I recently had the opportunity to hunt on a private game farm. These opportunities do not present themselves often and I grabbed it with both hands, leaving the office earlier than usual Friday afternoon. Saturday morning we stalked some Waterbuck to no prevail and I decided to target a “Cone head” (more commonly refered to as a Rooihartbees). With a succesful mornings hunting session behind us, I decided to wait at a watering hole for some warthogs. This of course is a time consuming exercise and the activity of the barbel in the shallows soon had me searching for the fishing rod at the back of my bakkie. Unfortunately a spoon is not the best lure to use when a lot of water grass is present and it was soon back to sitting…scouting…waiting, wishing I remembered my tackle box.

Hours passed before we spotted the elusive pig, my fishing problems suddenly something of the past. That night, with a Rooihartbees, a few impalas, a warthog and waterbuck in the freezer, a camp fire going and a castle lager in hand, I thanked God once again that we can call ourselves sons of Africa.

To read more, download the2011 Result Accouncement SRSA file.

A man appeared in court because of the illegal import of Chinese grass carp. He sold and released some of the fish into local farm dams.

Mr. Deon Erasmus (43), a resident of Pretoria was arrested in the region of Middelburg Mpumalanga, while releasing the fish into a local dam.

Mr. Francois Roux, aquatic scientist of the Mpumalanga park and tourism agency (MPTA), stated that Chinese grass carp released in local rivers and dams can be devastating to ecosystems.

The MPTA themselves use Chinese grass carp as biological control agents to manage water grass, but they do so with strict controls in place. The Chinese grass carp used by government are sterile and can therefore not breed naturally.

Roux stated that grass carp released within local water systems can cause an ecological disaster. One fish can eat the equivalent of its body weight, some fish weighing up to 40 kg.

Roux and members of the police was informed of a man from Pretoria that imported grass carp from Israel, apparently he sold the fish for R50.00 per fish to local farmers. The MPTA sell sterile grass carp equipped with microchips at R150.00 per fish.

The police confiscated 155 grass carp and the containers they were transported with.

Erasmus was released on bail of R1000.00 and will appear in court on 23 September

You can read the original article as written by Beeld here

We should also consider that we have been fishing during very cold conditions and that techniques followed in warmer seasons do not necissarily work during the colder months. For instance, the past weekend it snowed in the South of South Africa causing water tempreatures to drop considerably. With the colder conditions our ground feed didn’t bliss as it was perhaps supposed to and hook baits stayed on longer. When you are struggeling to catch any fish you should always consider all the factors and attempt to improve where you are lacking in skill, take the time , really think about what you are doing wrong and keep on trying.

I must admit that the show in it’s entirety was a dissapointment, there was only a few fishing stands and no real demonstrations to talk about. Past shows captured the imagination with lure demonstrations, talks on the latest equipment and loads of competitions to pick and choose from. I was however informed that there is an upcoming expo at Gallagher Estate which might explain the small amount of exhibitors. Hopefully the next expo will be of a higher quality.

We arrived at the beautiful venue 9:30 am Saturday morning and prepared a small fishing spot of about 3 metres in diameter in a part of the dam that seemed reasonably deep. We also interrogated a farm workers named Frans as he walked past and quickly had some valuable information on the best fishing spots and the type of bait to used. Willem made good use of the information provided and caught a few barbel on earth worms before I landed my first fish. It seemed that our initial strategy to target carp during the day wasn’t working because of the large number of predatory fish such as barbel and bass in the dam and it became clear that we had to change our strategy if we wanted to have a successful session. We adapted our strategy and moved to one of the locations pointed out by Frans and changed our hook baits to earth worms. Our fishing tempo increased and we had to venture out onto the water on more than one occasion during the night to land fish between the reeds.

When fishing at an unknown venue it is important to remember that your planned strategy will not necessarily work. Local knowledge is invaluable and you should be able to adapt to the unforseen circumstances.

Because the dam is rearly fished it is important to keep the groundbait as natural and flavour free as possible. When fishing at an unknown venue it is wise to attract fish with natural groundbait and slowly introduce flavours as you experiment and become more confident in the flavours that are working. A good groundbait to use at a new venue is a mixture of mielie pips (maize) and a ready-to-use-just-add-water groundbait such as popcorn, manufactured by MG Baits. Because we are unfamiliar with the feeding patterns and structures at the venue, it is a good idea to make sure that our groundbait consists of particles of different sizes and textures. This will ensure a groundbait with particles floating at different levels, increasing our chances of attracting more fish.

Read more about how to prepare a basic groundbait on our How to prepare a basic groundbait mixture for carp fishing page. This page will provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to prepare a basic groundbait.

With the drop in temperature fish will often move to shallower water and it might be worth your while to move your target area and use natural baits such as earth worms. Inflows to your fishing area are worth considering since predatory fish such as barbel becomes more active in these areas when it’s raining. This is because of the natural food flowing downstream. It is important to note that fish species such as carp will become less active in the colder weather and that overfeeding should be avoided.

On a recent trip to Bon Accord dam, the rain was pouring down and fishing was hard but we managed to catch a barbel and a few small carp by changing our strategy. You can read more about the trip in our Bon Accord fishing at the start of 2011 post.

What equipment do I need?

As a begginer you do not need a boat, the most expensive rods and reels or a fast number of lures. First make sure that you really like this facet of fishing. As a carp angler I’m sure I would love art lure fishing, but different people have different interests! So start off with one of those old light weight fishing rods that is probaly lying around the house somewhere. If you do not have a small rod lying around, borrow one from a friend or buy one of those cheapies. A begginer bass combo (rod and reel) can cost anything from R300.00 to R1000.00, but if you are prepared to start of with the absolute basics, you can get a light weight combo for R100.00 to R200.00.

When it comes to lures, start off with the tried and tested. Rapala is a well known brand in South Africa with a proven track record. Lures can be expensive and one or two is often all you need. To be honest, as a beginner myself, I chose two lures on nothing else but instinct and a bit of common sense. The first lure I chose is a white Bronzeye pop frog by SPRO.

The white Bronzeye Pop frog

The following is said about this lure on the back of the box: ” The Dean Rojas signature series Bronzeye pop frog was designed to attract bass out of the thickest cover with its loud popping sound…”. I chose this lure for a variey of reasons. It’s bright, it makes a loud popping sound, the hooks fit the bait perfectly and it floats. Because this lure float, it is ideal to use at fishing spots with alot of structure causing snags and tangles. According to the loads of information I went through, this kind of lure is especially effective early in the morning, fishing near features such as water lillies. The second lure now part of my arsenal, is the Rapal Shadrap.

The Rapala Shadrap

This was a choice based purely on the look of the lure. There is really not much to say about Rapala, almost every article book or other piece of information available on bass fishing make mention of Rapala.

Where to fish

It is clear that the majority bass anglers prever the smaller private dams. These dams are often human made with great structures providing the perfect habitat for breeding monster bass.

As they say, practice makes perfect, and hopefully the more I practice the luckier I will get!