Will & Dre

Our catch for the night

During the last week of the summer holiday I decided to join one of my old school friends for a quick (which later became a very long) fishing trip to the nearby Bon Accord dam.

Knowing from recent experience that the hyacinths in Bon Accord sometimes leaves little space for anglers, we set off very early in the morning, in that way keeping Rietvlei an alternative. This time however the hyacinths weren’t so bad. Apart from some around the bank of the dam there were almost no hyacinths in sight. I was still worried about water life though as I heard through the grapevine that hyacinths takes the oxygen out of the water, and since me and Dre didn’t make a catch the previous time we fished Bon Accord I thought it to be a great possibility that there were very little if any fish left in the dam.

Luckily the possibility fell forgotten quickly as lots of small fish started jumping around in the water close by. A few minutes later our neighbors caught the first one. Not very big. I estimate it somewhere between  500 and 700 grams. But as for us we didn’t catch anything..

Until finally at about 16h00 in the afternoon I heard my reel sing, which by this time really sounded like music to my ears. I caught the first one, a 0.6 Kg Carpie on Champion Guava dipped worms. At first I thought it was color that did the trick as the muti contains some red florescence, so I tried it again, but this time some surprising and unforeseen circumstances messed up my attempt.

The hyacinths started creeping closer from where they were hiding around the corner of the dam, so that within a half hour casting became impossible. I almost started packing up when I saw the clear waters behind the hyacinths were also coming closer, so I decided to wait a while to see if it will blow over to the other side, giving us some space to fish.

After a while it paid off. The hyacinths were “gone”, but in the west a storm was brewing. About an hour later we were sitting inside the car, again waiting, not for fish to bite, not for the hyacinths but this time for the storm to pass. And then we were casting again and this time reeling in fish after fish.

Our catch for the night

After my second bite we started a little competition between me, my old pal Rinus and a guy by the name Riaan, that we met there. So now we were fishing for the bigger ones. Riaan, who stays near to Rietvlei taught me a few tricks at applying mieliebom in a way so that it doesnt fall of as easily. It basically comes down to forming the “bom” to a square with your fingers before rounding it.

During the light rain of the evening we caught 9 “keepers” (although the barbel was a bit small) of which I caught 7. Riaan caught another 2.

We kept fishing until 12 at night when the storm came back and the cold became a bit more than just unpleasant, so we drank something to make us warm and went to “bed” in the car as it was to late for building the tent in the rain. Sleeping somewhere, someway, between and on the front seats is no fun (Rinus on the backseats), but at least we could rest from the rain and cold.

The next morning we counted the fish to make sure, reeled in, greeted our neighbours and left for some sleep at home.

Having caught 7 carps on one rod I’d call the trippie a success!

Trip summary:

Fishing period: 6h00 am – 8h00 am (next day)

Catches: 8 Carps, 1 Barbel

Bait used: Guava dipped worms. Caught smaller fish on custard dough, compliments by the neighbours

Distance the fish was caught at: 40 – 70 metres

Fishing spot: Next to waterworks, opposite Onderstepoort. Drive around the dam until about halfway.

Conditions: Bit of everything. Most fish caught at night with some light rain.