Every year the top carp anglers of the world get together to compete in the World’s Richest Carp Angling Tournament the Wold Carp Masters held at the magical Lac du Der in Chantecoq France. Renowned for its vast blue waters which not only hosts thousands of holiday goers every year but also hold giant common and mirror carp of up to 44kg and is considered as one of the finest Carp Fishing destinations in the world.

After finishing 2nd both in 2015 and 2016, Team South Africa wanted to prove that they too can hold the number one spot on the Specimen Carp Fishing World Stage. The team arrived a week early for a few days fishing at Lake Bossard in order to get their tackle and kit ready and also get the feel for some big french carp. They managed to land a few amazing fish at Bossard – the biggest being a 23.3kg Mirror caught by Captain Charles Horlick and Alfred Letwaba also had a nice 22.1kg Mirror. Arriving at at Bivvy city they were all ready and geared up for the start of the WCM tournament. First it was the Worlds Toughest Carp Angler competition where the guys get to test their strength and have some fun before the peg draws. Peg draws were up next and Team SA managed to draw some very nice swims most of which were on the southern side of the lake, and brothers Divan and Johan Potgieter managed to draw Peg 13 on the northern side which was favoured because of the previous year’s sucesses. The overall feeling was positive after peg draws and it was now time to get into the fish as soon as possible.

At the start of the tournament the weather was extremely hot with zero to no wind at all. Not the best weather for carp fishing but everyone knew that what they needed to do was find the spots and work out a strategy whether to fish for one bite at a time or create a feeding area in case a big school turns up. The format for this years tournament was the 4 biggest fish combined weight so it was really up to the team who could catch the bigger fish. Jacques Venter, Danny and Pierro were the first on the board for SA with a early morning Double up on the first morning. They managed to catch a 9.3kg and a 7kg fish just as the sun rose over the iconic church. Later that day at around mid day Basil Ferreira on Peg 58 struck into what felt like an absolute monster. After quickly pursuing the fish on the boat it become apparent that this was in fact a massive wels catfish. Basil managed to catch a 2.1m Catfish which was just short of the lake record of 2.3m.

For the following 2 days Divan and Johan Potgieter on peg 13 managed to catch some very good fish, the biggest of which was a 17.2kg common which placed them on top of the leaderboard for a few days. But their lead slipped away when the weather turned on day 4 and the temperatures dropped to as low as 14 degrees. As the weather system rolled in the fish started to really get on the bite all around the lake andsome big fish started coming out all around the lake. By the final day the windy conditions pushed some fish into the southern banks. Danny Pretorius on the island managed to catch a 10kg fish on an area which has not produced a fish in the tournament in 3 years. Another team that got some last minute action was captain Charles and Hennie Steyn on peg 38 who managed to each land a 10kg and 9kg fish which secured them as Zone winners.

Divan and Johan also won their Zone and ended in overall 5th place. The Dutch team of Frank Wijnands and Jaap Hiemstra managed to come out as WCM 2018 Champions in front of Team Sticky Baits in 2nd. A Big thank you to the Team SA Sponsors – Rapala VMC, Specimen SA, Shimano, Conoflex, Carp Gigz, MTC Baits Angling Times and Karpioene. The next South African Qualifier takes place on 5-10 March 2018 at Roodekoppies Dam where the winners will qualify and win a paid trip to join Team SA at the next WCM 2018. To stand a chance register at www.sacarpmasters.com