U.S. ANGLERS WIN SILVER AT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
T
U.S. team members David Dudley and Mark Rose helped score a second-place finish at the XIII Black Bass World Championships.
he United States bass fishing team
won the silver medal at the XIII
Black Bass World Championships
on the Vaal River in Vanderbijlpark,
South Africa, in October. Resident
favorite South Africa earned the gold.
U.S. team members included Scott
Martin (team captain), Lionel Botha
(team manager), David Dudley, Mark
Rose, James Watson, Fred Roumbanis,
Scott Canterbury and David Fritts. They
competed against 12 other nations
from Africa, North America and Europe.
“It was really a great experience. It
was pretty humbling to be over there
and have as many fans as we had,” says
Canterbury. “We had, like, the whole
South African nation pulling for the
United States. They keep up with fish-
ing over there, and they watch every
video they can. They would get pretty
loud and crazy when we were around. I
fished with Scott [Martin] every day. We
had guys follow us around and cheer
for us. We had people hold up Scott’s
picture.”
October is a spring month in the
Southern Hemisphere, and anglers
encountered everything from late pres-
pawn activity to the early waves of the
bedding season during the tourna-
ment. According to Canterbury, the
spawn was really starting to turn on
during practice, but a cold front
knocked things back in the three-day
tournament’s opening round.
After beginning the event in sixth
place, the U.S. anglers caught day two’s
second-biggest stringer to move to
fourth and then put together the top
performance on day three to jump into
second place.
“It took us a little while to figure it out,”
Canterbury adds. “The fish didn’t relate
to cover like they do normally over here,
even though they were trying to spawn.
You catch fish off docks when they
spawn over here, but you couldn’t get bit
on docks over there. Anywhere there
was shade or overhanging trees, there
were so many carp that we figured they
had run the bass out. Once we got away
from trying to fish cover, we figured out
that we could catch them pretty good.”
Teamwork was a big part of the
Americans’ success. Working together
in practice, the U.S. anglers dialed in on
flat “nothing” banks with no cover other
than some seawalls.
“We shared all information,” adds
Dudley. “Everybody contributed, whether
it was knowledge about a jerkbait, or
about whatever. It was a team effort. We
really clicked as a team. It was really cool.”
Next year’s Black Bass World
Championships will be held in Mexico
before returning to South Africa in
2019. Lake Murray in Columbia, S.C.,
will host the event in 2020.
screwylewylures.com
Save 12% with
coupon code
FLW2017
MADE IN THE USA .
HAND CRAFTED ONE LURE AT A TIME .
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2017 I FLWFISHING.COM
“Natures Edge” shown
$35.20 after coupon
9