Our stand at Klein Paradys

It was a windy morning. In my experience, windy weather delivers less fish so I was a bit sceptical, but the wind stopped soon after we had our lines in.

The bass fishing didn’t went very well. I got stuck many times on structure in the water or twigs close by. The dam was quite full and even a bit muddy but nonetheless peaceful, neat and clean. By 10 in the morning Rienk caught the first fish, a relatively decent sized, blue talipia (kurper).

Rienk caught the first one

A while later I had a bite. The first of many blue ones for me that day.

Catching Kurpers at Klein Paradys

Throughout the day we caught many more kurpers, of which only two of them were smaller than my hand!

My niece, Mariska, caught her first fish on a marshmallow. (She used the plain white marshmallows you can buy at the grocery store). Marshmallows proved to work but unfortunately two really big ones got away…

Mariska's catch

Postponing our drive back home a bit (how can you go home when you’re on the roll) I was able to land another beautiful kurper.

Beautiful Tilapia

Just as I was preparing my lines for the next one, my other reel screamed. A team effort by me and Rienk safely landed the beauty carp…

Biggest carp for the day

I lost count of how many we caught, but the day surely exceeded my expectations!

I was looking forward to fishing at Klein Paradys Resort in Brits with my brother and friends the weekend. I have visited Klein Paradys before, but I never tried fishing the dams.

Bass Fishing at Klein Paradys

I’ve done some research and tried to find out what fish to expect in the dam. I knew that the dam had a lot of bass but what about other species?

When we got there we had to confirm our booking at the office. There were three guys before us so in the meantime I looked at the photos and air shots of the resort. I was pleased to see photo’s of some nice 5kg + carps.

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Later the day we tried some bass fishing with a rampala and some other artificial lure we bought at the shop where I bought the worms. I thought since we are going to a dam with bass we could just as well try catching some bass the proper way.

I didn’t have the right rods but one of my brother’s friends had a small bass fishing rod. He was also the first one to catch a bass about half an hour after we started fishing. That made me very excited and since the carp wasn’t very hungry I decided to give the bass fishing thing a shot.

Jadrick with his first bass

OK so I was new to this and wanted to see how the lure “swims” through the water. I casted under arm and dropped the lure about 5 to 7 meters from the bank. (I’ve seen this on TV ) I looked at the little fishy gliding through the water as I pulled pulled on the rod and then… I caught my first bass! It literally took me less than 5 minutes of trying!

Bass caught at Klein Paradys in Brits

The next day we all tried for carp, kurper or whatever the dam may hold. I had two Banjo dipped boilies on my one line and worms on the other but yet again it was my brother’s buddy, Jadrick, who got the first bite from a nice big blue kurper.

Jadrick with the first Kurper for the day

It turned out that the dam was full of these and they were very decently sized! I caught another 6 that day. Jadrick caught another two and my brother’s other friend, Deon, caught another one. By the end of the day we caught 9 very well sized blue kurpers!

Kurper in my net

The resort has some rules and because fishing is not the only attraction and for ensuring security that helped in making the place a 4 star holiday resort, fishing is only allowed from 5 am in the morning till 10 pm in the evening. This is a bit sad for the carp anglers but I can tell you that the carp does bite throughout the day… tried and tested

During the day I had two runs on the boily line. Both of which came loose. Later I almost caught a nice big one but it jumped right of the hook about 5m from the side. I was very sad about that but I learned myself a lesson… I already knew to wait until the carp takes the hook and run and not to try “kapping” him when he sucks on the bait, (this method works very well for me but it isn’t the only method), but I decided that from that moment on I won’t pluck any more because I believe when doing that I probably pull the hook right out of the fish’s mouth.

That evening yet another electric storm stopped us from trying for the big ones and we didn’t plan on fishing the next morning because we wanted to get on the road back home at a decent time but the next day the clouds convinced us to fish some more. I just used one rod and because we had to carry everything to the fishing spot we didn’t even take our rod stands with…Yes I just balanced my rod on a branch.

After 2 hours we decided to stay even a bit longer than planned because of the regular movement on our lines. I was sure it was just a matter of time until I’d make up for all those I’ve lost because of my haste or over enthusiasm the previous day. I said to myself that we could go when we caught something and that even if the others wanted to keep their lines in, I’d take out my line for the last time when I catch the big one.

And then…finally! The bite I was waiting for.

Finally I reeled him in

So we fished three days in a row and not one day a blank!

Trip summary:

Fishing period: +- 5am to 10pm

Fish: 8 Blue Kurpers, 2 Bass and 1 Carp

Bait used: Worms

Distance the fish was caught at: +- 50m

Fishing spot: About in the middel GPS: 25 degrees 52?13.02?S, 28 degrees 16?11.05?E

Conditions: Overcast