had fish too.  It was a bass of 30cm, so we were happy. The team ranked 8th on the first day, mid-way of the 16 competing teams and as a pair Jacek and I finished in 8th place.

Some of the teams had blanked but others found silver catfish (mackerel) and a few boats had 20 fish caught. We decided to stick to our own plan but David take the place of Simon for day two and fish with Steven.

For us it was too late to change the tactics so we had to stick to our plan. I fished again with Jacek and on the second boat Steven was fishing with David Dennis who changed Simon from day one.

We were met with rain on day two so the heat wasn’t so bad although very humid still.  Jacek and I were the first boat out and we went off to our spot from the previous day. It was tough and and at the half way mark neither boat had any countable fish, a change in tactics was required. Jacek and I decided to go to the other side of the lake where we could see 4 or 5 boats fishing close together, and we could see they were cathcing silver catfish. It took us some time to figure out the right lure, presentation technique and depths but we soon started catching one after another and finished with 22 countable fish. The boats who had been there all day scored over 80 fish per boat!

We tried desperately to contact our second boat to call them over and keep them in the game.  But we were at the very end of the dam in between the mountains and communications were impossible. Eventually we got through to Simon on the bank who miraculously got Steven on the line and the second boat headed over and managed to secure 4 counters.

We ended up 11th as pair with Steven and David 20th on day two, which after 2 days final ranking placed the team in 9th position. With the pairs Tomek & Jacek 8th and Steven & Simon/David 25th overall.

We finished the championships in 9th position which I see as a success.  We battled on new venue, with unknown fish species and with many odds against us.  The team didnt give up and I believe we made our country proud!

We were fishing against the world’s greatest lure anglers and congratulate the Czech Republic, Hungary and Namibia for their first, second and third place, also Czech, Hungary and Romania for their wins in the pair rankings.

At the end of African adventure, we brought home with us a lot more then just sunburn! Extraordinary experience, great memories and new friendships!

View the official results here

Team Ireland were without their luggage for two days and their rod bag has not as yet been recovered, lost in-flight. They would like to take this opportunity to make special thanks to; Marco Jordan – the local skipper who lent us all his equipment and helped a lot along the way, to Frantisk Caha who gave us all his won rods and the Czech Team for keeping our spirits high, and to Team Hungary and Peter Bosanszky who after hearing of our plight after the 2nd day of training came up with more rods and some replicas of our own. Thanks guys – this is great sportsmanship.

Thank you to CIPS and FIPS for the World Games experience and the magnificent opening ceremony. To all the team at Loskop Dam, SAALAA and Magriet Cetzee for organising this extraordinary event. To all the skippers and crew, who not only worked hard but were extremely friendly and helpful.

Ireland presents lure teams at both Shore and Boat angling World Championships yearly. The NCFFI has twice hosted the championships at home in 2013 on Lough Erne and in 2016 on Lough Ree.  The teams are selected through a series of qualifiers, to find out more click here

View the full gallery here