You also experience a live weigh-in.
There was a TV crew as well but I am not sure whether the event will be shown on TV.
They had a “Hot seat” as well, which was really cool. The Hot Seat was based on the bag weight, and not your total points score, so that threw us out a little as you never know who’s actually leading until the prize-giving later that evening. They try and get the biggest bags to the end of the queue so that the guys could keep getting booted off the Hot Seat. They would then announce the winner for the big bag weight, which was quite nice.
Thereafter we were given some time to go freshen up and get ready for the prize-giving later that evening. Overall, it was just an amazing experience.
Bass Digest : Name some of the other fun moments at the event
Gareth Potgieter : Initiation, on the last day, was quite fun. The new guys had to drink some really “nice” concoction of stuff. There was salt involved (“lots of salt” he says, as he laughs), Marshmallows, old milk, and a few other things.
Another funny thing a few of us saw was when we were fishing in the Suikerbossie area. Luke, a really small guy who owns a big Phoenix bass boat, stepped off the Rebel532 he was fishing on (laughs hysterically at this point) – luckily his skipper was really fast out the blocks and helped him. That was quite funny.
Bass Digest : What’s next on the agenda for Gareth Potgieter?
Gareth Potgieter : We go to Internationals later on this year in Zimbabwe. The dam is still to be announced.
Also, for winning your age group and Nationals, you get an opportunity to go fish the Southern Division in the USA. So if I can gather up enough sponsorship, I will hopefully be going to the USA next year.
If I win that event (either win it, or come in the top 3 – we still need to find out for sure), then you go through to World Champs.
Bass Digest : Well we sure hope that you can represent us in the USA, and will be fully behind you and hope that you obtain the dream of fishing in the world championships.
Thanks for chatting to Bass Digest. We are sure we are going to see a lot of you in the future still. We would also like to wish Gareth’s brother, Bradley, all the very best for his 2014 season.
Cheers!
Bass Digest/June, 2014