Coly’s Catch

I often think of the beginnings of my fishing obsession, and I always like to look back and ponder over the few memorable moments, or milestones if you wish, that amplified and fuelled my passion to what it is today. This post is basically a reminiscence of one of these memorable moments, one that has stuck in my memory for the longest time. I would like to say that the memory has always stuck fast and vividly in my mind, but after recently acquiring the photographic evidence relating to the day at hand, I have realized that a few of the minor memories have sneakily slipped from my mind, over the years, and have replaced themselves with grander ones.

It was a Saturday afternoon in the sleepy hollow that is Grahamstown, situated in the Eastern Cape (South Africa).  Myself and a few of my astute student buddies embarked on a small fishing excursion in an effort to escape the monotony of studying, or the monotony of the local pub, depending on which one of us you were. So, Dj Cool Colin, Mini “Waap Weep” Marcus, myself, and a few others set out to a new hole we had recently heard about. Let’s just say that the word “hole” was more than fitting. After a short trek through a field of shoulder high shrubs, just off a main road, we came across a garbage pile, a train track, and a puddle.

colys catch

We proceeded to tie beautiful blue baits with streamer tails and shiny blades to the end of our lines. Then we tossed the baits into the puddle, cracked open a few black label quarts and let the day pass slowly by. I would like to mention at this point that we were all absolute amateurs at this stage in our lives, and had no idea that the lures we had chucked into the puddle to soak, actually need to be stripped through the water column.  None-the-less we sat and waited anxiously, sipping our beers and waiting for the lines to tighten, all in vain. We lost interest eventually, and as the sun went down we decided to pack it in and call it a day. And what a day it turned out to be. Upon reeling in his line, Cool Colin felt a solid thump on the other end!  We were all absolutely dumb struck at the thought of catching a fish while reeling in the line! What are the chances right!? But sure enough Cool Colin beached a “Giant” bass, that as I remember it, was close to 3 kilograms. Of course after recently reviewing the photos I concede that this figure may have inflated in my head over the years, and so I’ll allow you to make up your own minds.  Regardless it was a great sized fish, and at this time, a type of fish I had never really seen before!

Not thinking to toss our lures back in to try again, we threw the bass into our half empty beer create and rushed home to find the first willing female participant to gut and clean Coly’s prize. And how lucky we were, as on arrival at our digs we encountered just the person we were looking for, an ichthyology major by the name of Jerry! What were the chances? And man did we act fascinated as she systematically dissected our dinner in the bath tub, scientifically describing every element of its innards. Once our biology lesson had come to an end and the fish was clean, we sprinkled it with a few drops of beer, some cloves of garlic, and a splash of lemon juice, cooked it, and ate it. It was by far the best fish I’ve ever eaten.

brutal, first and last time we would do this to a bass

This was the first and last time I ever ate bass. You see, as my fascination with fishing developed so did my understanding and appreciation for the conservation of this awesome fresh water predator. Never the less it was an awesome experience, and as brutal as it seemed, I’m glad that the events unfolded exactly as they did, and as I said before this was definitely one of the defining moments of my fishing career.

Boskop

Boskop Sunset

It was the first weekend of febuary ’09 and I thought it a charming idea to take my girlfriend on a romantic fishing weekend to a new fishing hole, Boskop dam, near Potchefstroom. Well I was definitely wrong about the charming bit. We stayed at the Boskop Nature reserve and to say that there were few luxuries would be a gross understatement. There were no designated campsites, No electricity points, No braai areas, and no running water, besides the taps one could find at the one toilet, one shower (cold water only) long-drop ablutions which dotted the perimeter of part of the dam. When we eventually found a good spot on the dams edge we had to trample the grass in order to prepare a place for our tent.

My Tiddler

I didn’t mind at all!! Infact I love this kind of thing. My girlfriend, not so much…. Anyway this is a fishing blog, so lets get to that. The bass angling was simply superb. What a beautiful dam! The water clarity varied from slightly murky green in parts, to crystal clear in others. The best part about it is that besides us, there was probably only one other boat on the water. This is certainly not a pressured dam. For the most part the weather was not too bad for the weekend, although, on the Saturday afternoon we did get caught in a blistering down pour out on the water, which seemingly appeared from nowhere, at the very moment that our electric motor had decided to pack up. Anyway back to the fishing. The end of the weekend saw us with no less than 37 bass caught and released, 35 of which were caught on the Saturday, the biggest of which was caught by my girlfriend…. The aptly dubbed: Kerry “Bass killer” Van der Riet.

Healthy

Our opening approach was to lob small 4” Senkos against the reeds and let the flutter to the bottom. This did not work. Then I tried hard slash baits. This did no work. I tried every hard and soft lure in my tackle bag, nothing worked. I switched back to old faithful, the Watermelon Red Super Fluke (I ALWAYS have one of these rigged up and waiting). It worked like a bomb, the bass were on instantly. I rigged Kerry up and straight away she was on. We simply lobbed them near the reeds and let them sink, or issued a short jerking action by twitching the rod tip to the side in short, sharp motions. Both methods worked. When I realized that the fluke was working a little TOO well and that we would soon run out, I switched over to a new lure I was trying for the first time: the Yamomoto Stretch 40. It’s basically a short Senko with a light grub tail. To my surprise it was even more effective than the fluke!! The fish hammered it all day, the most effective colour being watermelon black flake.

