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

Kolobe Bush Retreat

Kolobe is situated in Modimolle (previously known as Nylstroom), on the Rietspruit river. The resort is excellent for bass fishing and signs of a healthy echo system is evident.

We set up camp on the Friday evening. It was just a day or two after full moon and the weather was pleasant. The sky was clear and there was almost no wind. After we had a cup of instant soup we were ready for a short “power nap” before we were to catch the big ones.

At half past 4 I woke up. Andre must have heard me shift the mattress in my tent and no later I heard him say : “OK lets start building those rigs”. It was only after we had the water boiling for a cup of coffee that we realized how early it actually was. Non the less we started building a few rigs for the big carp. Apart from bass the dam also holds some carp, including ghost carp and dwarf carp as well as barbel.

Preparing our rigs

Before dawn our lines were in. Since we fished for the bigger carp and had bait to match (tigernuts and boilies) there was no need to change our lines throughout day so we spent the rest of our day doing some bass fishing.

Bass fishing from the bank

I caught a few bass in my life, as you might have see on previous posts, but probably mostly by luck, rather than knowledge or technique.

We tried many different kinds of spinner and top water baits which only produced some knocks. It was only later the afternoon after meeting a friend of Nico and professional bass angler, Andrew, that we started pulling them out. Andrew himself caught the first one.

Andrew with the first catch for the day

By following Andrew’s advise I managed to pull out 4 hand sized bass. Andrew had a few more catches, including a larger bass as well as a crab who found the bait interesting or perhaps enticing.

Following Andrew's advice I caught a few of these

Baby largemouth bass

This is not a fish?

Andre got his camera into the water but it miraculously survived and we are able to have a post with pictures. Andre’s wife, Michelle joined us. They made a lekker potjie so we had food for the rest of the weekend.

Potjiekos

All and all this was a great weekend. Unfortunately we were unable to catch any carp but we learned a lot about bass fishing. We found Kolobe to be a great destination not just because of its fishing possibilities but also because of the tranquility of the bushveld. Each camping site has enough space so the atmosphere is different than what you’d have at some of the larger dams.

Keep an eye on our site as we will soon be giving you the chance to win a break away to Kolobe Bush Retreat. Information on how you could become one of our lucky winners will follow in our next few posts.

Fishing for bass at Thulani

The resort is neat and braai facilities and grass shadings are provided, there’s a pool and you can span out next to the Apies river under the trees on the lovely green lawns. You can try fishing in the river or you can fish for Bass in the dam or pond.

When me and my buddy Joe arrived at the resort Saturday afternoon we were surprised by the amount of people. Groups have to book ahead and we probably visited the wrong time because there were large groups of people around the river banks. The pools where also very full so we didn’t bother swimming.

Thulani resort dam

The dams were mostly left in peace with only a few people trying their luck with their bass gear. I was one of them of coarse.

Bass Thulani

I only had a few hours before closing time so I had little time to prove myself to the other anglers there. The rules are strictly catch and release and the right fishing gear is enforced, meaning barb-less hooks among other things. This is great because it means that these people are serious about bass fishing as a sport and hobby.

Small bass at Thulani

One of the anglers caught three fish. All big mouth bass. I caught nothing. I tried using spinners, worms and all sorts of artificial bass lures. People started leaving and it was getting late so we decided to leave as well, but trying just a last time was irresistible. Good thing I did because my last try provided for my one and only catch that afternoon!

Because of the fact that we camped as a group my time for fishing was relatively limited, but I did manage to fish a few hours during the Saturday morning and afternoon.

When I got to the dam on the Saturday morning I was pleasantly surprised by the neat grass banks surrounding the waters. Although the dam was not very big it wasn’t exactly small either. Fishing is allowed on the one side only, but if you are practised you’ll be able to cast almost anywhere in the dam.

Early morning at Weesgerus Dam

I’ve course I tried fishing for bass but I also had my two other rods set up just for in case…

It took me almost 2 hours of sweat and hard work to reel in my first fish, a very small Bass which I caught on artificial lure in the form of a Rapala.

First small bass

And then came the rain… Once again I was caught in a storm next to the waters, sitting under a small grass cover, waiting for the wind to blow the clouds over so that I could cast in again. After about an hour I had another bite on the Rapala. This time it was a Kurper who made sure for some excitement.

Kurper on a Rapala

Unfortunately we had to leave early the Sunday morning so my fishing trip ended with only two fishes for the weekend, but luckily I could prove that even though the one I caught was very small, there are definitely Bass in the dam at the Weesgerus Holiday resort.

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