Teen lands monster garrick from fishing ski for major cash prize

One fishing ski, one huge garrick…and a fistful of prizes for Richards Bay's William Shacks, who participated in the 21 Species competition

9 hours ago

Dave Savides 2 minutes read

Teen fishing fanatic William Shacks combined a solid skill level with a large helping of good luck as he reeled in cash and prizes worth over R100 000 in the recently held 21 Species angling competition

The 15-year-old Richards Bay High School pupil spent the whole of Saturday on the water, trying in vain in big swells to catch a single shad from his fishing ski, to use as live bait in the harbour.

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Nothing doing, but the young man doesn’t give up easily and was back at his favourite ‘secret’ spot early Sunday morning.

This time he did manage to reel in a single shad, and the game was on.

At around 9am the hit came, and for the next 20 minutes he was being towed about by what turned out to be a whopping 20.6kg garrick.

William Shacks is buzzing after the garrick weighed in at 20.6kg on the gantry

With the competition having set benchmarks for each species, there was no way anybody was going to beat a catch that was 240 times above the benchmark weight!

In fact, this may well be a national record for a junior.

“I release 90 per cent of the fish I catch, but not this one!” said William. “We have an excellent taxidermist at the Meerensee Boat Club and it’s going to be mounted and displayed there.”

He intends buying a better ski with his winnings, and is hoping his feat will come to the attention of sponsors.

The luck doesn’t end there. William’s father, George, had taken a R1 000 bet on his son winning the competition, and walked away with R24 000.

“I knew he would do it,” said George. “He had his first ski boat outing when he was eight months old and began fishing as soon as he could walk.”

William was the star act in a competition that attracted 84 boats and close to 300 anglers, including around 50 children who cast lines off the club’s banks.

All the youngsters scored more than their entry fee in prizes and handouts, with the winner getting a rubber duck with motor.

Once again, the event saw plenty of tourism rands enter the city.

@zululand_observer
WATCH: Richards Bay teen lands monster garrick from fishing ski for major cash prize Teen fishing fanatic William Shacks combined a solid skill level with a large helping of good luck as he reeled in cash and prizes worth over R100 000 in the weekend’s 21 Species angling competition.
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