1.4kg looked bigger

The largest bass we caught was 1.45kg, perhaps not large but the fish were some of the strongest I’ve ever felt. Kerry landed the 1.4 kg bass (above) but at one stage she had to position both her hands at the base of the rod just above the grip, place one foot on the boats pontoon and lean back to keep it from going too far under the boat. I have never seen largemouth bass that strong. There were times when I shouted “monster!” to bass that turned out no heavier than 400grams. Well since then we have been back to Boskop in pursuit of our fishy friends and I truly foresee this dam becoming our favourite “local” dam, If I may call it that. In fact I CANT WAIT to return in winter to hunt those 4 kilo beasts that I’ve heard call Boskop home.

Success!

Aaaaah, our new secret fishing hole… what a spot. A magnificent, unpressured body of water endowed with a thick perimeter of wide leaved lily pad fields, all surrounded by a beautiful landscape characteristic of the untapped Highveld. Oh and the fishing, well, it is not a particularly large dam but the fishing is simply phenomenal. Our recent excursion took us there on a day when most might have rather left their rods undisturbed in their dark cozy hideouts, and their lines high and dry. Put simply it was not the ideal outdoorsy day that we had been longing for the entire week leading up. None the less we braved the cloudy, near-cold, sunless-Saturday in pursuit of our large-mouthed fishy friends.

Bass Buggers's Bass

They obviously weren’t expecting us on such a near-miserable day as from the moment our lures began exploring the sub-aquatic dwelling of our aforementioned slippery friends, we were into the fish. Bang! The first largemouth bass took a dunebug Super Fluke with a distinctive thump. That was a little soon, I thought, but took a solid strike at it anyway and sure enough the first fish of about 1.1 kg’s was boated. Next it was “The Bass Bugger” Shaun Taylors’ turn. A weightless dunebug Dead Ringer was his weapon of choice, and obviously the order of the day for him as most of his catches were taken on this particular rig, with the odd exception of the few takes he managed with a dunebug Senko. For me it was the fluke which seemingly taught me a thing or 2 about fishing, the fish took it so readily it was as if I hardly had to make the effort of a cast. In fact there were times when we each fish on the line and in the boat simultaneously.

Dunebug Killer

An extremely soft cast towards vertical grassy structure near the bank, which was complimented by the lily pads seemed to entice the bite, with most of our catches being taken on the fall, and if not on the fall, then on the sloooow upward movement of the bait that we inspired with a gentle upward motion of the rod tip. All-in-all we took a total of 16 fish for the day, one of our better bassing days I might add, with most of the fish recorded around the 1 kilo mark. The largest weighing in at 1.4 kg’s and the smallest 500g’s.

An old Zimbabwean friend once told me that when all else fails, switch up colours to dunebug. Well I’ll tell you it is fast becoming my favorite colour, and in a situation where you are completely stumped for lure selection, I would turn to a weightless dunebug fluke, or light-texas rigged dunebug 7” worm of whatever variation you are confident with, whether it be Berkleys Powerworm, or my favourite Zoom U – Tail worm. A larger variation of this (that also proves to be a killer) is the Zoom Mag II worm. I have personally had much success on that Particular lure with a lightly jigged texas rig presentation. In saying that , it was not ONLY the dunebug lure variations which brought us success, the Aruka shad Lipless crank also demonstrated its bass attracting power…

Aruka Shad: Awesome

For those who either throw lipless cranks regularly or who want to experiment with that kind of technique for the first time, I would highly recommend the Spro Aruka shad, colour selection and size is purely up to you. Simply throw it into open water around structure, and crank it back. Once you become comfort able with that basic action, start varying your retrieve. A little jerk here, a pause there and the bass will be smashing your lure in no time, in fact I have even heard stories of this lure performing in winter. So give it a try, I know I will… Good bassing.

NYAMINYAMI

Lake Kariba: open water

There is an ancient tale, well known to many, of a mythical creature that once looked over the great Zambezi River and all those that resided dependently on its shores. The Tongan people of the Zambezi valley often speak of “the Protector”, a water-born, god-like creature, with the head of a fish and body of a snake, who they knew, or rather know as Nyaminyami. Showing himself at times of need and famine, it is said that the great Protector allowed the shore dwelling communities, of the Zambezi valley, to cut off chunks of meat from his body. It was only by the separation of the Nyaminyami from his wife, brought on by the building of the great Kariba Dam wall, that the desecrated serpent disappeared to the murky depths of the old river channel, supposedly, for the last time…

Then one night a traveler, named Gregor, lay face up on the deck of a house boat, which rocked ever so slightly on the shimmering surface of the great Lake Kariba. As he lay sleeping under the billions of bright stars, which seamlessly illuminated his surreal environment, he heard a faint buzzing noise just a few meters away. Drifting in and out of consciousness he ignored the sound to return to his tempting dream world, which was soon to be grossly challenged by the series of real events that were about to unfold. Just a few moments later, the traveler was pulled out of his deep sleep by the once buzzing, but now screaming, sound of what turned out to be line stripping off the reel of a fishing rod he had set up, and cast out, just hours before.

