Angler casts his path to success
Delport certainly had a fantastic 2018 and has been pretty good off the shore in 2019 too.
Martin Delport (33), a former Brakpan North resident, has grown up hooked on fishing and it’s no wonder that he is reeling in the achievements as an angler.
“Growing up I pretty much fished at Brakpan Dam at every opportunity I could get, and on the odd occasion I would go to Aston Lake in Springs or on a trip to the Vaal Dam,” said Delport.
“I decided to join a club and started off my angling career in 2012.
“I am now part of Vaal Hengelklub (HK), one of the strongest angling clubs in the country, and can honestly attribute most of my success to being part of this family.
“We are affiliated with the Gauteng Union and, to date, have won 17 Gauteng A Division leagues in a row, taking 12 out of 17 Champs of Champs club tournaments (the Champs of Champs club tournament is held once a year and involves the league club winners of each province fishing against each other), last year being the most recent victory for our club.
“I have been fortunate to be involved with the club since 2015 and represent Vaal HK as an A-Team angler.
“Being part of a club allows you to enter trials.
“The union organises four trials over February and March and there you represent your club as a sole angler, fishing against other anglers from different clubs affiliated to the Gauteng Union and you do so in the hopes of making the Gauteng provincial team.
“When you make a provincial team you start from the bottom in the C team.
“The next year you try to make the B team and finally you try to make the A team.
Read: Brakpan win evens the league out
“I have been fortunate enough to move up the ranks each year and have been a Gauteng A-Team angler for the past two years.”
Delport certainly had a fantastic 2018 and has been pretty good off the shore in 2019 too.
Last year, he scooped a number of awards, including the victor ludorum for being first overall at Gauteng trials and the victor ludorum for finishing first overall at the Gauteng A-League.
He was also part of the casting team that represented Gauteng at the Kol and Vergooi Competition where he managed to get a Victor Ludorum Award for his 100m accuracy casting, being the best out of all provincial anglers with an averaged casting distance of 132m.
His final award was achieved for being the 2018 Sportsman of the Year at his club and he was therefore invited to compete in the Champs of Champs competition.
He then managed to secure an invite for national trials, where he finished seventh out of over 80 anglers and obtained his national colours.
Recently, he travelled to Namibia with the national team and fished at Hardap Dam in Mariental.
“I currently have my South African Freshwater Bank Angling A-Team colours,” he added.
“I recently came back from nationals where I managed to, fortunately, get another invite to national trials to be held at Sandveld at Bloemhof Dam.
“If I do well there, I will obtain my first green and gold jacket by obtaining my SASSAC colours (colours just below Protea).
“My main goal right now is to get my SASSAC colours and my Protea colours next year.”
This past weekend Delport was officially offered a sponsorship with Supercast.
Also read: Around the greens and fairways
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