Gauteng North A Team, represented by Chris Tough, Amy Visser, Sholto Piek, Jannes van der Merwe and Kristine Page competed in the 2025 SAFFA A Nationals together with teams from Western Province, Central Gauteng, Cape Winelands, KZN, Mpumalanga, and Eastern Cape, as well as individual competitors and two teams of invitational members: The Colts, consisting of Junior anglers from across the provinces, and a Ladies team of invited members from the various provinces.

Five sessions were fished over 3 days on two stillwater and three river sectors around Underberg and Himeville in challenging conditions of high water as a result of the heavy rains over the many weeks preceding the competition.  The result of this was that the hosting province, KZNFFA, had to secure water for the river sectors on tributaries of the Umzimkulu river, which was in flood. The weather remained unstable, with some rain in the afternoons and overnight, and overcast mornings. 

The river sectors all had beautiful water, and the competitors expected good fishing, but the numbers coming out were unexpectedly low.  The fishing was tough.  Skill, perseverance and experience counted for a lot, as the results reflected. 

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The stillwaters were also unexpectedly challenging, with Goxhill Dam producing very few fish, with many blanks across the anglers, including the first session where all 11 anglers in the group blanked.  Lunds dam was even less productive, with only a single fish caught during the entirety of the competion.  That much-envied fish was caught by Jeanette Harvey in the first session.  

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Gauteng North performed extremely well, securing a fourth place amongst the contending teams, the best result our province has secured in many years. First place was awarded to Western Province, Second place going to Central Gauteng, and Third place going to KZN. The invitational teams were not allowed to be included in the rankings competing for medals, and as such, the Colts, who came third overall, didn't win a medal, but could claim all the glory of a fantastic performance of skill and teamwork.

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Individually within Gauteng North, Jannes van der Merwe had a stellar result of 10th place, and that in his first ever A Nats.  Sholto Piek was close behind with 14th place, and Marc van Rooyen of the Colts in 15th place.

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The winner of the individual competition was Brett van Rensburg of Central Gauteng.  A well-deserved win, with a  landing a total of 48 fish, and consistent placings across the sessions, only taking the obligatory blank on Lunds Dam.  Second place went to Garth Nieuwenhuis of Western Province, and third place was awarded to Stephan Nel of Eastern Cape.

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Well done to all our competing anglers, who can be very proud of their performance, the result of hard work, meticulous preparation and excellent teamwork.  May our presence in the A Nationals arena only improve in the years to come.

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