Age: 28
Hometown: Pretoria
Favourite Fishing Venue: Olifants River
Personal Best: 3.329kg
Boat & Motor: 16ft Bullet paired with a 200hp Yamaha VMAX
Division Representing: Northern Division
Favourite U.S. Angler: Kevin van Dam
Sponsors: Goya Trading
Bass Digest: Hi Japie thanks for taking time out of your day to partake in our “KNOW YOUR PRO’S” article for Bass Digest. We hope to familiarize South African Bass Digest readers with our local pro’s. Firstly congratulations on your amazing achievement for one of the most prestigious awards, I think, any pro Angler in South Africa strives for. That being the “Wrangler Angler” for 2013.
Japie Botha: Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on the magazine.
Bass Digest: So tell us where & when did your passion for Bass Angling begin?
Japie Botha: I caught my 1st bass on a rugby camp just outside of Marble Hall in the early 1990’s. The bass fell for a “mieliepit” on our coach’s spinning rod. It was all just downhill from there!
Bass Digest: Achieving the title of “Wrangler Angler” is an amazing feat. Please can you briefly explain to our readers, what this involves in order to achieve this award.
Japie Botha: All the anglers taking part in the 5 divisions in South Africa strive to qualify for National Championships every year. 50 anglers then get ranked after Nationals with their history over a 2-3 year period and the top-ranked angler then gets the “Wrangler Angler” award.
Bass Digest: Commitment and consistency plays a vital role in ensuring one is in the running for the title. What would you say has been the key to your success in performing consistently for the past three years?
Japie Botha: I do spend a lot of time preparing for tournaments both on and off the water. One cannot expect to be consistent if you don’t give 100% all the time. I would therefor say that my commitment to my fishing helped me to be consistent over the last 3 years.
Bass Digest: Preparation for the tournaments is just as vital. What steps do you take leading up to any event to ensure you are ready?
Japie Botha: As mentioned above I spend a lot of time preparing off the water as well. I can easily spend 20 hours every week on managing my tackle, waypoints and doing map work. This will not all happen in one week, map work and research on a new dam will happen first. I will then go out for at least one day, sometimes two, and scan the dam using my Lowrance HDS. The screenshots, waypoints and routes/trials will then be managed and filed so that I can go back to any waypoint and see exactly what it was and how it looked under water. This will not necessarily pay off immediately but it might help later when the seasonal patterns change for a future visit to the dam.
The week before the tournament I will service my reels and re-spool line if I need to. I will also sort out the specific tackle that I plan to use and stock up if I don’t have enough for the tournament.
Bass Digest: What do you consider to be your primary fishing strengths & weaknesses on the water?
Japie Botha: Because I give attention to detail I developed into a finesse angler, targeting very specific areas and using lighter tackle. I only realized this when a Protea angler told me that I’m a finesse fisherman. Im not the biggest crankbait angler and also don’t prefer power fishing although I can switch over and cover water should it be necessary.
Bass Digest/January, 2014