LAKE MEAD 1st WORLD FRESHWATER SPEARFISHING CHAMPIONSHIPS
When I first heard about the championship, I thought, what a novel way to rid the dam of an invasive species. Make a fun comp, Invite the divers and …So The fresh water world championship was born..
Coming from South Africa, It’s a long journey so a lot of planning and preparations had to get into motion. Booking flights Car hire etc. etc. am sure anyone who has travelled knows the story so I won’t bore you with that.
Well finally the day arrives to depart. !st problem (of many). I had left my wallet in my car that was in for service.. Frantic calls to get it to me.. In the nick of time.. Phew.. Then My son does not have a visa to fly.. No problem we can book online.. it only takes 20 min… The computer was down. So Miles had to stay behind and catch up with us 2 days later..
It’s a long flight. Its 8 hours from Durban, (where I live) to Dubai. Then 3 hour stop over followed by the grueling 16 hour flight to Los Angeles.
Bonani and I booked into a hotel while we waited for Miles to arrive, which he did 2 days later. We did little sightseeing (visited Universal City) and then drove to Las Vegas the following day. The Gambling capital of the USA.
Once we settled in we looked for a boat to rent. Eventually we found one. It was however not available for the competition dates..
Panic sets in. Mike, the comp organizer suggested we go see Ron at Water world Scuba in Henderson. Wow what service we got. Ron was so helpful. Put us at ease immediately. Within a few minutes, and I am sure a lot of phone calls, we had a boat organized plus all the lead we needed for the dive. Any spares we needed were all available.
Being from Africa we had to do the safety check.. Are there any crocodiles alligators or man eating snakes in the lake.. Nothing?? Relieved we could start diving.
Tom was the owner of the boat. I must say he went out of his way to help us. Never moaned or complained (even though at times he should have). Everything seemed to be going smoothly when disaster struck. Tom’s wheel bearing on the trailer collapsed. Once again panic took over. We need not have worried as Tom worked till late that night to make sure that the boat and trailer was ready for us the next day.
So now the scouting started to see where the striped bass were hiding out. Place after place we looked. Deep shallow almost every point we could check. All the while the carp kept coming. I am not sure what they eat but they sure can breed. They are everywhere. You are laying on the bottom when suddenly this shape is next to you . Thought flashes through your mind.. Maybe there are crocodiles after all but no. just another carp. Takes some getting used to I must say. We managed to locate a few spots. So armed with a few marks in the GPS the day finally arrived.
All boats were in the water by 830 am when the start was announced. For once I was on a very fast boat and we sped off to our chosen spot.
Conditions had deteriorated and the viability had dropped and fishes nowhere to be seen. Place after place we tried and ended up with only 5 striped bass. Miles never saw any at all !!
Back to the start after 6 hours of searching.
The weigh in went very smoothly and was well organized. All done in just over an hour. Well done Mike and team.
Next day, same procedure except that its carp day. Time for revenge on these monsters. We started well, carp after carp. Miles soon got sinus problems and had blood streaming from his nose and decided to abort.
About the same time the carp sent out a national warning that they were being hunted. They were nowhere( where we looked) to be found. Eventually returning to our original spot . They thought we had left for the day and were hiding a bit deeper laughing that they had outsmarted us.. To cut a long story short I ended up with 48 and miles managed 6 before he abandoned his dive. Then the race back to the starting line
Again a very smooth and well organized weigh in.. We said our goodbyes to Tom as he had to rush off and headed back to the casino where we were staying. Now it was beer time. Try as hard as we could we could not get Bonani to have a beer. So we had to drink his for him. Well someone had to do it.
Next night was the prize giving. First of all, a very informative talk from the legendary Terry Maas. Then straight into the prizes. South Africa doing very well . !st place South Africa (Dyter). 4th SA(me) then a 9 th Charley) and 10 th place (guy) 50th Bonani (doing very well for his first ever comp). . One of the prizes was a voucher from Rob Allen Dive Equipment and I saw that divers were eagerly exchanging them for Rob Allen merchandise. I was still busy sampling the beer.
Next day we jetted of to New York where my friend Stratos gave us a royal welcome. He had planned tours for us of New York which left all of us very wide eyed. What a beautiful Country Is the USA. So much to see and do. We were taken to Lefteris gyro restaurant(terry town ). We were given enough food to feed an army and half the navy. even we were surprised at the low prices..
Sadly it all had to come to an end. Back on the plane all the way back.
Already we are missing the American atmosphere, Bustling cities and warm friendly people. Can’t wait for the next championship. That will be in New Zealand in 2 years’ time.
I would like to thank Mike for such an excellent competition, all the sponsors and especially Rob Allen Dive equipment for making all of this possible. See you In New Zealand
John Girzda
South Africa
#1 Master in the World
