4th Hobie Kayak Fishing World Championship 2014 Jungl3Jim said: First off.. what an awesome event!! I was a bit nervous to get started heading across the globe alone, being so far away. Never been to Europe or any further than the Islands and OZ for that matter, and I really underestimated how taxing the travel would be. After leaving my beautiful wife at Auckland Airport, I wasnt looking forward to the flight times etc First off 4 hours to Sydney with a 3 hour wait for the next flight, then 14 hours to Dubai + another 3 hours waiting for the flight to Amsterdam, then the last flight to the Dam was another 7 hours! 36 hours door to door! I was absolutely shafted by the time I arrived at the venue approx 25km south of Schipol Airport. The rest of that day was a blur after checking in, getting settled and heading for a quiet Heineken or 3, amd meeting Ivan Aspar Asnass the Spanish competitor who was to be my room mate for the duration. Such an awesome guy. Day one pretty much started with a late briefing and the Navigation day. Meaning a day to paddle/peddle around and check out the environment (no fishing allowed) before things really get started. I had issues with my back after the mammoth travel time, so decided if I was going to miss a day on the water with a stuffed back, it wasnt going to be a fishing day! So I spent the day walking as far around the lakes as I could to help unlock my back, and see what the shallows would hold. I saw bulk loads of Perch and a couple of small Pike so was looking forward to the next day. Pretty mean eating each morning and night with a full cooked breakfast, and pretty much anything you could want (within reason) for Dinner. With Navigation day over, and my back starting to cooperate we got in to the prefish. Hooked up on many Perch during the prefish, some of which would have taken nice placings over the next 3 days, but not a Pike in sight. Prefish came and went, dinner and drinks flew by and by the time anyone realised we were back on the water for Day 1 of the competition! With everyone a bit nervous with what was to come, it was a relatively quiet prep getting the Hobie Pro Angler 12s ready, with all focused on what was to come. The fishing was brilliant for the first day with a good number of fish landed, measured, pictured and released. I managed to walk away in 6th equal overall after landing my first ever Pike at 85cm!! Landed a whole bunch of Perch, none of which were large enough for the limit set. Sadly holding 6th position or better over the next two days was not meant to be. I struggled to land any of the pike I hooked up on, with one cutting clear through a 20kg multi strand nylon coated wire leader! Again plenty of Perch, and as at the end of the final day, nobody had measured in a single legal Zander! Day 2 saw me slip to 15th, and finished up 25th on the final day. After placing 33rd in last years 3rd Hobie Fishing World Championship in Victoria, Australia, I was still happy to have bettered last years performance. We all had an awesome evening for the final dinner, prize giving etc, where I was lucky enough to win a Rhino-Rack Side Loader!! Once the dinner etc was over, a bunch of us thought it a good idea to head in to Amsterdam... And boy we were right. Details of which I wont be going in to on this post, so use your imaginations!! After saying the goodbyes to all the awesome new friends made, it was time to go. And following another mammoth 39 hours travel to get home, and some crazy people on the planes, it was such a relief and joy to see all of my girls again. The following pics arent in any order, and theres still a bunch more + video to come. But for now let me just say that, I was honored to have been selected to compete for the 2nd time representing this country of ours, and would do so again in a heart beat!! Special thanks so the sponsors: Hobie Fishing, Rhino-Rack, Lowrance, PowerPole Micro Anchor, Savage Gear, Sebile and The Watershed!! Cheers!!! Join in the discussion here: ift.tt/1vSX2zh
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 05:08:46 +0000
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