Anrich reels in more colours
It's been nearly two years since we last caught up with Anrich van den Berg and in that time, this youngster has claimed new titles to his name for Artlure Fishing.
His love for fishing came from dad when he first touched the waters and now this youngster from Curro Bankenveld is well on his way to Nationals for Artlure Fishing.
“People get the wrong idea about fishing, I do artlure angling, its not ‘papgooi’ we work for our fish,” laughed Anrich.
After receiving his first set of SA colours at the age of 10, Anrich knew he found his sport and has become quite the professional. He has attained his Mpumalanga Colours six years in a row starting in 2009.
In 2011 he attained his Protea Colours on the Breede River, in 2012 he got his SA Artlure Angling Association Colours and in 2013 while fishing on the Zambezi River, Anrich attained his Presidential Colours.
“The Zambezi has so much more species to catch , there are like 100 different species of fish, compared to Loskop and Arabie Dams which only have 32 species, it’s a great place to fish,” said Anrich.
Anrich isn’t alone in his angling, he has a team mate who has stuck with him through the years and together they have dominated the juniors sections in most competitions. In 2013 Anrich and Henry Fourie competed as a team along the Vaal River in the SA’s and won the junior section as the youngest team to enter the competition. And this year they plan on winning it again when they take part in SA’s at Loskop Dam on March 29.
At Loskop Dam, Anrich will have the home advantage since over the past three months the clubs WALA, MIDCA and Spinners have a club leagues on Loskop’s waters and besides that Anrich has been practicing every weekend trying out different spots o nthe water.
“I now have more than two spots for every one of the thirteen species that will be caught during the competition,” said Anrich. “There is one spot where you can catch all 13 species, but I think that spot will be over fished during the competition,” he added.
At SA championships you have two practice days followed by two team days where provinces compete against each other and finally after that you have a single day of trials for Protea nominations.
Artlure Fishing is not like other fishing types, anglers compete for species fishing and the aim is to catch as many species of larger sizes as possible. Anrich has a number of lures for catching these different fish, including a wide range of spinners, curly tails, flies, jerk baits and rattle raps among others.
“I want to thank my family and friends for all the support, and my dad for the patience he has with me since I started fishing, I also want to thank my mom for making great lunches for our fishing trips and my granddad for never missing a competition, I also want to thank my club WALAC for their involvement in my angling,” ended the angling enthusiast.
