Biography of Barry Wareham written by Julian Pybus.

Introduction

When I think of Barry Wareham, I think of a man who is totally dedicated to everything that he starts. There are no half measures, and everything he tackles is thoroughly researched before implementation. Barry is never shy to share his knowledge, one simply needs to ask and you will receive a very technical explanation for an answer. The reputation that he has earned has been earned through hard work and is thoroughly deserved. The opportunity to fish with him is not only an honour but an experience.

Early Life

Barry Wareham was born on 5^th February 1959 in a small sugar-milling village on the Natal North Coast, called Darnall. He started his primary school there and then moved on to Durban High School (DHS) as a border until grade 11. He did not enjoy boarding school, simply because there was no time to fish except for over school holidays and possibly one weekend a term. When the DHS headmaster decided that the school would not be attending the Durban and District Athletic Meeting because of a conflict with classes, and since he was very involved in athletics, he left DHS and moved to Stanger High School.

Working Career

After finishing matric Barry joined the South African Railways as an apprentice signal technician and immediately left to complete his two-year compulsory military service. During this period he was selected to attend a Junior Leadership course at the Army Gymnasium and from there was then selected to partake in an Officer’s Course. After he’d completed his compulsory two-years in the army, he completed another four, three-month camps and a further two, two-month camps. During this time he completed his Captain’s course. Although he was trained as a conventional signal officer, he found himself seconded to many different units, most often as an Infantry Officer or as a Camp 2IC.

After completing his two-years of military service he qualified as an Artisan and was transferred to Empangeni and then later to Richards Bay. Here he worked both on the coal line to Vryheid, and on the main line to Durban. He enjoyed the work but found that due to his standby schedule, he struggled to find the time to fish as much as he would have liked.

As soon as he started working, Barry married his first wife Michele with whom they had a son Wesley. Their marriage ended after nine years and he resigned from the Railways and moved to Durban with the intention of emigrating to Australia. During this time he started working for a company called Fastfax as a salesman selling Fax machines.

In 1989, whilst fishing a Nationals in Gordon’s Bay, he met Kathy and they were married in January 1990. Thereafter, they were blessed with a daughter Shayleen, and second son Blayne.

Fastfax went into liquidation and Barry joined TNT as a branch manager, but soon thereafter an opportunity arose for Barry Rebeck and him to buy a fishing tackle retail outlet called Basil Manning Fishing Equipment, which at the time, was situated in Point Road.

Basil Manning grew and moved to bigger premises in Brickhill Road. In 2007, when an opportunity to redevelop the property arose, Basil Manning moved again, this time to Intersite Avenue in Umgeni Business Park.  Barry Rebeck and Barry have remained partners in the property business in Brickhill Road, but when Basil Manning moved, Barry Rebeck decided to sell his share in the tackle business.

In 2012 the partners decided to split Basil Manning’s wholesale division into a separate company called IFISH Tackle Wholesalers, which focused on selling and further developing the brands that they had developed within Basil Manning over the years. Barry brought in Jonathan Knight as a partner in IFISH together with Derrick Akal, who was also a partner, until he passed away in 2019. IFISH has since moved out of the Basil Manning premises into its own premises in Springfield Park.

Both Kathy and Barry are still very active in both businesses, but now have their sons Wesley and Blayne very involved in the day to day operations.

Sporting Career

During Barry’s school years, there was very little opportunity for him fish or to be involved in competitive angling, but as his Grandfather and Father were both keen anglers, he started fishing at a very young age.

Whilst he was at junior school he played a lot of soccer and did well at athletics, but it was only once he got to high school and started to grow a bit that he started to excel at athletics in particular.  He won the Junior Victor Ludorum at DHS and held the U16 100m hurdles record until it was broken many years later by his son Wesley.

Barry’s main events were hurdles, 100m, 200m and 400m sprints, long-jump, triple-jump and javelin.  At the Natal Athletic Championships, he won the boys U19 110m hurdles and 400m hurdles. In the same championship he also won the Mens open 110m hurdles. At the South African Athletic Championships, he was placed third and was awarded a bronze medal in the U19 110m hurdles. For athletics at school he was awarded full Colours and Honours for Athletics.

In addition, Barry played 1^st team rugby for two years at Stanger High School as a 1^st centre and wing.

Angling Career

Barry started fishing, with help from his father, when he was about two years old. He used to fish with a dipstick in the Nonoti and Zinkwazi Rivers. Whenever he went to visit his Grandfather’s house at Willard Beach, he would fish the rocks and gullies with his friend Jabulani, where they would fish using bamboo dipsticks without reels using freshwater shrimps that they used to net with a sack in the streams as bait.  Barry eventually graduated to a Scarborough reel which he made on a lathe with the help of his Grandfather. This reel was his pride and joy for many years. During his early life he used to fish a lot with his Dad, both after work and on weekends, but once he started at boarding school, his fishing was restricted to one weekend a term and holidays.

Once Barry moved to Stanger High School he managed to buy a second-hand Manta Ski-Vee which he would paddle out beyond the backline. After two years he had made enough money to buy a motor. He spent many years fishing off this boat.

Barry was one of the founding members of the Zinkwazi Ski Boat Club and although he spent many hours on the sea he never let up on the Rock and Surf fishing and spent many, many hours fishing the Zinkwazi, Tugela and Amatikulu estuaries.  At this point in his life, the only experience he’d had of any other fishing locations was some July holiday fishing at Port St Johns and most holidays at his Grandfathers spot at Willard Beach.

