George Herald | Vivtek Garden Route Bass Classic

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Vivtek Garden Route Bass Classic
13:08 (GMT+2), Mon, 21 May 2012

SOUTHERN CAPE NEWS - The Vivtek Garden Route Bass Classic, hosted by Outeniqua Bassmasters, was held at Groenvlei for the 25th time when anglers from across the country competed for the big ones and three local teams eventually walked away with the honours.

This event is now one of the oldest bass tournaments in the country.

The naming rights for this tournament were offered to a number of local and national companies and at the end of the day Vivtek Fishing of Knysna, who are local and export suppliers of fine fishing tackle, stepped up to the plate.

A field of 29 two man teams entered and this included a number of lady and junior competitors. Many of the Western, Eastern and Southern Cape name players took part which resulted in a star studded field and fierce competition.

It emerged that the race for first day honours was an extremely close thing with the Team Ranger pairing of Tony Jericevich and Chalky Whyte on board weighing a 5 fish bag of 5.650 kg and therefore just shading fellow Protea and the pre event favourites, Team Stoep Dogs comprising of Dean Searle and Armand van der Harst, by a mere 20 grams.

In third place were the husband and wife team of Kevin and Linda Fisher of the Team Blue Bulls and trailed the leaders by just 225 grams. Fourth and fifth positions went to Eastern Cape anglers who were also with a single fish of the leaders.

The Southern Cape teams that occupied the first three places, together with their Eastern Cape neighbours, had held the threat from brilliant Western Cape anglers at bay.

Well rested the teams were lined up at the start on the stroke of 07:00 on Sunday morning.

A report filtered across the water that Team Big Bite, with Brandon Walter and Billy Miller on board were on the move using a little used technique, had found the fish and proceeded to load their boat eventually resulting in a bag of 5.925 kg which turned out to be the biggest bag of the tournament.

Further news was to follow that the current South African Champion, James Roberts and his wife Kirsteen fishing under the banner of Power Baits were on the move as well and were filling up their bag in a hurry.

Big fish honours went to Karen Small with a fish of 1.8 kg which won a whopping prize of R5 000. She was also part of the defending champions team fishing at Team Big Bite.

In descending order the biggest bag results were: 5 Team Powerbait (James and Kirsteen Roberts) 7.860 kg;
4 Team Outdoors 365 Equipment (Brandon Walter and Billy Miller) 8.660 kg; 3 Team Blue Bulls (Kevin and Linda Fisher) 8.690 kg; 2 Stoep Dogs (Dean Searle and Armand van der Harst) 8.785 kg; 1 Team Ranger (Tony Jericevich and Chalky Whyte) 10.580 kg.