2021
World Freestyle Method Feeder Championships
The Protea team arrived in Budapest on Friday, 10 September and were met by Peter Takacs, a representative of the Haldorado Group, who would be our guide and interpreter for the duration of our stay. We drove to Kiskunhalas (140kms south of Budapest) where we were met by Gabor Dome and Zoltan Pinter who are co-owners of the Haldorado Group.
Haldorado presented the team with all the tackle they would require at the World Championships which included seat boxes complete with all attachments, rods, reels, landing nets, keep nets, unhooking cradles, groundbaits, baits, dips, feeders, hooks etc. The anglers had to just sit down and fish.
We were then treated to a welcome dinner of Hungarian delicacies rounded off with traditional palinkas.We were to stay in the chalets at Silver Lakes, a private dam owned by Haldorado.
Saturday the team visited the Haldorado facility and enjoyed tackle shopping. The rest of the day was spent sorting out tackle, spooling reels, setting up leaders, feeders and the like. Time was spent discussing the venue with Gabor and Zoltan on the angling techniques we could anticipate at the World Championship venue. Haldorado also loaned the team their high volume delivery van for transporting tackle for the duration of the tournament.
Sunday was tackle shakedown day, fishing the Silver Lake venue which is heavily populated with carp. The team all enjoyed catching hungry Hungarian carp.
On Monday the team packed and drove to Batonyterenye which is 160kms north of Budapest. After checking into our accommodation, we went for a look at the venue 4kms away.
The Maconka Fishery complex comprises a number of dams of various sizes, each stocked with different levels and sizes of fish. The Championships was to be fished in 3 separate dams. Zones A & B were to be fished in the main dam which is stocked with large carp, sturgeon and wels catfish. The average weight of fish caught in this dam in the tournament was between 12kgs -14kgs with the largest fish caught being 21.6kgs.
Zones C & D were to be fished in 2 smaller dams which were both overrun by the local spiny barbel (averaging 20g-30g), but also had smaller carp, tench, skimmers and small wels catfish. The carp of around 1kg were to be the primary target specie with tench of similar size a by catch, and the skimmers of around 100g a backup catch.
Through the practice days it was very apparent that 2 significantly different angling tactics were required depending on the Zones being fished.
In the main lake the target specie was carp and Zone A was hot zone producing the largest weights of all the zones. All the pegs consistently produced fish. In Zone B, the lower numbers produced more fish than the higher numbers which were next to the dam wall. The draw in this zone would be significant. The angling tactic for zones A & B was to use a mixture of 2mm and 4mm fishmeal pellets as groundbait. On the hook anglers were using orange 6mm-8mm wafters as baits. The anglers fed a number of heavily loaded 70g method feeders at 90m and fish a 65g dart method feeder at 95m. Accuracy, consistency and regular feeding throughout the day would produce the bites. During the practice days, the Hungarian A & B teams clearly out fished everyone. The opportunity to practice the skills required at the venue was the differentiating factor. The Protea team only landed 1 large carp in the day we practiced in these zones and we knew we had a task on our hands.
In Zones C & D again the main target specie was carp. C Zone proved to be very even, but D Zone the first 6 pegs and last 2 pegs were preferred as anglers could at these pegs reach the opposite bank. In these dams angling tactic was a maize based approach as fish meal was an attractant for the spiny barbel. Here the anglers had to create a feeding area between 15m-20m for the barbel, by casting large feeder cages of maize pips to attract the barbel, then casting around the feeding area with a 15g-20g method feeder without groundbait to catch carp, tench or skimmers. During the championships the anglers used 6 litres of maize pips and 2litres of ground bait in Zones C & D. The baits used were maize pips or 6mm wafters. During the practice days we also discovered that by casting a method feeder with groundbait close to the opposite bank, we would catch the odd carp. Too many casts in the area would then attract the barbel. By the last practice day, the Protea team was getting consistent results in these 2 zones.
Championship Day 1
Peg Draw A7 Quinton van der Heever
B16 Shahed Norsaka
C11 Andre Bezuidenhout
D4 Gys van der Westhuizen
Marc Da Cruz would support the anglers in Zones C & D and Roland Reid did likewise in Zones A & B for the tournament. Quinton in zone A managed to land 1 large carp but had lost a number of big fish. Shahed did not get any large carp in his zone and relied on a few skimmers in his bag. In Zone C Andre caught a number of carp and skimmers, but had lost 3 carp which cut him off on a mussel bed on the far side of the lake. In Zone D Gys was in a ding dong battle with the Ukrainian angler coming 2nd in the zone by 250g. This placed the Protea team in 10th place overall. Ukraine was 1st, Hungary A in 2nd and Slovakia B in 3rd.
Championship Day 2
Peg Draw A11 Andre Bezuidenhout
B14 Gys van der Westhuizen
C6 Shahed Norsaka
D10 Quinton van der Heever
All the Proteas struggled on day 2. In A zone, Andre only had one carp bite and landed the fish. Gys again suffered with a high draw in B zone and only had a few skimmer in his bag. Shahed could not find any carp in Zone C and only had skimmer and barbel. Quinton also struggled with the peg draw in D zone with a mixed bag of carp and skimmer. The net result was that the overall team result would suffer.
In the final analysis the Protea team ended 14th overall. Definitely not the result we were looking for, but had to accept the fact that the disadvantages of fishing in European conditions for foreign species will always hamper our efforts. Hungary a were the runaway winners followed by Ukraine in 2nd and Slovakia B in 3rd.
The individual World Champion, Peter Bako and runner up Bence Szabo of Hungary A were fortunate enough to draw in zones A & B on both days. Peter on peg B1weighed in 162kgs on day 1 and on A10 weighed 131kgs on day 2 with his biggest carp and biggest fish overall weighing 21.6kgs. Bence weighed 121kgs from A10 on day 1 and 78kgs from B13 on day 2. They produced a master class on both days on how to fish these zones. The next largest weight in Zone A was 64kgs and Zone B 46kgs. By comparison, the Hungary B team anglers were also outclassed.
Learnings
Zones A & B we struggled with the ability to deliver 100g of feeder and pellets accurately and consistently at 90m-95m throughout the day in strong cross winds. In South Africa, we very seldom fish at this type of distance and never with this size of feeder and pellet. Most South African anglers do not have the rods or long arbor reels to fish like this. The pellets used were completely different to anything we have in South Africa.
Zones C & D the overriding presence of spiny barbel (akin to our butter barbel) and use of almost zero ground bait in our angling was a complete departure from our angling experiences. The behavior of carp, skimmer and tench when targeting them without any ground bait was also unknown to the Proteas. All the East European teams are well schooled in fishing in rivers and dams containing spiny barbel and fully equipped to deal with the challenge.
Like the Olympics, it is not just about winning, it is also about participating. Firstly it is about representing your country and being an ambassador for South Africa. The new venues fished, fishing styles and tactics learnt, friendships made and countries experienced makes the time, effort and personal costs worthwhile.
The 2022 Freestyle Method Fishing World Championships are scheduled to be held in South Africa. Whilst we may believe we know our fish and venues better than anyone else, I am convinced that there will be new ideas, fishing styles and tactics which the angling world will bring to the competition.
