The ninth annual Spar Bloemhofdam Bonanza presented by Eco-Care Trust has been held in good weather conditions at Sandveld Nature reserve and North West Parks Board from 1-3 May 2009. With a tournament value R800 000 the event is the biggest annual inland shore and boat angling tournament in South Africa.
The Tight Lines Teams Competition held on the Friday was a great success with 130 teams participated. 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 of R150 000 was on stake in this competition with the winners receiving prizes worth R10 000 per team in the boat and shore categories respectively.
The Montana Beertjies team took the honours for the best shore team with a bag of 22,48kg kg followed by the team Trubbes with a bag of 21,96kg and Buurmanskap with a bag of 21,32kg. The top Boat Team, Castle Light, weighed a bag of 22,92kg followed by the Castle Lager with a bag of 19,82kg and in the third place Bambela with 19,10kg.
Deep Blue Adventures sponsored a lucky draw worth R40 000 which was won by Hester Jordaan.
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.
A shore angler, Braam Duvenhage, took top honours in the Open Division and received R100 000 cash for his effort! He caught a barbell of 18,38kg and a carp of 5,22kg. Last year Braam Duvenhage came second in this division and said that he wanted to improve on last year, which he certainly did! Boeta Lewis came second overall and won a trailer sponsored by AA Trailerfab with a generator sponsored by DNK Klerksdorp. He fished from a boat and caught a barbell of 19,74kg and a carp of 5,56 kg.
The Top Ten Boat angler was Bruce Birch who caught a barbell of 21,32kg. He won a Bushtec canvass tent sponsored by World Wide Canvas & Mining Supplies plus cash voucher worth R4000 sponsored by SPAR and fishing gear. The second place in this category went to Willem Visagie with a barbell of 20,48kg and the third place to John Zurcher with a barbell of 19,94kg.
The Top Ten Shore angler was Mario Botha who won this category with a barbell of 19,46kg. He won the same prizes as Bruce Birch worth R10 000. D Schoombee came second with a barbell of 18,72kg and Rudi Delport third with a barbell of 18,22kg.
The Spar Ladies winner was Christa Schutte with a carp of 6,8kg. She also was the ladies winner in the 2005 Bonanza. Lisa du Plooy came in the second place with a carp of 6,72kg followed by Yvonne Greyling with a barbell of 16,02kg. Spar sponsored the ladies competition to the value of R10 000 worth of cash vouchers.
Anton Visagie took the top honours in the Junior Division with a barbell of 19,96kg, followed by Werner Oosthuizen with a carp of 6,32kg and DW van der Merwe with a barbell of 14,52kg.
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 barbell in the country and most of the prizes were won by big barbell during this year’s Bonanza.
The Big Banger Prizes sponsored by Danlou Marine and Proton Motors have not been won.
The Paindane Holiday pre-entry winner was Anita Nel. The Golden Leopard Resort prize at Pilanesberg National Park for the best fishing story on OFM was won by Marina Myburg from Potchefstroom.
The Bloemhofdam Bonanza was attended by 1500 anglers coming from all over South Africa, receiving 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.
