Outing to “The Origin”– 9th to 11th July 2021

The long awaited weekend finally arrived to get out to the water and put one of the Actor series Bait Boats through their paces. Unfortunately, my video camera’s battery packed up so no video for this trip, however a couple of pics of the Actor Basic and Actor GPS models as well as some stunning looking Carp, after all, that is what it’s all about and why we brave the elements, to see those beauties safely caught, netted, treated and released.

At the outset I would like to state that all Covid protocols were followed and correct social distancing adhered to by my peg mate and myself.

For this trip I chose to use the Actor GPS model as I wanted to ascertain for myself, first hand, how accurate the GPS unit is and how the boat handled itself.

It is one thing to read reviews, however, as the Englishman would say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating thereof. Needless to say, the pudding proved to be rather scrumptious and left me very impressed.

I started out by calibrating the GPS and setting a home point. I chose a little bay just to the left of my swim and can in all honesty say that the boat returned to that spot each and every time within a one metre radius. If that was happening at the home point, then that was happening out on the water as well, so pretty chuffed with the result.

Actor GPS Controller

The GPS unit allows for 16 waypoints to be set, of which I set 3 and only used 2. I found that the boat returned to each spot without fail every time.

Friday was one of those typical Cape Town winter days, sunshine, cloud, rain intermittently so managed to get lines  in by approximately 3pm and had my first screamer on Friday evening at 10pm. An absolute belter, Fox bite alarm resonating way above the sound of the croaking frogs. Fish on!!! A stunning 11.11kg Mirror, or for my British friends out there, 24 ½ lbs …..

Barry with his first of the weekend - 24 ½ lbs Mirror

Friday night was cold but otherwise uneventful. Standing drinking coffee on Saturday morning the same rod went at 8:25am. If the previous evening’s was a screamer, this one was on steroids. There is nothing to beat the absolutely beautiful sound of a Fox bite alarm breaking the morning silence and the exhilaration of feeling the fish reeling off metre after metre of line off the Shimano 10000 spool. This one ended up being the heaviest of the session weighing in at 12,13kg or 26lb 12oz, a beautiful Common

Barry's second - 26lb 12oz Common

The next fish to be netted fell to my peg mate at 3pm on Saturday, a beautiful 9.33kg (20lb 9oz) soccer ball Common. Stunning fish as well, a funny pick up, semi drop back on the swinger and then a half lazy run but a solid fight after that. It’s almost as if the fish didn’t realise it was caught until it was time to be netted and then decided it was better in the open water.

After a bit of backwards and forwards this one was netted. Beautiful looking fish

Ben with his first of the weekend - stunning 20lb 9oz Common

BoaTman Actor Bait Boat on PVC stand

A bit more about the company ……. Our Actor boats are directly brought in by BoaTmanZA from the factory in Shenzhen in China, a company which was established in 2016. Shenzhen Boatman Technology is a high-tech enterprise specializing in the development and production of intelligent bait boats and sonar fish finders. The goal is to build a world-class bait boat brand and grow together with our distributors. Our aim is to provide high-quality, advanced and diversified bait boat and fish finder for global fishermen.

History of the Shenzhen company

2015 - Team formation, market research, information collection, project feasibility analysis and other data to improve and establish the brand and development direction.

2016 - Boatman brand established, CL & Mini 1A began development and research.

2017 - CL series entered the British market. The stable and intelligent system was loved by global fishermen. Mini 1A was introduced to the market for trial sales.

2018 - CL series & Mini 2A series sales went well at home and abroad. The 2AG, CL4, DL bait boat series as well as SN1 & SN3 fish finder project was established and R&D started.

2019 – The full range of Boatman products was officially launched on the market, establishing domestic and foreign distributor sales channels to better serve end users. The Actor & Fighter series began development and research, Leader series starts upgrade. In the same year, participated in 15 fishing  exhibitions, domestic and abroad, to promote the brand worldwide.

2020 - The Actor and Fighter series were launched and achieved success at home as well as abroad. We also started a new R&D project of sea fishing boats. At the same time Surfer, Explorer, Pioneer, Actor-PLUS began development and research.

2021 - Surfer, Explorer, Pioneer, Actor-PLUS began to production. May month every year there will be promotional events, which started this year. Flyingfish (used in sea)\net boat\Limited Edition high end bait boat began development and research.

Follow the links below for past Exhibitions

https://nwzimg.wezhan.hk/contents/sitefiles3603/18018350/images/2156034.png

The Actor series comprises of 4 models, all hulls are identical.

 

                                 Actor Basic                                                                         Actor GPS                                                               Actor Sonar                                                                Actor Pro 2.2

 

Back to the results …. About fourty minutes after Ben’s Common, my right hand rod screamed off again delivering another stunning Mirror weighing in at 7.09kg or 15lb 10oz, also the baby of the session.

Barry's 3rd and final and also baby of the session 15lb 10oz Mirror

Ben closed out the weekend on Sunday morning with another beautiful Common weighing in at 8.84kg (19½ lb)

Ben's 2nd and final of the session - 19½ lb Common - awesome condition

The Origin is by no means an easy water to fish and the barometer stayed in mid 1020’s making it even more of a challenge, however, the Actor enabled me to land three very nice fish, my partner preferring to stick to tried and tested canoeing skills and we managed to net his two stunning Commons.

Thank you to the management of Winelands Carp Fisheries for making this venue available to all the Platinum and Gold members. Truly a most sought after, scenic, safe and clean water to fish in the Western Cape.

Tight lines to all and catch you when the reels next run. Promise to do a video next time around.

We are also expanding our range to include the Actor Plus, Fighter and Leader series and we will also be doing ample reviews on all the models.

Actor models are currently available from www.boatmanza.com and from one of our re sellers, All Out Angling who have shops in Centurion and Montana.


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