Part of the dam at De Voetpadkloof

Following our visit to Kolobe it became clear that I had much to learn about bass fishing. In my previous post Bass fishing, journey from beginner to pro I made some lure choices that seemed logical at the time but that was far from ideal for the conditions we were fishing. Fortunately for me and Willem, we gathered some valuable information from our trip to Kolobe and I were on my way to De Voetpadkloof to take advantage of my newly found knowledge. At Kolobe Andrew gave us quite a few tips on how to go about fishing for bass at a new venue. Let’s have a quick overview of the conditions I faced:

1. The water was a brownish color, but still clear enough to see to the bottom of the dam close to the side of the bank.

The coulour of the water at De Voetpadkloof

When fishing brownish, unclear or dirty water, a dark colored lure is most affective while a bright colored lure is most affective when fishing water that is clear. So I decided to use a dark blue junebug with a red number 4 worm hook.

The dark blue junebug used

Unlike carp angling where we prefer to use the smaller hooks to ensure great bait presentation and good hook-ups, the best results are achieved with big number 4 or 5 worm hooks when fishing for bass. According to some of the experts, red hooks are most effective because of it’s visibility, or rather lack thereof. Apparently bass is incapable of seeing red. My inner pessimist questions the prior statement and brings up the age old question, myth or truth? I wasn’t prepared to take any chances, so I took the statement with a pinch of salt and bought myself 2 packets of red hooks.

2. The water temperature was cool to cold.

The cold water conditions at De Voetpadkloof

When the water is cold, try fishing the shallower spots, the bass usually prefer the warmer water early morning and late afternoon.

3. Quite a few anglers were fishing various spots around the dam.

Try fishing the spots not frequented by other people. Taking my chances with the one or two leopards prowling around , most of my bass were caught at a small secluded section of bank at the opposite side of the dam.

My fishing spot at De Voetpadkloof

Taking into consideration all the above mentioned conditions I were hooked into my first bass within the first few casts.

My first bass

The bass at De Voetpadkloof is in great condition and even the smaller ones gave me a good fight on the lighter tackle.

Another beautiful De Voetpadkloof bass

Unfortunately I also lost one or two good looking fish on the jump. Let me explain, bass will often jump out of the water once hooked and although this causes majour excitement and a preview of what is at the end of your line, they sometimes succeed in getting rid of hook, line and sinker!

Putting my new skills to the test

Most of the bass were caught between 4:00 PM and 6:00PM, with the occational exception of course.

Night time fishing at De Voetpadkloof

As mentioned in Bass fishing, journey from beginner to pro, I’m a beginner bass angler myself and these posts are written to aid my fellow amateur anglers in mastering the art of bass fishing without being overwhelmed by the enormous amount of information they are bombarded with.

The bug have bitten

So lets have a quick overview:

1. Have a look at the visiblity of the water. Use dark colored lures for dark colored water and visa versa.
2. Use red number 4 or 5 worm hooks.
3. Test the temperature of the water. Opt for the shallower fishing spots in cool to cold water.
4. Avoid fishing spots that is frequented by other people.

PLEASE REMEMBER that the above mentioned points are just some guidelines and that bass as any other fish species can be unpredictable.

My last bass for the weekend

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!