‘All about bass’ for him

LIMPOPO – TRISTAN Wickham (14) was crowned the winner of Northern Division Bass Master Fishing Anglers competition at Flag Boshielo Dam near Marble Hall on Sunday. The tournament was held among five divisions: Northern division, Gauteng South, Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal, each represented by eight anglers of between the ages of 11 and 18 years.

“I’ve been tournament fishing for the first time and I have been working hard and it has finally paid off. I didn’t have high expectations. I would like to thank everyone who made this competition possible,” Wickham said after his victory.

Gawie Makkink, Northern Division Bass Master manager said 37 junior anglers compete for the national colours.

“The 12-strong team will compete with Zimbabwe in December. All we want is to promote the sport of junior angling in the Northern Division as well as in the country. We want to put more effort into the juniors in order to promote this sport. We appeal to the people around to come and join us because we want more anglers,” said Makkink. He told CV they were looking forward to the youngsters wearing Protea colours in future.

“The winner and runner-up of the competition will proceed to the US for two weeks to train. They will also represent South Africa in the international angling championships which will be held at a date still to be announced.”

Limpopo Tourism Agency director of business operations, Pinky Mayimele said it was their privilege to host the competition.

“We are optimistic that this will go a long way in advancing the sports tourism profile of our beautiful province and positioning the resort as a preferred angling destination.

“We have a number of very beautiful dam resorts in our province and wish to express our interest to host your upcoming international tournament and other future angling events. We wish to congratulate all the winners in the tournament and further wish them the best during the international competition”, said Mayimele.