Halo Willie, Andre,

Just thought I would show-off with a good day’s fishing at Roodekopjes dam, yes,yes the same place I got mugged two months ago. It is very difficult to stay away from a good fishing spot no matter what. The first carp weighed 5.25kg and second 6.6kg, third a whopping 9.9kg!!!

Great catch Louis! Thanks for sharing!

Below I listed the dips and flavours that worked for me on the day,

About three weeks back I made a quick fishing session from about 16h00 till sundown and I caught about 7 very small carps. A week later I visited with a friend. We arrived at about the same time and caught 9 small carps by sundown.

It was only last Wednesday when a very special friend of mine proved to me that there are indeed much bigger carps in the dam. Now I really don’t want to admit that she can probably outcast me by far (if there even exists such a word ), but she is a very practiced and experienced angler to say the least.

Being a public holiday the banks were packed with anglers and finding a spot was difficult. I had to settle for a not so popular spot, at about the middle. Any case when Nanette arrived she took one of my rods, put some magic mix of my dupas, dough, floaties and ball dips on the rig, and even though she asked for a rig with a heavier weight (which I did not have), she cast a distance that was mildly amusing to put it very lightly. I wanted to re-bait after about 20 minutes or so, as I always do, but she told me to let it lay for about an hour. I was getting the fire ready for braai or something (what I did when the reel started spinning is not really that important for a fishing story), when I suddenly heard the fish run. Out of excitement I grabbed her rod and started reeling in. I got orders all the way while doing so! She did the last bit herself while I stood ready with the net. Out came a beautiful 2kg+ Bon Accord carp. Unfortunately we did not weigh it, but somewhere in that region, and the biggest carp I’ve seen there in a long time, and…. caught on mere #1 sized hooks!

It was as if after seeing that bigger carp (I know it’s not that huge but still big for a dam where I usually only catch 500gram fish) I started believing enough to catch a bigger one myself. Saturday came and I had to feed the addiction again, so I called my buddy Joe, who caught some nice pics of the boats on the dam and the fish in the dam that day, to join me for a fishing session. I was able to catch I nice bigger carp that day. I got to weigh it this time and it weighed 2.5kg.

The next day Andre joined me for a short midday session. We caught about 7 fish (if I remember correctly now) and once again a bigger than usual Bon Accord size carp took the bait on one of Andre’s rods. The fish gave a nice fight, something we all love and we landed the fish safely a few minutes later.

All and all I’d say fishing has improved over the last few months at Bon Accord, but maybe thats just because our techniques improved. The hyacinth problem is getting better, but there are more boats now because of this. Also it is somewhat sad to see that some people are netting fish in the dam. And I am talking about 5kg+ fish, which goes to show that there are even much bigger fish in the shallow waters. I know it is a very touchy subject amongst anglers, especially when specimen anglers are involved, but I personally don’t have a problem with people taking fish home to eat, although I normally put all the fish I catch back into the water safely. But netting fish takes things to a whole new level. And if you don’t believe me about the 5kg carps being netted, just drive around the dam on the highway and you’ll see people selling salted fish to the passing cars and taxis.

And thats what I have for a small update on fishing conditions at Bon Accord dam for the first part of 2012.

Thanks Joe for letting us use your photo’s! And for those who don’t know the website’s top banner is also one of Joe’s artworks.

To read more about our other Bon Accord dam fishing trips click here.

Thanks for sharing the photo Sherwin!

Two weeks ago we visited a lodge near Roodeplaat dam, this was not a fishing trip but we decided to pack our gear, just in case… The lodge had a small pond and to the amusement of the other guests we decided to test our fishing skills, or lack thereof (after three or four beers) at the local water hole. We broke some records…

At Bosparadys the camping site was a buzz with activity, tents were going up left and right, baits were being prepared and the smell of coffee was filling the air. It didn’t take long for Louis Storm to land the first fish of the day, a beautiful common carp of approximately 1kg. Dirk and Joggie Taljaardt soon followed with barbel of 10.52 kg and 8.51 kg respectively while Willie Storm, Christo Coetzee, Timo Brown and Annelize Snyman all joined in the action soon thereafter. Between myself and Willem we struggled to photograph, weigh and write down the baits being used by all the anglers.

Thank you to everyone that joined us on the first W&D social, the weekend was truely spectacular. We hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Here is a list of some of the dips used during the weekend for those that are intrested:

• Honey
• Hasbeen
• Caramel
• Banjo
• Devlisfork
• Rooiplakker
• Tjop-Tjop
• FX

I wouldn’t exactly describe fishing as a spectator sport and indeed no spectators are allowed near the competitors during the competition but we had a quick visit to the Bloemhof dam a few days before the competition started.

A few days before the competition are used for practising and testing different baits. Younger people who never had the chance to learn about fishing are also introduced to the sport during this time. The National Lottery sets apart some money for developing the different South African sports and angling is no exception. I am not sure how this works and who gets chosen for development but this blog is about fishing and not politics.

We fished the Bloemhof dam on Sunday morning and in the two hours we had before we had to hit the road back home again we caught a total of 8 fish, which mainly consisted of muddies and small grass carps. The muddies definitely likes the sweet stuff, but this is no secret for those who fished for muddies before. Upon changing to stronger flavours we started catching grass carps. Bloemhof dam is a beautiful large dam just outside Bloemhof. It has plenty of fish and although the road from Gauteng is a long one and they currently have three stop-and-go’s just before Bloemhof, it is definitely worth visiting!

I wish to warn people of Roodekopjes dam outside Brits. I was there on the 21/01/2012 and we were five grown men with two small boys and we were robbed the Sunday morning. Cell phones, backpacks with clothes, Garmin and wallets were stolen. We found foot prints and followed them, only to find out that one of the guards at the gate was part of four robbing people on the camp site. We were not the only people robbed at the same campsite over the weekend. My new rooftop tent was cut with minora blades for them to enter. Why do we pay to stay there if it’s not safe?

Avoid going there, even in a group!

Saturday started rather slowly and we had to be satisfied with only 5 fish for the day. Because of the bad weather we didn’t fish during the night and decided to start early the next morning. Sunday started much the same as the previous day and Willem suggested we target the smaller fish by applying smaller pieces of dough using a combination of banjo and kap-kap. We eventually ended the day with a total of 32 fish weighing only 5.78kg. I do however have to add that none of our neighbours caught any fish, just stressing the important difference smaller fish can make to your results during a club competition. As suggested in our previous post (The importance of accurate casting) , accurate casting in combination with the correct targeting strategy can greatly improve your success rate.