Success for Stanford Lake fly fishing stars

Stanford Lake College (SLC) was well represented in the two provincial teams that participated in the 2017 South African Youth Fly Fishing Competition held in Douglas in the Northern Cape recently. Both the Limpopo A- and B teams, captained by SLC’s Christian Schmidt and Christen Taylor, were relatively new with some members only starting fly fishing this year.
The tournament was hosted by the South African Fly Fishing Association (Saffa) and 12 South African teams and a team from the Czech Republic participated. The winners were the team of Kwa-Zulu Natal with Limpopo A placing 10th and Limpopo B 13th overall.
Limpopo A-team member and SLC learner Marthinus Maritz achieved a fourth place overall, the best placing Limpopo has achieved in the Youth division. According to SLC Marketer Rona McGaffin Marthinus fished very well during the tournament and caught a fish in every session, a remarkable accomplishment as very few anglers managed to do the same. Christian Schmidt was awarded the Wickus Steyn Sportsmanship Award.
The award is made to an angler who shows outstanding sportsmanship during the tournament. Christian’s nomination, submitted by the coach of the Czech Republic, was reportedly unanimously agreed to by the Saffa officials.
Mcgaffin reported that while the location in the confluence area of the Vaal and Orange rivers presented the young Limpopo anglers with challenges of its own they learnt a lot and are looking forward to 2018 when the tournament will be hosted by the Western Cape.