jmgravenor
Sealiner
Howzit guys,
Just thought I'd share the link to the reportback I made on BFSA.
Enjoy!
It's been too long...
Postby jmgravenor » 26 Aug 2014, 00:06
It's been too long since I had gotten hooked into a decent fish. It was eating away at me. Concentration during classes were down to a minimum due to constantly rethinking which technique I would use first, what structure I would target, depth, what the fish were doing etc...
The Friday I was waiting for finally came. My grandmother had agreed, rather reluctantly, to drive myself and my girlfriend through to a private venue for the weekend. We would be camping...I should've known I would have had to deal with complaints for the rest of the weekend. The car was packed to the max, honestly I don't even know he we all fitted in there. Rods, tents, sleeping bags etc etc. Chaos.
After what felt like an eternity we booked into our campsite and setup. This was going to be an interesting weekend. I fell asleep that night thinking of what I'd use the next morning. I woke up a few times and continued my thoughts on the possible patterns...
Saturday morning came, eventually, and we were off. We got to the dam at around 7:45 or so and got on the water at around 7:10. The water was freezing, just like the surrounding air...
I threw the new SPRO Bronzeye shads I had received, spinnerbait, Aruku shad etc. Nothing. I just had to persist. The bass were there. They just had to warm up. At around 9:30 or so I came upon a point where I knew was a ledge with chunk rock just off it. I fan cast around in the little bay using a Jewel Baits Football Jig paired with a Big Bite Baits Swimmin' Craw, and soon enough, I feel the familiar spongy feeling. I set the hook and nothing. I reel up quickly and set the hook once more. Immediately she started that vertical ascent to break the water's surface. What a pig. I landed her without a problem. First fish of the morning weighed in at 2kilos.
I proceeded to fish 50m further down the bank, when I got picked up by a 1.7kg model. Yes Please!
I went for another hour and half or so without a nibble when I was dragging my jig near some steep cliffs when I was picked up once more by a fish of around 1.3kgs.
I headed towards the top end of the dam expecting the sun to have warmed up so of the bays. 2 or 3 hours passed without an enquiry. Nothing. Until, I approached a promising looking bay. I had ordered a Shimano Stradic CI4+ a few weeks prior to the trip and Brandin Walter from O365 kindly offered to spool my new setup with 12lb Sunline FX braid. I was itching to throw my new shaky heads on it. I had it all setup. A 12lb leader, a Jewel Baits Jeff Kriet Squirrel Head Jig with a Big Bite Baits Squirrel Tail. The works. I had my first throw near some lilies in the back of the bay, a few little twitches of the rod, low and behold an unusual amount of slack appears in my line. I had the drag set perfectly and I didn't have to strike with much force. The 1.75kilo model really gave me a good rev on that rod. I think I'm finally teaching myself how to be versatile.
I continued kicking further upriver and something was bugging me. I just had a little voice in my head saying: "Throw...the frog. Make it come alive". For months, maybe even years, I've always wondered what those senior anglers mean when I asked them a question, and they said: "Usually, I just go with gut feeling".
Finally, I knew what they meant.
I picked up my frogging setup with the SPRO Bronzeye shad and made a long cast up to the rock face. A few walk the dog movements, a pause, and a blowup! A feisty fish of just over a kilo. First fish on my Bronzeye! Amped!
A few casts later I managed to walk the frog out from under a tree, just as it reached the edge of the tree the water erupted. Yeah Buddy! Second frog fish. Even though the fish were small, adrenalin was pumping through me. I have never had the opportunity to frog fish properly before and that day finally came. I think I'm in love.
Anyway, approaching a little bay with lillies, I switch my GoPro on as I knew there'd be a fish there, and cast my frog out, almost reaching the bank. I walked it into the lillies and once again the frog was engulfed. Geez this technique is cool. Got it on video...might upload it for you guys if you chaps want me to
An hour or so went by with me heading further upriver and the wind picked up. Once again, my gut feeling was to switch to my Revenge Deep Runner Spinnerbait. I made a couple roll casts towards the reeds when I once again encountered the lilies. One cast was all it took. On the retrieve, I kept my eye on the bait. Wide-eyed, a watched my spinnerbait disappear into what was a big dark shape :blue-shock: My rod loaded up and I'm pretty sure I started hyperventilating. What a bucket mouth I just witnessed break the surface! Could this be...
