aquadementia
Sealiner
Between the owner's study commitments and me contracting swine flu on a weekend that suited us both, I havent done much fishing of late!
but this past weekend the stars aligned and we managed to get out and help the Eco-Care Trust with their ongoing water monitoring project at Vaalkop dam.
Once on the water, we didnt have to think hard about where to go first. All around us were hundreds of whiskers waving at us, inviting us closer...
The carp were spawning, and the eggs had made a scum line on the water that the barbel were taking advantage of. We attempted dipping a few with fly (dip because the fly is too heavy for the rig) but the cats were a bit skittish. Rudolphs second dip with the right tackle (calling rod) and he went on to an average barbel.
Since we were drifting over 7m water, I felt it would be ok if I dipped a smaller barbel on my loooong carp dipping rod, the Awa-Shima Aexeon. Well my second dip was successful and I went VAS!
after a bit of running around the barbel went to lie on the bottom... like trying to lift a bag of cement with a 6m rod, but the aexeon has a trick up its sleeve! being telescopic, one can simply pull a few sections down, turning the advantage back to the angler who now has a lot more leverage than before!
And with that, I managed to pull the barbel off the dam bed 7m down and get him to the boat for a photo shoot
as we suspected, the barbel are fat with ripe gonads. Their spawn will be soon!
After that we decided to make some videos.
Here Rudolph dips a cruising barbel and goes on as soon as his leadhead hits the water
[flash=490,360]http://www.youtube.com/v/IggLbxKhWu8[/flash]
Here I am dipping at cruising barbel but spot resting barbel below them
[flash=490,360]http://www.youtube.com/v/KGmOIrfjxSk[/flash]
GoPro coming soon!
Right, we were done with the barbel so now it was time to get to what Steve and Rudolph found the day before - big Blues!
We headed to the spot and found schools of blues sunning themselves in the shallows, perfect targets!
We rigged curly tails on fly rods (for reach) and started dipping around. They would start getting agitated and just when it got too much they would 'swem 'n draai' to calm down haha...
Rudolph was the first to convince a blue to bite (no surprises there, he has a master big kurper artlure angler as his father
).
During the fight, the Blue was head-butted by a bigger blue .
He made it outa there into deeper water and eventually to the boat where he was netted. First for the day, 1.75kg!
We stayed where we were, and I was the next to go on. What a great fight I was treated to on the 5 weight fly outfit. Again, black jaws came and bumped him away, but I let him run deep and guided him around a rock to the net. A new pb by 70 grams at 1.77kg! You can see how shallow we were actually fishing
At the SAME spot still, Rudolph went on to the next Blue of the trip, this one tipping the scales at 1.80kg! little by little, they were getting bigger!
We had exhausted that spot, so we moved on a bit and had a go at a few other males but the water was a bit deep and they were hard to spot due to the discolouration caused by the still spawning carp.
I eventually found a nice agro male that didnt take too much convincing to attack my curly tail. What a fighter he was, making several hard runs and sending shockwaves up the rod with every head bump. Once landed, he was weighed in at 1.83kg, another new pb!!
Reviving for the release
I let Rudolph have the next turn, as two guys targeting dispersed blues at once isnt ideal.
I kept myself busy with a few barbel on my new baitcasting outfit, 10lb fluoro on an alpha tackle baitcaster and a cherrywood rod. Seemed to do the trick alright!
We cruised the banks looking for more victims, and found plenty of this, as Rudolph put it 'op 'n skinkbord'
The wind came up so we headed for a protected bay where we found a bunch more blues
I had one swim through my line and unfortunately he got foul hooked, at which time Rudolph hooked one inside a bunch of weed. double up! 1.77 and 1.78kg!
We moved to the next bay and found some, you guessed it, big blues! The wind was pumping now and Rudolph was a real gentleman and offered to keep the boat in position with the push pole while I tried to get another bite. Well I found one holding shallow and did my utmost to get this guy to bite. He slowly started getting irritated and started flapping his gills at my worm. I changed colour and size and he seemed more interested. i hit him on the head with the splitshot (not hard just to get his attention) and just when I started thinking he wouldnt, he did! VAS!!! The wind pulled us deeper and he gave an exceptional fight in the open water. A real champion fish and actually my favourite for the day. Over the 20 minutes I knew him it was like I built a relationship with the guy. the most rewarding catch of the day for me by far! 'Small'est too, 1.70kg (as big as my old pb)
we made an attempt at some carp but none really showed any real interest. Will save them for the ACC next month!
Our 'bag' of kurper went over 12kg, not bad for two guys in a single day! i donth think we will be repeating this performance any time soon
Thanks again to the owner and droomvanger for facilitating this great day on the water
but this past weekend the stars aligned and we managed to get out and help the Eco-Care Trust with their ongoing water monitoring project at Vaalkop dam.
Once on the water, we didnt have to think hard about where to go first. All around us were hundreds of whiskers waving at us, inviting us closer...
The carp were spawning, and the eggs had made a scum line on the water that the barbel were taking advantage of. We attempted dipping a few with fly (dip because the fly is too heavy for the rig) but the cats were a bit skittish. Rudolphs second dip with the right tackle (calling rod) and he went on to an average barbel.
Since we were drifting over 7m water, I felt it would be ok if I dipped a smaller barbel on my loooong carp dipping rod, the Awa-Shima Aexeon. Well my second dip was successful and I went VAS!
after a bit of running around the barbel went to lie on the bottom... like trying to lift a bag of cement with a 6m rod, but the aexeon has a trick up its sleeve! being telescopic, one can simply pull a few sections down, turning the advantage back to the angler who now has a lot more leverage than before!
And with that, I managed to pull the barbel off the dam bed 7m down and get him to the boat for a photo shoot
as we suspected, the barbel are fat with ripe gonads. Their spawn will be soon!
After that we decided to make some videos.
Here Rudolph dips a cruising barbel and goes on as soon as his leadhead hits the water
[flash=490,360]http://www.youtube.com/v/IggLbxKhWu8[/flash]
Here I am dipping at cruising barbel but spot resting barbel below them
[flash=490,360]http://www.youtube.com/v/KGmOIrfjxSk[/flash]
GoPro coming soon!
Right, we were done with the barbel so now it was time to get to what Steve and Rudolph found the day before - big Blues!
We headed to the spot and found schools of blues sunning themselves in the shallows, perfect targets!
We rigged curly tails on fly rods (for reach) and started dipping around. They would start getting agitated and just when it got too much they would 'swem 'n draai' to calm down haha...
Rudolph was the first to convince a blue to bite (no surprises there, he has a master big kurper artlure angler as his father
). During the fight, the Blue was head-butted by a bigger blue .
He made it outa there into deeper water and eventually to the boat where he was netted. First for the day, 1.75kg!
We stayed where we were, and I was the next to go on. What a great fight I was treated to on the 5 weight fly outfit. Again, black jaws came and bumped him away, but I let him run deep and guided him around a rock to the net. A new pb by 70 grams at 1.77kg!
You can see how shallow we were actually fishing
At the SAME spot still, Rudolph went on to the next Blue of the trip, this one tipping the scales at 1.80kg! little by little, they were getting bigger!
We had exhausted that spot, so we moved on a bit and had a go at a few other males but the water was a bit deep and they were hard to spot due to the discolouration caused by the still spawning carp.
I eventually found a nice agro male that didnt take too much convincing to attack my curly tail. What a fighter he was, making several hard runs and sending shockwaves up the rod with every head bump. Once landed, he was weighed in at 1.83kg, another new pb!!
Reviving for the release
I let Rudolph have the next turn, as two guys targeting dispersed blues at once isnt ideal.
I kept myself busy with a few barbel on my new baitcasting outfit, 10lb fluoro on an alpha tackle baitcaster and a cherrywood rod. Seemed to do the trick alright!
We cruised the banks looking for more victims, and found plenty of this, as Rudolph put it 'op 'n skinkbord'
The wind came up so we headed for a protected bay where we found a bunch more blues
I had one swim through my line and unfortunately he got foul hooked, at which time Rudolph hooked one inside a bunch of weed. double up! 1.77 and 1.78kg!
We moved to the next bay and found some, you guessed it, big blues! The wind was pumping now and Rudolph was a real gentleman and offered to keep the boat in position with the push pole while I tried to get another bite. Well I found one holding shallow and did my utmost to get this guy to bite. He slowly started getting irritated and started flapping his gills at my worm. I changed colour and size and he seemed more interested. i hit him on the head with the splitshot (not hard just to get his attention) and just when I started thinking he wouldnt, he did! VAS!!! The wind pulled us deeper and he gave an exceptional fight in the open water. A real champion fish and actually my favourite for the day. Over the 20 minutes I knew him it was like I built a relationship with the guy. the most rewarding catch of the day for me by far! 'Small'est too, 1.70kg (as big as my old pb)
we made an attempt at some carp but none really showed any real interest. Will save them for the ACC next month!
Our 'bag' of kurper went over 12kg, not bad for two guys in a single day! i donth think we will be repeating this performance any time soon
Thanks again to the owner and droomvanger for facilitating this great day on the water
