The tenth annual Spar Bloemhofdam Bonanza presented by Eco-Care Trust was certainly the best ever fishing Bonanza held at Bloemhof Dam. Good weather conditions prevailed throughout the event held at Sandveld Nature reserve and North West Parks Board from 23-25 April 2010. With a tournament value exceeding R1 million and almost 2000 anglers participating in the event, this was the biggest annual inland shore and boat angling tournament in South Africa.
The Tight Lines / World Wide Canvass Teams Competition held on the Friday was a great success with good bags of carp being weighed. The teams consisted of a maximum of four anglers per team, boat and shore respectively. Only carp as species has been allowed and the bags were restricted to four biggest carp per team. Prizes to the value exceeding R100 000 was on stake in this competition with the winners receiving prizes worth R15 000 per team in the boat and shore categories respectively.
The Swanfish team took the honours for the best shore team with a bag of 20,74kg kg followed by the team Go Getters with a bag of 20,62kg and Christiana Team with a bag of 19,90kg. The Castle Light Team took the top honours for the second year in succession, weighed a bag of 23,08kg followed by the Spyker Team with a bag of 22,42kg and in the third place Nollie’s Team with 20,70kg.
The SPAR Bloemhofdam Bonanza started simultaneously with the Tight Lines Teams Competition and continued until Sunday morning. Many good fish were caught during this individuals fishing tournament. The biggest barbel weighed almost 26kg and was caught by Gino Sada on a Punkinseed artificial lure. However, even this excellent catch was not good enough for him to be the overall winner.
A boat angler, Andre Mosterd, took top honours in the Open Division and received R100 000 cash for his effort! He caught a barbell of 24,64kg and a huge carp of 6,82kg to clinch the first prize overall. Gino Sada came second overall and won a trailer sponsored by AA Trailerfab from Klerksdorp. He fished from a boat and caught a barbell of 25,48kg and a carp of 5,06 kg.
Johnny Francke has claimed the Big Banger prize – a Ford Bantam sponsored by Human Auto, Welkom, – with a carp weighing 9, 41kg. He caught the carp on a kaboem mielie in 15 meters of water near the dam wall.
The Top Ten Boat angler was Retief Fischer who caught a barbel of 22,28kg. He won a canvass tent sponsored by World Wide Canvas & Mining Supplies plus cash voucher worth R4000 sponsored by SPAR and fishing gear to the value of R15 000. The second place in this category went to Seppie Vlokman with a barbel of 19,36kg and the third place to Rene Sada with a barbel of 19,32kg.
The Top Ten Shore angler was Werner Oosthuizen who won this category with a carp of 8,86kg. He won the same prizes as Retief Fischer worth R15 000. Eben Gouws came second with a carp of 8,12kg and Japie Vogel third with a barbel of 19,34kg.
The Spar Ladies winner was Cornel Herbst with a barbel of 16,78kg caught from the shore. Charleen van Vuuren came in the second place with a barbel of 16,48kg also caught from the shore followed by Rozetta Badenhorst with a barbel of 18,14kg caught from a boat. Spar sponsored the ladies competition to the value of R10 000 worth of cash vouchers.
Jamie van Wyk took the top honours in the Junior Division with a carp of 6,04kg, followed by Marius du Preez with a carp of 5,88kg and Anton Visagie with a carp of 5,58kg.
The results were calculated with the Eco-Care Angling Table system that awards points in relation to the weight of a fish species and whether it has been caught from the shore or from a boat. The system has proofed to be a reliable method to determine the best fish caught by an angler in a fishing tournament. Bloemhof Dam once again shows that it has the biggest barbel in the country and most of the prizes were won by big barbel during this year’s Bonanza.
Waterlab sponsored the Water is Life Lucky draws and also Water Facts competition for juniors.
The Golden Leopard Resort prize at Pilanesberg National Park for the best fishing story on OFM was won by Alwyn Le Roux from Bloemfontein.
Anglers came from all over South Africa and even as far from as a team from Nigeria! All participants received a goodie bag and ice with the compliments of SPAR, Pepsi, KWV, Sasko, Dolphin Fishing and several other sponsors. The total attendance of the event was more than 5000 people. The capital inflow from the Bloemhof Bonanza towards Bloemhof and surrounding cities were gladly accepted by business and tourism industry.
Sincere thanks to all the participants and sponsors who made the event a huge success and helped to award the prize winners in all the different categories. All proceeds of the event will go to the Eco-Care Trust, an NGO working in the field of water conservation and other non profitable organisations.
