The Kowie Crackers angling club held their 7th and penultimate catch and release fishing competition for the season on Saturday 4 January at Riet River.
The Kowie Crackers angling club held their 7th and penultimate catch and release fishing competition for the season on Saturday 4 January at Riet River.
Fishing grounds extended from Riet River towards Port Alfred, as far as anglers were willing to walk.
Despite it being amidst the busy holiday season, 18 anglers participated on the day, several of whom were welcome newcomers.
The competition ran from 6am until 3pm, with the prize-giving hosted by Ferryman’s Hotel, immediately after the event.
Kowie Crackers member, Matt Parkinson said conditions were “challenging with a strong to gale force easterly wind blowing and a cool sea temperature”.
Despite the conditions, several decent fish were landed, with a total of 59 fish being caught, their length measured (to estimate their weight), photographed and released.
Two Penn Squall reels (sponsored by Penn) went to the heaviest fish of two species drawn from a hat.
These went to Stephen Johnson who caught a 5.4kg white musselcracker and Quinton Fick who caught a 66kg ragged tooth shark.
Cash prizes were awarded for the six heaviest fish, with one prize per species.
Additionally, prizes were awarded for the heaviest shark, while no rays were caught to claim that category prize.
Further prizes were awarded to the woman and junior anglers with the biggest fish.
Six dusky kob of over 1.5kg were caught, the heaviest of which and the winning fish for the day was 7.7kg caught by Grant Acton.
Stephen Johnson’s white musselcracker also claimed 2nd prize and Warren Potts took 3rd prize with a white steenbras weighing 3.2kg.
Amber Potts took the woman's prize with a 3.4kg kob, and 4th heaviest fish overall, a 2.5kg baardman.
The junior prize went to Adam Bell, his most notable catch being a bronze bream of 1.6kg which claimed the prize for the 5th heaviest fish overall.
Len Clark was the final prize winner with his 6th place spotted grunter of 1kg.
Quinton Fick was the only angler to catch a noteworthy shark; a female ragged-tooth shark of 66 kg.
“Apart from the prizes, points are awarded for every fish caught, and added to each angler’s score for the season,” said Parkinson.
Coming into the competition the margin for the top spot was unbelievably small.
Justin Bezuidenhout, on 1 493 points, was slightly ahead of Warren Potts, on 1 485 points.
With both anglers managing to get the highly coveted six species bonus points on the day, Warren did well to win the day a full 280 points clear of second place Justin who added 476 points to his season’s score.
Len Clark currently closes up the top 3 for the season, 440 points behind Justin.
The final competition for the current season will be held as an open competition where anglers can fish from any venue between the Great Fish River and Cannon Rocks, provided they park in a public access area.
With one competition left in the season, there’s still everything to fish for.
“If you haven’t fished a competition yet, you can still win prizes on the day,” said Parkinson.
Entry is R100 for men, R50 for women and free for juniors (under 14).
The date for the next competition and for the start of the new season will be announced shortly.
Contact Matthew Parkinson on 072 381 7182, or join the Kowie Crackers Facebook group to find out more.
