The NBAA hosted the 1st Bank Windhoek National Tournament for 2017 at picturesque Lake Oanob, 90km south of Windhoek on the 25th of February 2017. Anglers were all excited to start the new season. The turn-out for the tournament was fantastic with no less than 5 new anglers, 3 returning anglers that did not compete due to the drought in 2016 and 4 ladies competing of which one was a junior. The NBAA is excited to physically see the growth in the sport and is aiming to take bass angling in Namibia to new exciting levels.

Namibia was blessed with great rains at the beginning of February that pushed Lake Oanob from 25% to 80% with in the space of 3 weeks. This inflow is fantastic for the future of Bass fishing in Namibia however it made the first Tournament extremely difficult with only 6 fish coming to the scales.

Jandre Engelbrecht Caught the biggest fish of the tournament which was subsequently big enough to win the tournament as well. The fish weighed an impressive 3.676kg (8 lbs 10 oz.) and can be considered to be a ‘wall hanger’. Nic Kruger caught a giant too weighing in at 3.02kg (6 lbs 7 oz.) which turned out to be the second biggest fish of the day. Alec Williams caught his fish, a respectable specimen of 2.051kg, in injury time just before the tag board closed, earning him valuable points in the always closely contested ‘Angler of the Year’ race.

For the anglers out there that want to catch a giant bass at Lake Oanob, the two giants were both caught on a white and chartreuse spinner bait. Try it; you might just get a giant surprise.

The results of the tournament are as follows:

     Angler:                         Points:
1st  Jandre Engelbrecht    4.176
2nd  Nic Kruger                 3.502
3rd  Alec Williams              2.551
4th  Jürgen Geiger             2.089
5th  Johan Coetzee           1.576
6th  Stefan De Wet            1.570

Stefan de Wet was one of the new anglers with little bass angling experience and did exceptionally well under truly tough conditions.