Ladies Nationals Results:
1 Southern Cape 371.43
2. Kwa Zulu Natal 307.16
3. Border 299.07
4. Zululand 291.22
5. West Coast 233.19
6. Gauteng North 213.79
7. Boland 200.08
8. Eastern Province 196.83
9. Central Gauteng 175.07
10. Western Province 118.01
11. Free State 35.26
Day 1 was fished from Deurloop to the B Board on the Plaat. Day 2 Agnostra (sic) to 2km after the entrance to Die Plaat. Day 3 saw us fishing Die Mond (from the mouth to 4kms south). Most of the catches were lessers, but approximately 1 out of 10 caught weighed, so it was pretty exhausting especially as wading was pretty hard going due to rips and backwash in some places, while others offered a far more comfortable wade. The sea was generally warmer than usual and pretty clean - a bit of colour showed up on day 2 but didn't hang around for long. Day 3 started off with a good lesser smash at the mouth so I was pulled off my spot and hurried there, so I am not sure what happened further down the beach. This continued for about 2 hrs, then slowed down as the tide started pushing. At 11.00 the wind started to pick up and by lines in at 2pm, it was pumping and fishing was pretty unpleasant. As far as I am aware, no fish came out in the last hour. There were very few big fish, the biggest in-ed was a spotted gully shark of 20.35kg caught by Marina Fuchs of Southern Cape. The biggest edible was a cob of 3.27kg caught by Christelle Oosthuizen of Boland. Only 1 diamond (about 16kg if I remember correctly) came out, caught by Trudie Pretorius of GN. There was lots of talk of big raggies coming out before we started fishing, but they were nowhere to be seen over the 3 days. Photos can be viewed on the SAASA facebook page.
The absolute highlight of my nationals was feeding the black pylies at the harbour. I cannot believe that some people feel the compulsion to try and catch these beautiful gentle giants who reside in the harbour. This was truly an amazing experience. The large female allowed me to stroke her for a while and bumped one if she was still a bit peckish. One stands ankle deep on the edge of the water, shake your piece of bait in the water and they come to you. You lower your hand onto the sand and she glides over your hand and sucks up the bait. I actually had my whole hand in her mouth and she just waited for me to take it out. There just weren't words to describe how I felt afterwards - privileged, awestruck and deeply moved.
