Vaal Barbel 6, Anglers 1

Ant86

Sealiner
A quick mini report of my weekends fishing

So decide to spend the weekend at our place at the Vaal river and put in a proper barbel session.

Baits used  2 kg carp heads and thick fillets, we got absolutely slaughtered by the cats!!!!

The baits were on avg in the water for about 4 hours before being picked up, but we got hidings every single time. We fished 30 lb braid with .75 mono leaders and got cut off on both the leaders and braid, we had the one of about 13- 15 kg right up against the side when he gave a last push and into our jetty, wrapped himself up in the tyres and straightened the 6/0 hook LoL.

We managed to get 1 , weighed at 1.2 kg haha.

My friend got a nice grass carp on an almond mielie ( fishing for bait) but we diodnt have the heart to chop him up ( if it was Bloemhof we would of probably stuck hooks in him and swam him )

Practice what you preach , back to 50 lb braid and only 10/0 circles

A few pics, any estimates on the Grassies weight? unfortunately we forgot to weigh him and was in a rush to get him back to the water.

 
 

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Ant86

Sealiner
Grassie next to keep net for scale, handle is probably 80-100 CM
 

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Ant86

Sealiner
aquadementia wrote:
nice! I would thumb-suck around 8kg?
 

Thanks Aqua,  our gut feeling is also round the 8-9 maybe pushing 10 max. Was a strange fight as well, When he hooked him we thought it would be a small fish . As soon as he was about 2 or 3 metres from the bank he kicked into gear and took a good 12 minutes or so to subdue. We have found that most of the carp that we catch fight this way.

Aqua perhaps you could give me an opinion , the water is just over a metre deep against the bank as seen in pic 3. Could it be that the fish only really sense danger once they are up against the bank due to the water still being relatively deep? The barbel on the other hand fight right from the get go.

Depth is as follows,

 1.1m off against the bank

1.8 m , 3m away

2.5m , 10 m away

4m, 25 m away

and then drops to 10 m ,from about 50 m


 
 

Shimmy

New member
Good session that Antjar and the grassie is a beaut:SSS

I've had 2 sessions at the vaal targeting all species.

Great success on the bigger carps and a few yellows.

My barbel rod stood all weekend on both session. used a head and also whole carp swimbait...not a pickup.

were you at a private venue...if not which one pls?
 

Enigma

Moderator
Grassie will be over 8 pushing 10kg. it is a chunky fish with solid flesh

That is a typical Grassie fight, especially the bigger ones, they tend to go ballistic as soon as they fee the bottom or realise they are at risk and it's game on
 

Ant86

Sealiner
Shimmy wrote:
were you at a private venue...if not which one pls?

Private house,

The system seems to be relatively healthy as we have been catching quite a few Juvenile yellow fish.

Like you said , our Avg carp was much bigger than usual and only the big barbel were comming out to play.
 

Ant86

Sealiner
Enigma wrote:
Grassie will be over 8 pushing 10kg. it is a chunky fish with solid flesh

That is a typical Grassie fight, especially the bigger ones, they tend to go ballistic as soon as they fee the bottom or realise they are at risk and it's game on
Thanks Enigma
 

Skuimkop

Sealiner
Eish very nice venue and it looks very promising for huge Cats.

Regarding the Grassie I agree with the other guys.

Thanx for the report.
 

Ant86

Sealiner
Skuimkop wrote:
Eish very nice venue and it looks very promising for huge Cats.
 

We still trying to get into the 20kg +  , our biggest problem and this is where the last pic is a bit deceiving is the boat traffic.The old river bed is on the far bank and it drops down to 10m within 3 or 4m from the side! Due to the boat traffic you cant longline or a Mastercraft is going to spool you in seconds ::S

.....we do fish off the boat and have a few 16-18kg from that side but in summer fishing comes 2nd to wakeboarding :SSS

 

 
 

Ant86

Sealiner
Gcvanheerden wrote:
hahaha I was having the picture in my head of guys cutting up carp heads in a mastercraft!The vaal is a very nice piece of water it must be real nice having a house there!Have you tried a backlead when long line fishing at our place where I fish from the bank the water is probally 1m deep and boats go across the lines without hassles and the braid is semi floating and I don't use a backlead.With mono you won't have a problem at all.


The neighbour floated over our lines on Saturday night with his Mastercraft by mistake, we almost sent him out to drop our carp heads as an apology ::S

We actually got cutoff by a rubber duck on Saturday just before sunset while fighting a fish about 70m out.I wish we could figure a way out to fish that far bank from our side, it is also a fair distance at +- 270m( We always have a furthest Driving competition after a round of golf and  just make it across the water if you hit it in the sweet spot).

Edit: Checked on Google earth , its about 245 as the crow flies ( and not our balls LoL)


This winter Im going to test Skuimkops and Nobbles theory, going to drop a nice bait in that 10m water and see what I can winch up 
 

aquadementia

Sealiner
Antjar wrote:
aquadementia wrote:
nice! I would thumb-suck around 8kg?
 

Thanks Aqua,  our gut feeling is also round the 8-9 maybe pushing 10 max. Was a strange fight as well, When he hooked him we thought it would be a small fish . As soon as he was about 2 or 3 metres from the bank he kicked into gear and took a good 12 minutes or so to subdue. We have found that most of the carp that we catch fight this way.

Aqua perhaps you could give me an opinion , the water is just over a metre deep against the bank as seen in pic 3. Could it be that the fish only really sense danger once they are up against the bank due to the water still being relatively deep? The barbel on the other hand fight right from the get go.

Depth is as follows,

 1.1m off against the bank

1.8 m , 3m away

2.5m , 10 m away

4m, 25 m away

and then drops to 10 m ,from about 50 m


 
that sounds like an awesome venue for big fish!!! you should be able to call a barbel right on the edge there, have you guys tried?

I've experienced the same where they dont really fight till they get shallow and realize they are in trouble
 

Ant86

Sealiner
aquadementia wrote:
that sounds like an awesome venue for big fish!!! you should be able to call a barbel right on the edge there, have you guys tried?

I've experienced the same where they dont really fight till they get shallow and realize they are in trouble

Havent tried with a purpose  built roepstok, however temptation has got the better of me one a few occasions. So I used my ugly stik tiger boat road and tld and bouced a plastic frog filled with Copperhead BB Pellets( ...dont ask) on  bottom. After about ten minutes  I gave up and as I lifted the frog out the water the cat followed him up and just missed!!! tried again but no luck.

The other method that Ive caught a few is by standing on the Jetty at night next to the spotlight. I use the same setup but with a blackand red feather lead head , as soon as the whiskers swim past to get a mouth full of insects I dip the lead head on him. Only caught a handfull of 3-6 kg guys like this, the fight is unbelievable though. After dipping on a 10kg plus the one day  I decided to rather let them swim past as they just stuff you up and tangle in the jetty pylons and tyres.

Looks like Im going to have to invest in a roepstok and give it a proper bash.

 
 
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