Not all of us get a chance in life to fish with a springbok angler; it is an experience that stays with you.
First the time, the day you are going to fish are set, you start preparing for the big day. You arrive at the venue half an hour early and start watching the water and the road.
You get a phone call; it's him he is held up due to an accident on the road. He tells you pick a spot and start to fish so long. Now you worry have I picked the right spot, you try to do everything perfect.

He arrives shakes hands and asks a number of questions, while he's unpacking. Puts his pod right next to yours. How must I cast starts to go through your mind?
You look at his rigs, how he puts the bait on the hair, how he makes a PVA bait stick.
The questions you want to ask start to race through your mind.

The conversation goes to what baits you have on, past experience on the water, the fish you have caught, after a while you are starting to feel at ease, all the conversation goes about is you.

You show him your rigs, he looks at them intently and says he sees nothing wrong, and then you start to ask questions. The questions just flow, he answers you and what he tells you makes sense, you discuss hooks and lines, hook links and what hook link material you are using. The reels he uses, the rods he uses why he uses them. Where does he buy his angling supplies from, what price he pays?

Your alarm starts to scream, you strike and bring in a barble of all fish to catch, he helps you rebait, well he actually rebaits for you, and you cast in again. You are conscious of him watching you; you are so over careful of what you do.
He tells you to relax its not the world championships. The fish eventually start to play along, not big fish all between the 2 Kg and 4 Kg range, but you stay busy.

You take note that he has baits already on the hair and the PVA sticks already, all he does is unhook the rig from a quick link swivel and recast the speed that he gets his lines back into the water is impressive. The Day seems to fly past and you still have a million questions.

You have not noticed that you are fishing with his rigs and his bait. The wind starts to get unpleasant, so he suggests that its time to pack up.

While the pair of you are packing up, he invites you to came and attend a casting practice one afternoon later that week. He tells you there are going to be a few friends there as well.
You give him his rigs back he tells you no keep them. You put them in a pouch in your rig bag. Separate from all your rigs, these you are going to study when you get home.

You get home, tell all what a great day you had how many fish you caught, show some friends the rigs.
Then the next day it's off to the tackle shop, quick link swivels, the same hooks he uses and a few other items. You spend more time than you should and more money than the budget allows in the tackle shop.

The day to go casting comes, you get there, there are already a few guys casting when you arrive, all of them greet you. You rig up and start to cast, he gets there, a marker is sent out with a canoe, one at 50mtrs one at 150 mtrs and one more at 200 mtrs.
The casting starts in earnest, he helps you, try this and try that, put this weight on, four hours and its getting dark. Your casting distance has improved ten fold.
A group discussion starts as everyone packs up. The tactics to be used in an upcoming provincial competition are being discussed; you are on a learning curve second to none.

The big thing is you are as nervous as can be he is just himself, he puts you at ease, the more time you spend together the more you learn just by watching, spending time with him, then without noticing it your fishing trips are more productive. You also do not notice but he listens intently to what you say, he takes all the info in, uses it.
It is then that you also realise that these guys are not good by luck; they eat sleep and drink fishing.
Yes he has set ways that neither you nor anybody else will ever change, but the practice they put in, if not casting, then its building rigs, cleaning tackle, preparing for the next session, tackle shops. Visits to the water, sometimes a short session just to test bait.
It is amazing what they think about, weather, depth of the water, contacts and previous results, previous baits and then most importantly the confidence they have, this bait is going to catch a fish, also then attention to detail, nothing is left to chance, from the length of hook link to hooks to the knots used.

Then also they believe in themselves and what they do.

The best part is they use nothing that we do not use, yes maybe they can cast further, but that's practice, the same hooks, hook links, line, reels and rods, they use nothing special to them, but what makes them special is the time they put in the great sport of angling.

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