After a hectic fight...yes...she was...she weighed in at 2.7kilos. 110g more than my previous PB. I was pretty chuffed to say the least.
Following that hair-raising ordeal, I stuck with the Spinnerbait and managed another fish of 1.5kgs. I proceeded to spook one more really good fish as I just struck too early, must've been the nerves...
I concluded the day with a 9.65kilo 5-fish bag. Comprising of a 2.7kg, 2kg, 1.75kg, 1.7kg and 1.5kg. What a fantastic outing.
I'd like to just thank Branding for helping me out with my spinning setup. I never used to be confident with spinning gear, now, I'd gladly use it without hesitation. What a pleasure!
Thanks to my sponsor, Outdoors365, for supplying such awesome, top quality baits as well as rods!
Equipment used:
Falcon Cara Mike McClelland Swim Jig rod
15lb Seagar InvisX
Jewel Baits Football jig
Big Bite Baits Swimmin' Craw
Falcon Bucoo Medium Spinning rod
12lb Sunline FX Braid
12lb Seagar InvisX leader
Jewel Baits Jeff Kriet Squirrel Head jig
Big Bite Baits Squirrel Tail
Falcon Amistad
30lb braid
SPRO Bronzeye Shad
Falcon Cara Head Turner
14lb Sunline FC Sniper
Revenge Deep Runner Spinnerbait
All Falcon rods, Jewel Baits, Big Bite Baits, SPRO and Seagar products are available at Ol' Bigmouth and Outdoors in Durbaville. Contact Plasticman for details
I hope you guys enjoy the report!
P.S Apologies for all the writing, as you guys know by now. I quite enjoy doing long write ups about my adventures.`
Just thought I'd share the link to the reportback I made on BFSA.
Enjoy!
It's been too long...
Postby jmgravenor » 26 Aug 2014, 00:06
It's been too long since I had gotten hooked into a decent fish. It was eating away at me. Concentration during classes were down to a minimum due to constantly rethinking which technique I would use first, what structure I would target, depth, what the fish were doing etc...
The Friday I was waiting for finally came. My grandmother had agreed, rather reluctantly, to drive myself and my girlfriend through to a private venue for the weekend. We would be camping...I should've known I would have had to deal with complaints for the rest of the weekend. The car was packed to the max, honestly I don't even know he we all fitted in there. Rods, tents, sleeping bags etc etc. Chaos.
After what felt like an eternity we booked into our campsite and setup. This was going to be an interesting weekend. I fell asleep that night thinking of what I'd use the next morning. I woke up a few times and continued my thoughts on the possible patterns...
Saturday morning came, eventually, and we were off. We got to the dam at around 7:45 or so and got on the water at around 7:10. The water was freezing, just like the surrounding air...
I threw the new SPRO Bronzeye shads I had received, spinnerbait, Aruku shad etc. Nothing. I just had to persist. The bass were there. They just had to warm up. At around 9:30 or so I came upon a point where I knew was a ledge with chunk rock just off it. I fan cast around in the little bay using a Jewel Baits Football Jig paired with a Big Bite Baits Swimmin' Craw, and soon enough, I feel the familiar spongy feeling. I set the hook and nothing. I reel up quickly and set the hook once more. Immediately she started that vertical ascent to break the water's surface. What a pig. I landed her without a problem. First fish of the morning weighed in at 2kilos.
I proceeded to fish 50m further down the bank, when I got picked up by a 1.7kg model. Yes Please!
I went for another hour and half or so without a nibble when I was dragging my jig near some steep cliffs when I was picked up once more by a fish of around 1.3kgs.
I headed towards the top end of the dam expecting the sun to have warmed up so of the bays. 2 or 3 hours passed without an enquiry. Nothing. Until, I approached a promising looking bay. I had ordered a Shimano Stradic CI4+ a few weeks prior to the trip and Brandin Walter from O365 kindly offered to spool my new setup with 12lb Sunline FX braid. I was itching to throw my new shaky heads on it. I had it all setup. A 12lb leader, a Jewel Baits Jeff Kriet Squirrel Head Jig with a Big Bite Baits Squirrel Tail. The works. I had my first throw near some lilies in the back of the bay, a few little twitches of the rod, low and behold an unusual amount of slack appears in my line. I had the drag set perfectly and I didn't have to strike with much force. The 1.75kilo model really gave me a good rev on that rod. I think I'm finally teaching myself how to be versatile.
I continued kicking further upriver and something was bugging me. I just had a little voice in my head saying: "Throw...the frog. Make it come alive". For months, maybe even years, I've always wondered what those senior anglers mean when I asked them a question, and they said: "Usually, I just go with gut feeling".
Finally, I knew what they meant.
I picked up my frogging setup with the SPRO Bronzeye shad and made a long cast up to the rock face. A few walk the dog movements, a pause, and a blowup! A feisty fish of just over a kilo. First fish on my Bronzeye! Amped!
A few casts later I managed to walk the frog out from under a tree, just as it reached the edge of the tree the water erupted. Yeah Buddy! Second frog fish. Even though the fish were small, adrenalin was pumping through me. I have never had the opportunity to frog fish properly before and that day finally came. I think I'm in love.
Anyway, approaching a little bay with lillies, I switch my GoPro on as I knew there'd be a fish there, and cast my frog out, almost reaching the bank. I walked it into the lillies and once again the frog was engulfed. Geez this technique is cool. Got it on video...might upload it for you guys if you chaps want me to
An hour or so went by with me heading further upriver and the wind picked up. Once again, my gut feeling was to switch to my Revenge Deep Runner Spinnerbait. I made a couple roll casts towards the reeds when I once again encountered the lilies. One cast was all it took. On the retrieve, I kept my eye on the bait. Wide-eyed, a watched my spinnerbait disappear into what was a big dark shape :blue-shock: My rod loaded up and I'm pretty sure I started hyperventilating. What a bucket mouth I just witnessed break the surface! Could this be...
After a hectic fight...yes...she was...she weighed in at 2.7kilos. 110g more than my previous PB. I was pretty chuffed to say the least.
Following that hair-raising ordeal, I stuck with the Spinnerbait and managed another fish of 1.5kgs. I proceeded to spook one more really good fish as I just struck too early, must've been the nerves...
I concluded the day with a 9.65kilo 5-fish bag. Comprising of a 2.7kg, 2kg, 1.75kg, 1.7kg and 1.5kg. What a fantastic outing.
I'd like to just thank Branding for helping me out with my spinning setup. I never used to be confident with spinning gear, now, I'd gladly use it without hesitation. What a pleasure!
Thanks to my sponsor, Outdoors365, for supplying such awesome, top quality baits as well as rods!
Equipment used:
Falcon Cara Mike McClelland Swim Jig rod
15lb Seagar InvisX
Jewel Baits Football jig
Big Bite Baits Swimmin' Craw
Falcon Bucoo Medium Spinning rod
12lb Sunline FX Braid
12lb Seagar InvisX leader
Jewel Baits Jeff Kriet Squirrel Head jig
Big Bite Baits Squirrel Tail
Falcon Amistad
30lb braid
SPRO Bronzeye Shad
Falcon Cara Head Turner
14lb Sunline FC Sniper
Revenge Deep Runner Spinnerbait
All Falcon rods, Jewel Baits, Big Bite Baits, SPRO and Seagar products are available at Ol' Bigmouth and Outdoors in Durbaville. Contact Plasticman for details
I hope you guys enjoy the report!
P.S Apologies for all the writing, as you guys know by now. I quite enjoy doing long write ups about my adventures.`