ANGLERS LIVID AFTER ATTACK

MBABANE – Eswatini Angling Association (EAA) President Derek Hopf expressed his dissatisfaction with some of the residents of Maguga Dam area.

During the Two-Man Team Competition between Eswatini and South Africa, this past weekend; Hopf noted that a few locals had asked them for fishing rods costing over E5 000. He mentioned that after they declined to provide the locals, the residents resorted to pelting the fishing boats with stones near the dam’s bank. Hopf emphasised that the equipment on the boats was highly valuable and he found such behaviour appalling, especially as the adults supervising the children allegedly made racist statements. He witnessed three stones hitting his boat and stressed that this conduct was unacceptable, especially considering that the country was hosting tourists in the form of competitors from South Africa.

“We cannot condone this. The children were swimming and had left some of their clothes and cellphones by the bank. So we took the items and left them with the security guard, informing him that they could only retrieve their belongings after calling us and apologising,” expressed the EAA president. Regarding the action at Maguga Dam, Hopf mentioned that they struggled in the first two days; however, they had an outstanding last day of competition, which took place on Saturday. He highlighted that they had decent fish all over the dam on Saturday, but were unfortunate to lose one of the fish, as one of the biggest catches had died when they reached the shore, affecting their combined accumulated weight.

“We had a full bag before one of the fish died, but that is just fishing,” said Hopf. Furthermore, South Africa’s Vice-Captain, Charl Carey, expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to serve as vice-captain for his side. He mentioned that he was pleased to have competed with a wonderful team of anglers, describing the competition as an awesome experience. Carey also noted that their team performed consistently throughout the competition and congratulated South Africa for a fantastic win, expressing gratitude for the opportunity to be part of the squad that returns home with bragging rights.

“Thank you very much to Eswatini as well; we had a tough last day of competition. Our biggest catch of the last day was only caught in the last 10 minutes, which is why we arrived late. We were grinding, but it was awesome,” Carey said. South Africa’s Wayne Lowe described his last day of competition as a great one. He mentioned that the day went well and he was happy with the outcome. Lowe explained that it started off slow in terms of bites and catches but improved after the morning dew had disappeared. He further revealed that they made adjustments and adapted to the environment, fishing in deeper water in the afternoon as the pressure had pushed the fish into such depths. This is where they managed to fill their whole bag, ultimately contributing to the overwhelming 105.02kg combined weight after the three days of fishing.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: