Bass Fishing in the Western Cape

[Zane]

Dear Forum,

I thought that I would just lament about how bad the bass fishing has become in and around Cape Town.

I was in the mood for some uncomplicated fun this weekend and embarked on trying to source farm dams that offered day visit opportunities so that I could do some float tubing for large mouth bass.

So Saturday morning I started identifying small towns within a 130km radius of Cape Town on Google earth & Google maps that could potentially hold some bass.

After 2 and a half hours of phoning around the only viable farm dam was Le Bonhuer which I fish quite often. It was scary to discover the number of venues such as Wiesenhof that have terminated public access.

This leaves me to conclude that bass fishing in the Cape is now only limited to long distance trips into the Cederberg and the Breede river valley around Bonnivale and Swellendam.

Is there no way to start some sort of organised body that can source and control access to private venues in a manner that benefits both land owners and anglers alike. Many of the wine farms are now owned by corporates and many of them have adopted mountain biking as a sideline revenue stream. Can the same not be done for bass fishing?

What do you guys think?

 

[Thermophage]

I know they're small/etc, but what about the dams in Bellville around Van Riebeekshof road?
I have seen some bass caught there and seen many people fishing there too..I know it's definitely not the greatest though

 

[jmgravenor]

Bru, voice your opinion on bassfishing.co.za
You'll get plenty responses there.

 

[Dr halibut hoffman]

There are bass in the suburbs.. Too polluted for the pan but good sport for sure. I also know my mates have a spot quite a drive away where you can rent a boat only for access but fish away in a large dam for killer bass, I can find out where it is if you want. In cpt there are two good spots in the southern suburbs that I know of, one has difficult access to where the bass are but lunkers abound with the occasional leerie grabbing your lure ( say no more, that gives it away already ) and the other has easy access and not as many lunkers but good bass and can be quite social as quite a few know about it. They are not far from each other. Also apparently the old quarry above town had a few small bass there a few years ago at least and the old quarry in Dbnville had bass, if it still exists- I've not been there in ages. The berg river near wellington also used to have good largemouth, smallie and spotted populations and I've caught many there. Just go ask farmers for access, be nice and carry bags of good biltong with to say thanks and you will have life access to spots.

I can put you in touch with some keen WC bass fishers if you want, where are you based?

 

[Jacquesdw]

Living just outside Robertson (180km from CT) there is some great bass fishing. Got 30 fish on my floattube with a friend on Sat morning (2.5h session) on a small dam. (OK got nothing on Sunday but the berg wind was pushing and that kills the fishing).

Here are some pics taken this summer.

 

[Jacquesdw]

Jackall Nose jig has been very good to me

 

[Jacquesdw]

Got this one on a flick shake jig last Monday AM - had the day off after harvest. 8pd line from the side

 

[Jacquesdw]

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