Peacefull sleep?

He rushed to his rod dazed and dreary, pulled the rod out of its holder, and with knuckles clenched white tried to hold on in absolute amazement. His eyes grew and grew as line peeled off his reel and his rod bent as if unbreakable. No longer dazed and no longer dreary he struck in defiance, lifting his rod tip sharply in orientation of the mystically large moon above. The moment he struck, his entire body was thrust forward by the force that opposed him, as if a creature of mythical stature were on the other end. As if… He held on for what felt like hours, and as he fought back against whatever was on the other end of his line, the world around him momentarily disappeared, only to return with the sound of hurried footsteps rushing towards him on deck. It was at that moment that the fishing line went slack, as the creature without warning, nor reason, now swam towards the boat. Once it was near enough, two strong arms, belonging to a newly made friend known as Mike “PissedAlways”, leaned over the side of the boat and hurled the beast from the water and onto the deck.

Head of fish; body of snake

With its fish-like head and snake-like body the massive 34kg “Vundu” lay motionless, gasping for air, belly to the stars. Unable to raise the “fish”, with his now weak and wobbly arms, Gregor stood next to “PissedAlways” who, with difficulty, had raised the beast off the deck for him. Finally, with his imagination running rampant, the traveler, Gregor, and the creature, which stared eerily, back into his wide eyes, shared one last moment. Shortly after this, the serpent-like fish was gently submerged back into the glossy water and with one final grunt and shimmer of his smooth fleshy skin, the majestic beast was once again lost to the murky depths of great Kariba.

All photos supplied by Gregor Rohrig

BASS-O-MANIA: THE RETURN

I returned to Bass-o-Mania this past weekend (30 August 2008) to what I thought again would be the first great day of the new season, after my previous miss prediction, a couple weeks ago. Again, I were wrong…

My 650 grammer

This time I returned with a newly found angling buddy, Damien, and our Ark Inflatable. I say again, what a dam for light boats and float tubes. Just too bad we are not the best at predicting weather just yet, as we were literally blown off the water, double anchors and all! BUT at least this time I eventually managed to land one of those green flashy fish we like so much, albeit a 650 gram tiddler. A fish is a fish! And caught on a slightly new rig for me, which consists of a 4” Yum Dinger (watermelon red), with a tiny ball sinker mojo-rigged between 20 and 40cm up the line. I’m used to the big old Yamamoto senkos, but at about R45 a bag of 15 Dingers I am pleasantly surprised with the Yums. Especially since they are not only completely filled with salt on the inside, but also covered with salt AND a product called Live Prey Technology (LPT), which is basically a scent attractant. Just holding the full bag of visually salted, senko-like baits gave me confidence in them. To put it simply, the salt basically allows them to sink nice and quick and on top of that the action of the bait as it sinks makes ME want to dive in and bite it myself!

So that is my boring story of one small fish and a bag of fake senkos, but Damien’s is a far more exciting one. After battling with the wind until lunch time we decided to do what no die-hard angler ever should… We decided to go home. For a guy who is hardly deterred from fishing by the setting sun and threats of grievous bodily harm from his girlfriend, you can imagine this decision a heartbreaking one. Not even lunch time and the mission had officially been aborted. Anyhow it was only after beginning our return to the opposite bank of the dam where we had parked the bakkie that the fishing gods smiled upon us.

While I rowed frantically against the wind, unbeknownst to me Damien had been trawling a watermelon seed Horny Toad behind, or rather, to the side of the crabbing boat. At that very moment he yelled for me to stop: “I’m stuck” he said. All of a sudden whatever he was stuck on began to shift… it began to move off… and it began to fight!! His tune changed: “Nice fish!” he yelled to me as he began to fight an obviously decent specimen. What a mission, I paddled myself silly against the wind to keep us off the rocks while Damien carefully and methodically played the barley hooked fish towards us. At times I had to stop rowing as the fish got nearer so as not to scare him into erratic, mad dashes.

Damien's 1.9kg toad crusher

What were the chances!? Not high, that’s for sure, but the fishing gods must have felt sorry for us to give us the gift of a near 2kg fish (seen above) for our troubles on the water. The day may have been windy and short, but a 2.5kg bag between two is not bad for a couple hours, and it’s always satisfying watching a friend land a largemouth bass of that size. What was learnt on this trip is to diversify our angling stratergies. The fish Damien caught was hooked in a seemingly structure less area that I would never actively decide to fish. In future, I at least, will return to similar spots (with rocky sloped bottoms) to throw crank baits of various shapes, colours, and sizes, along the length of the bank, and just maybe a fish or two will be inspired to strike.