Bass season opens with a roar – more fish caught in one event than entire season last year
The small but dedicated community of bass anglers has high hopes for the season following the previous weekend’s encouraging signs of a marked recovery in fish stock. Over the course of this season’s first bass angling competition at Lake Oanob, more fish were landed in this single event than for the whole of last year.
“Although the average weight of fish is quite low at around 0.5kg per fish, it is a sign of a fish recovery. It is inspiring to see nature thriving after the crippling drought conditions,” said the Namibia Bass Angling Association chairman, Richard Grant.
Bag limits were set at five fish with 13 anglers making the mark. Winning the first competition was Jurgen Geiger with a bag weight of 3.252 kg. Grant, who weighed in a bag of 3.126 kg was in second position. Third was Thinus Williams, followed by Max Pieper and Jacques Marais.
Williams caught the heaviest fish of 1.087 kg.
During the competition, a total of 90 fish with a combined weight of 49.025 kg were weighed in. This number and weight exceeds that of 2017’s entire angling season.
The anglers described the conditions as excellent noting that Oanob received substantial inflows late in the rain season.
The weigh-in was shown live on facebook with anglers from South Africa, Zimbabwe and the United States following the event. The bass angling competition is sponsored by Bank Windhoek.
Caption: Chairman of the Namibia Bass Angling Association, Richard Grant with three of the Large Mouth Black Bass he caught in this season’s first competition at Lake Oanob.
