ESA Angling

Angler Makeover winner Herman Harris

Congratulations to this monthly ESA Angler Makeover winner! Herman Harris !

He has won 10 000 worth of tackle in the facet of his choice and wil be going fishing with Rob Fisher and Howard Johnson.

Message from Herman Harris :

My day out with two ESA legends by Herman Harris aka Hermie

Firstly I’m not sure I would call us legends... more like lunatics who love bass fishing... (text in green by Rob)

I never thought this would ever happen to me, every time I watch their show on Super sport, I always tell my friends that I would give anything to go fishing with these two. It finally happened!! I won the ESA Angler makeover competition!!! And at that stage you didn’t know what you were in for!

It started out early, 3:00am; I had to leave Pietermaritzburg at 4:00am to get to Rob Fishers house. On arrival at his house, I was introduced to Howie (Howard Johnson) and our camera man for the day, Graeme, who reminded me a lot of Percy Montgomery.

We did the formal introduction on camera and they showed me the prizes that I have won with the ESA Angler makeover. To be honest, I was quite stoked with what I got, truly an awesome prize, rods reels and tackle, all sponsored by Kingfisher. I even got a Daiwa jacket and some Polaroid’s, very nice!!

Yo Hermie you never said anything about my awesome boat house!

On arrival at Inanda dam, we started the launch, went pretty quick, like less than one minute! That’s one thing that Howie and I have down pat... it’s takers us less than 20 seconds to start reversing... by that stage we are so excited to just get onto the water!

We got to our spot in no time at all, Howie showed me how to do different knots and the different kinds of lure, and then we starting fishing, I caught three largemouth bass within the span of about 20 minutes.Then came the time I dreaded all morning, I had to do a link on camera! I managed to get it out rather smoothly.

You were great... a natural! But I guess you had some awesome acting coaches!'

Rob and Howie gave me the nickname Hermie…that’s all right; I got nicknames for them as well. We went on fishing from one spot to the next, Howie eventually landed the big one for the day, a spawning female bass of about 3.5-4kgs. Rob also caught a nice size of 2.18kgs; we caught about 30 plus fish for the day. Not bad for overcast conditions.

Overcast is good conditions for bass Hermie especially if you happen to be on the water at Lake Phobane near Eshowe!

I thought I knew everything about bass fishing, turns out I didn’t, but I had the two legends of Rob and Howie there to teach me more than I ever would have realized.

It really opened my eyes and changed my views on bass fishing. The hard work that goes into a good day of fishing.

I don’t think you ever stop learning in this game Hermie...

I thank ESA, Rob Fisher and Howard Johnson for giving me this opportunity to go and fish with them; I have always wanted to do this. I really enjoyed it and made two new friends.

Thank you all.
Herman Harris

It was an absolute pleasure Hermie... it is always great to go fishing with someone new especially if you can help them get that little more addicted to the sport we love so much!

PS I hope the video editors don’t take out the part where we had to assault you so that you felt part of the “To the Top team”!