SA BASS/Baars - The Publication

SA BASS is a monthly, high quality, full colour magazine catering exclusively for the Bass angling community in South Africa. It is designed as a specialist bass fishing publication catering for a well-defined niche market.
It first issue was published in April, 2001. It currently has a print order of 11 500 copies and is distributed country-wide by Republican News Agency to outlets such as tackle stores, C.N.A, Exclusive Books and Spar, and also to accredited outlets in Namibia, Swaziland and Botswana.

Its subscription base includes local and overseas readers, and is linked to membership of the South African Bass Angling Sport Society (SA BASS).

Our MISSION is to promote bass angling as a socially acceptable and popular outdoor recreational activity; in addition it encourages acceptable angling ethics. As such SA BASS provides pertinent information on a wide range of subject matter. These include up to date reporting on the activities of the Society and its members, providing a platform for informed debate on issues affecting the sport of bass angling, providing information on bass angling strategies and techniques, bass angling waters and opportunities, and also creating awareness of new products.

Within this editorial mix there is due consideration given to developing the sport among all the country's people (including the youth), and to the practical conservation of the country's natural resources.

SA BASS – Its People & History

The Marketing Director responsible for advertising and promotions is Wilma Lindeque who established BB Print in 1999 as a print brokerage company. She acquired her B.Sc(Ed) degree with majors in Zoology and Botany at Potchefstroom University in 1988.

SA Bass/Baars magazine is owned and published by BB Print. It was founded in 2000 by Hannes Lindeque, a bass fishing enthusiast who has been in the printing industry since January 1991. Prior to launching the magazine Hannes took advantage of the training offered under the Government’s Young Publishers Development Programme, and the knowledge gained, combined with his experience in the printing trade, and enabled him to successfully publish the first issue of the magazine in April 2001.

The editor is Eugene Kruger, who now has thirty five years of journalistic and publishing experience as a professional freelance angling journalist/writer, Leisure Fishing Consultant and Marketing and Public Relations Consultant.

He is a four times winner of the prestigious SFW Angling Writer of the Year Award, serves on the International Committee of Representatives of the International Game Fish Association, and has extensive experience on sport angling having served on several committees. He is an ex-President of the Gauteng-North Light Tackle Boat Angling Association of which he is now an Honorary President; he is a past Councilor and Public Relations Officer of the Gauteng-North Angling Board, is the longest serving President of the Inlands Light Tackle Boat Angling Association, and as the last Public Relations Officer of the South African Anglers Union was instrumental in its transformation to the current Confederation structure. He was also a member and consultant to various conservation bodies tasked with the conservation of sport fish and their habitat.

The SA Bass Society, with Hannes Lindeque as its CEO, is the official patron and organiser of the monthly SA BASS Cast-For-Cash Tournament Trail, responsible for its administration, publicity and promotion, The Trail is currently active in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo Province.

The magazine has achieved several notable milestones in its five years. It was commissioned to present a weekly angling programme on kykNET on DSTV in 2002 with Eugene Kruger as presenter and Hannes Lindeque as co-presenter, on which bass fishing was given significant prominence. Eugene Kruger also presented a weekly angling programme on RSG during which bass fishing was also prominently featured. Hannes Lindeque is also a regular contributor to a bass fishing programme on Radio Pretoria
The magazine was also the very first magazine to gain sponsorship for a bass boat and tow vehicle, sponsored by Monaco Leisure/Evinrude and Nissan SA

Having steadfastly stuck to its stated objective of operating on sound business principles, and not just as a hobby, SA Bass magazine is now a well-established business entity within the country’s leisure industry. SA Bass magazine and SA Bass Society are significant role players on the bass fishing scene, with a sound reputation in the commercial sector that serves it. It has also spread its influence to the USA where it has achieved participating status in the FLW Tournament Trail.

In its initial two years the magazine was the official publication of the SA Bass Angling Association, the controlling body of competitive bass fishing, but has subsequently relinquished this position, preferring to keep out of the politics that is inherent in amateur sport, to rather serve the interests of the SA Bass Society and the bass fishing fraternity at large, which in any event offers far more opportunities for growth and development than such a small, exclusive grouping.