Drift baiting for barble

Zane

New member
Dear Forum,

I was so busy at work that I failed to get a weekend off to fish for barble during the annual spawning bonanza.  I am really bummed.

So my only alternative is to adopt traditional drift bait fishing techniques from my stealth fishing ski.  The ski is equipped with a fish finder, so I wull be able to track structure and drop offs.

The venue that I will be fishing was the once smallmoth mecca of Cape Town, Voelvlei dam near Gouda.  Unfortunately, the barble ate all the bass and I would like to adapt my techniques.

For those of you who do not know the dam it has gentle sloping banks with a mixture of rock and sand with very little in the way of obstructions which makes it an ideal drift bait venue.

Furthermore the carp population has exploded resulting in the water changing from a 'lemon twist colour to the same clarity of strong coffee similar to that of the Vaal dam.

What makes it difficult to detect the barble is that they almost never surface and secondly that the wind almost always blows there, therefore limiting your visual ques such as on the Vaal river where it it is easy to spot the barble.

I plan to use a an Okuma bait runner reel with a six foot medium action spinning rod, sliding sinker with a single circle hook using either live vlei kurper, pilchard fillet or a carp head. 

The dilemma that I have is that

  •  I don't know at what depth I should fish [/*]
  • Whether I should drift down wind in a zig zag fashion [/*]
  • or if I should be looking for underwater pinacles and following the contours [/*]
  • or whether barble relay a unique shape on the fish finder.[/*]
I suspect that the guys who fish murky structureless lakes such as those in the southern Transvaal and the Free State will be able to give some useful advice.
 

wetfrog

Member
I fish at Voelvlei for barbel often, mostly from te bank. I find carp heads, chicken livers and carp fillets work very well. Youcan allso use artlure for then , either look for them in the shallows and use a loodkop or cast to rising fish with a crank bait or a lood kop. Here is one caught by my fissing partner 2 weeks ago with a loodkop.
 

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KarpKing

New member
I have seen that barbel are almost always on the sides of the channel you can take a zig zag over the channel till you find them then take a GPS mark and drift down the channel untill you go over that same spot you will definitly be hooked agian or just a few meters past that spot but you will get them gewaarborg. just make sure your drift speed is correct I have come to a conclusion that trolling with your motor against the wind is a whole lot better because you can control your speed and a slow drift is is the key to catching the bigger ones

(because the big one's are lazy and dont want to chase after a platanna so go slow)
 

mouse001

Senior Member
Hey guys ive driffed plenty for barble with great success but find that barble can be found a many different depths from 2mtr right up to 11 mtr. The trace is as follows +- 6/0 Diachi hook piece of .6 Mono +- 400mm on a swivel now i put a B 0 sinker running on my main line and tie the main line on the other end of the swivel.Works like a charm. Drift speed as slow as possible if you are drifting too fast use a Drogue anchor the one that looks like a wind sock.my favorite speed +- 0.7Km/H.
 

mouse001

Senior Member
Hi there @ Last the best bait is the Plattie nothing realy beats them ive also drifted with crab and also got a few fish but nothing like Mr Plattie.
 

@Last

Member
@mouse001, thank you for the reply, I once took one of my carp rods, with a sliding rietvlei, and on the hooks plenty of earthworm, drifted a few meters and hooked up on a nice barbel, started the boat and re-run the same area, got 3 barbel that same day. I've tried the same strategie again a few times after that day without any luck, that is hench me asking.
 

mouse001

Senior Member
Hi @Last
Maybe we need to hookup some time and ill show you where i drift a Vaal Dam the one day i got about 150Kg's of barble in 8 hours they were quite thick that day and i also need to test my new boat as i sold my witblits andv got myself a Supercat 520.Drifting is a lot of fun especially when the fish are on the go.
 

@Last

Member
Wow at last! :fswim Some pics of fish! Nice fish caught there mouseoo1.I think I'm in the early stages of fishfever! Can't wait for a change to go wet a line or two.:wfish
 
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