Andre Joubert drowned Sunday afternoon near Villiers while swimming in the Vaaldam. Around 11:00 Andre posted the following status update on Facebook: “Sitting next to the vaal catching sum AWSUM sized fish!!!!!!!!!!!!! couldn’t be betta!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”. An hour later he drowned.

We post this article to once again stress the importance of safety at our fishing venues. Please be careful. Soos die bekende afrikaanse spreekwoord lui: “Liewers bang Jan as dooie Jan”.

To read the original article as it was written by Beeld, click here

A man was shot and killed this weekend at De Rust, Hartebeespoort dam. Six men approached mr. Jaco de Jager and his friend Hennie Jones. De Jager was shot in his camping chair and died in the arms of his wife. You can read the original article as it was written in Beeld here

Please make sure that you always visit De Rust and nearby venues as a group. We do not recommend camping at this moment in time. The owner claims that security takes priority and that they are working hard to improve the safety of their campers. Unfortunately, as an angling community we can only rely on ourselves when it comes to safety at our fishing venues. This is an unforgiving and selfish act by people with no regard for human life.

Our prayers are with the family of the victim.

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.

Johan Ryan shared some photos of the 4,7 kg carp caught during his visit to Bosparadys on 4 September 2011. Nice catch Johan!

At about 20h00 one of my friends, Gideon joined me. The whole night went by with only some movement on one of the lines. I “kapped” it real hard but found that the hook link was cut in half. I changed the rig and tried again, regularly changing and experimenting with different baits, but to no avail.

The next morning Andre woke us up with his car doors as we were still sleeping next to the fire. It was a cold morning with a bit of wind which later went away. In the afternoon some of my other friends joined us for a braai at the dam. It turned out to be a great afternoon party in the sun.

The fishing wasn’t that great though. We caught nothing the whole afternoon. The guys next to us caught a few Kurpers on artificial spoon-type baits.

After the friends left and I was busy packing up my other friends called and said they’re on their way, so I slept over again. This time round the fishing went somewhat (but only slightly) better as I changed my rigs to braid, which could not be cut in half by whatever was cutting it in half, and I managed to catch a small barbel on some custard dough which was strange, because he could have gone for the worm on the other hook.

All and all I was happy with the conditions at the dam. The water seems clean and the banks are neat.

Sunday morning I decided to drive to Roodeplaat dam and have a look at what happened during the past year. I was pleasantly surprised to see no hyacinth and a large number of keep nets in the water. I intorduced myself to a man named Stan and he was more than willing to let me take a few photo’s of the fish he caught during the day. Stan caught more than 12 carp between the sizes of 2 and 3 kilograms, all in beautiful condition. It seems like there is still fish in Roodeplaat dam and we will definitely make a point of visiting.

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.

Electricity ,proper ablution facilities and the fishing restrictions during the last three years is a recipe for the perfect fishing trip and we would definately visit this reserve in future. In our next post we will have a look at Dennekruin, yet another fishing venue in the Brits area.

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.

A beautiful Klipdrift dam carp

We finally managed to organise a second trip to the private side of Klipdrift dam and this time around we managed to get a few lines in the water, the weather was spectacular and fish was in abundance. After the disappointment we experienced during our previous trip to Klipdrift dam and seeing some of the catches submitted by Theo Greyling during his trip to the Lakeview resort side of Klipdrift dam , I was excited by the prospect of what the dam may deliver. I initially struggled to get going but took the opportunity to learn from Casper van Tonder, a local and a frequent angler at Klipdrift dam. He set the pace early on and caught a few beautiful fish.

A carp caught by Casper van Tonder

The fish was active at about 80 to 100 meters and all caught on a microwave white dough. The best catch of the day however must have been a moggel, it’s only the second time I come across this fish specie and I was totally mesmerised by it’s beauty!

A moggel caught at Klipdrift dam

Here you can see more photo’s of Klipdrift dam.