TZANEEN – A local women’s deep-sea fishing team showed their grit winning the Ratel Ladies Fishing Competition in St Lucia on the KwaZulu-Natal coast recently.

Freda de Nysschen and Louwrita Burger told the Herald that the day on the water started quietly but quickly turned into a memorable moment when a powerful fish burst from the ocean’s surface, and the crew realised they were not battling some tuna, but a marlin.

The dramatic strike became the defining moment of the competition for De Nysschen, whose calm focus and teamwork helped secure a hard-fought victory. With several boats landing marlin on the first day, it was ultimately the smaller predator fish that they caught that made the crucial difference.

“We already had a wahoo in the hatch when the marlin bit,” she recalled. “When it jumped, I remember thinking that if we could just get him to the boat, we might have a real chance.”
The win marked the team’s third appearance at the Ratel competition, a tournament she describes as consistently well organised, welcoming, and full of energy. “Winning was the icing on the cake,” she said. “But every competition is a lot of fun; we enjoy it every time.”

Married into an angling family, she said the sport has become a shared passion that strengthens family bonds. “I love the adrenaline and excitement,” she explained, “but I enjoy it most when we’re all on the boat together as a family.”

One of the biggest lessons she has taken from the ocean is humility. “You always have to respect the sea,” she said. “It’s called fishing, not catching. Some days you celebrate, and other days you just enjoy nature and the company around you.”

Away from the water, she balances a demanding professional life as a physiotherapist with raising her sons on a farm near Tzaneen.

“Being a physiotherapist in a rural area makes the patient-physiotherapist relationship much more personal,” she said. “You walk the recovery journey much closer with your patients.”

At the heart of her story is gratitude. “Living with gratitude keeps you humble,” she said. “The Lord’s grace is enough every day. I’m grateful for every referral, every patient who improves, the privilege of living close to nature, and being part of a farming family.”