From the age of 10, Barry fished for Darnall Angling Club, and accompanied his father during competition. This is the time where he believes that his passion for fishing and socializing with like-minded people really grew. He remembers being very proud of the fact that he had earned his North Coast Colours during his school years.

His passion was not just for the fishing, but for everything associated with it – making lures, making cast nets, making fishing rods and reels, etc. He could not afford a new rod so he used to buy offcuts from Purglas to make his own. This led to other club members asking him to build rods for them and so by the time he got involved with Basil Manning he was very familiar with rod building. Ultimately this was the prelude to the Assassin brand. As his competitive career grew so did his desire to improve on the aspects of tackle that had proved to be inadequate for him at the time. This, over the years, has led to many new developments, which undoubtedly contributed to the success of the brands in his business.

Over the years his pursuit and enthusiasm for new techniques in targeting species has had a major impact on recreational fishing. Trends like shore-based plugging for GT’s, drop-shot and plastics, the spinning revolution, new rods and the introduction of braided lines and fixed spool reels to the Rock and Surf fraternity, were all very exciting periods in his angling career.

In Barry’s own words, “I owe competitive angling a debt of gratitude for affording me the opportunity of fishing almost the entire South African coastline as well as a lot of Namibia.  It also took me to many places in Europe and to both sides of Australia.” His association with Australia, which included his being a part of an unofficial South African side to fish in the Australian bi-annual interstate competition, was an attempt to get Australia to compete against South Africa on an international basis.

Although most of Barry’s time has been focused on shore-based angling, it is only in the last few years that he has really had enough time to pursue one of his favourite forms of fishing, that being fly fishing for South Africa’s indigenous Yellowfish in this countries beautiful rivers.

At the end of 2007 he withdrew from competitive angling in order to focus more on his business. However he continued to fish club competitions but did not nominate for any teams until he was approached to join the KZN Junior Management team. His son Blayne was by this stage very active in competitive angling, and Barry, at age 52, decided to nominate for the KZNCAU Masters team. This to him was like a new lease on his competitive angling life as he thoroughly enjoyed the competitions, and once again got caught up in provincial, national and international angling.

Provincial Representation

Barry first fished in  the provincial friendly teams in 1982, and in 1985, was chosen to fish in the Natal Senior side.  He went on to fish for 22 years in the team until in 2007, he decided not to nominate and to focus on his business interests. For the past three years, 2016 until 2019 he was selected to coach the KZNCAU Senior side.

On his return to National Angling, he fished in the Masters side for eight years from 2012 up until present.

National Representation

In 1992, Barry received his first selection to represent South Africa as a Springbok. This was the last year where a “Springbok” team was selected. In 1997 he was presented with his first Protea Cap as fishing Captain to fish against Namibia. For the next seven years, until 2004, Barry was a member of this Protea senior side. In 2006 Barry was selected to compete in the World Championships in Portugal after which he started his sabbatical to focus on his business.

In 2014, having got back into the selection mix by qualifying at the Masters Nationals in 2012, Barry was selected to fish in the World Championships in France. This was followed by Portugal in 2015, Ireland in 2016, South Africa in 2017, Wales in 2018 and the World Games in South Africa in 2019.  In total he was awarded national colours for 15 years. This excludes his selections for the Masters Division against Namibia.

The World Games in South Africa were very special because it was the first time that South Africa had ever won a medal in the World Games.  The team ended up in third position and Barry, based on a three year ranking, was ranked 8^th in the World.  At this point he made a decision to retire from FIPS style angling as it was taking up a lot of his free time.

In the Masters Division Barry represented South Africa for seven years from 2013 until present.

One of the highlights of his career was when both himself, as a proud father, and his younger son Blayne, represented South Africa at the same tournament on two occasions. Both in Namibia, in 2014 and in 2016. Blayne was fishing in the U21 side and Barry was in the Masters side. Definitely a chip off the old block.

Angling Administration

During his long career, Barry only ever fished for two clubs, these being Darnall Angling Club and NCAA (Natal Coastal Anglers Association).  When his father retired and moved from Darnall to Durban, Darnall Angling Club was eventually disbanded. Barry had just moved to Durban from Richards Bay, and decided then to join NCAA. He was first chosen to represent Natal whilst still fishing for Darnall Angling Club.

In the early 1990’s Barry started serving on the KZNCAU Executive where he ended up serving a two-year term as Vice President and then a two-year term as President. Some of the highlights from this period were the successful negotiation and conclusion of the 1994 unity process and the start of the KZNCAU Ladies Division. For four years during this period, Barry ran the Development Program for the KZNCAU. Barry was also a leader in the successful transition from killing, gaffing and weighing, to measuring and releasing and was also involved in starting the European style Pegged Fishing League in KZN. He was awarded an Honours Badge by the Union and also received Honorary Life President status.

In addition, Barry served on the SASAA Executive for many years and was elected as Vice President before serving a two-year term as President.  Some of the highlights that emerged from his leadership were the conversion from open bait to common bait issue, the elimination of gaffing and the conversion to measurement instead of weighing. Barry was also responsible for starting the Ladies Division in SASAA and for getting SASAA back into World Championship tournaments at International level.

Barry was also involved in the working group that developed our National Coastal Management policy document and the Shad working group which developed a Shad management policy for implementation.  H also served on the South African Marine Line Fish Committee.