Hi Guys, Can anyone tell met the water level % at

[Fishpaste]

steelpulse007 wrote:

Valuable information on this thread, thanx guys.

I've been wondering about how the bait affects the hook's functioning & effectiveness, how do we work that into the equation, or don't we? Unless it's rigged like a hair rig, the bait is on the hook, & may be covering a part of the hook, depending on how it's rigged. Chances are that it may affect how the hook behaves, since it's not hanging free. If the hook is proud, that probably means it doesn't turn or behave as it would if it were free hanging, on the line.

I believe I've missed hookups before because my bait was covering the hook awkardly...(one of those sessions where you learn from your stupid mistakes) & I still sometimes miss a hookup, even though I made dead sure the hook stands proud.

I was just wondering about this, any thoughts?

I'm no expert with big cats, but I agree with you as it is very easy for your hook to turn and lie frush/flat against the fish which the would obscure and hook and make setting it more difficult.
I have looked at a lot of threads and I might take a few cable ties and even toothpicks to experement with.
I see that some would use a cable tie treaded through the fish under and over the hook, the toothpick would be secured through the eye of the hook to stop it from "falling flat" agaist the body of the bait... Another ingenius way of the cable ties was used by hooing the fish through the top lip and then securing it woth a cable tie again by going over the hook and really strapping the part of the fishes mouth which in turn holds the hook in place.
Difficult to explain, and type on blackberry, but ill try and find the links to the threads I looked at.
Will put all in practice in March and see what works best.

 

[Fishpaste]

Just saw that one can also purchase “preserved blood plasma” and a “appetite Stimulant” for barbel.
This got me thinking…
I know that it is possible to use liquids in PVA bags! So in the same way that a Specimen Carp Angler would use a PVA bag to include particles/liquids, why not use it in conjunction with a fish head or even live bait!
In dams I don’t believe that there are any “strong” currents under water and when the PVA system dissolves the liquid would be surrounding the bait and any nearby cats should zone in on their meal or at least not be able to resist when swimming past.
From doing previous research about specimen carp angling and PVA systems I learned that your PVA dissolves a lot slower if coated with oil…so again, why not use a fishoil?!
I would bet that the PVA system would have a much better success rate than simply spraying/dunking your bait in an attractor/stimulant!

Interested to hear what you guys think?

 

[Mission Man]

Why would one want to wait for your pva bag to dissolve first, secondly putting the fish oil on would as you say lake longer to dissolve, all of this waiting is in essence slowing your bit rate down drastically.
just my opinion, i dont doubt that the contents wouldn't attract the cats, i'm just saying i wouldn't want to wait this long for my bait to be taken

 

[Fishpaste]

Mission Man wrote:

Why would one want to wait for your pva bag to dissolve first, secondly putting the fish oil on would as you say lake longer to dissolve, all of this waiting is in essence slowing your bit rate down drastically.
just my opinion, i dont doubt that the contents wouldn't attract the cats, i'm just saying i wouldn't want to wait this long for my bait to be taken

Look, my logic behind this are... You have your bait in the water anyway, and there is nothing stooping you from spraying your bait with an attractor whatsoever, but what I'm trying to say by using a pva system, you could potentially have a lot more stimulation right next to your bait. Simply just spraying your bait with an attractor, a lot would simply wash of as you drop your bait making a trail yes, but again this downwards trail could easily be disturbed by the motion of the water cased by wind and boats alike.
Also, if you fill your pva with an oil inside, the water would still start disolving from the outside in. We are also not talking about hours here for the disolving process otherwise not even the specimen carp guys would use it!

 

[Cheetha FS]

Dorsalfin uses a pill tube with chicken blood in and puts it in the carp heads mouth thus ensuring a slow release. Also as said if there are no cats close by when the bait is droped the sent will pull them in for a chow.

 

[nobbles]

This is the reason we bring in the Dead red blood spray. You would be surprised what is happening under the water, and in larger dams there are most certainly currents. You can see this on the watter in some weather conditions. Personally i target these areas as i know my scent trail will be moved further a field. Not as quick and strong current as the ocean but they are there. The on thing to remeber with barbel is they arent stupid. You can fool a small cat easily but a 20kg plus fish didnt get that size by accedent. Even wth our dead red, i play around at different waters that i know well and have found the right amount that works for me. I also spray my bait and wait for the liwuid to be absorbed by the flesh and gills and than take it our, this helps me get a better longer lasting scent trail fromt he spray. But again if i use to much the fish know something is off and leave the bait alone and go for a bait that is un-sprayed. Protein protein protein, this is what helps the fish build muscle and keep it alive, this is what you want to use a an atractant. Look at what baits work well for our barbel, Fish, baby chickens etc. All a bait that has a higher protein content. My feeling currently is that i would rather learn my water get a feel for a bite rate and pattern. Than if i havent had bites when i know i should of. Take my baits out, re-bait or re spray them and move them to site B. barbel, for me atleast, take a bit more thought and planning than carp, with the feeding spot you know more or less that with time you will attract and catch. The reverse is tru in my mind for barbel, if you havent found the right areas than get ready for a long frustrating session.

 

[Fishpaste]

nobbles wrote:

This is the reason we bring in the Dead red blood spray. You would be surprised what is happening under the water, and in larger dams there are most certainly currents. You can see this on the watter in some weather conditions. Personally i target these areas as i know my scent trail will be moved further a field. Not as quick and strong current as the ocean but they are there. The on thing to remeber with barbel is they arent stupid. You can fool a small cat easily but a 20kg plus fish didnt get that size by accedent. Even wth our dead red, i play around at different waters that i know well and have found the right amount that works for me. I also spray my bait and wait for the liwuid to be absorbed by the flesh and gills and than take it our, this helps me get a better longer lasting scent trail fromt he spray. But again if i use to much the fish know something is off and leave the bait alone and go for a bait that is un-sprayed. Protein protein protein, this is what helps the fish build muscle and keep it alive, this is what you want to use a an atractant. Look at what baits work well for our barbel, Fish, baby chickens etc. All a bait that has a higher protein content. My feeling currently is that i would rather learn my water get a feel for a bite rate and pattern. Than if i havent had bites when i know i should of. Take my baits out, re-bait or re spray them and move them to site B. barbel, for me atleast, take a bit more thought and planning than carp, with the feeding spot you know more or less that with time you will attract and catch. The reverse is tru in my mind for barbel, if you havent found the right areas than get ready for a long frustrating session.

I cannot argue with anything about the cats as I have tried none, but with regards to the carp comment I will definately disagree. With carp you will catch on a feeding spot yes but the quality won't be there if you have not, the same as cats, found the perfect location and structure. Specimen carping is not practised by a lot of anglers as it very expensive with a lot of specialised equipment and is usually not that productive in short fishing sessions.
I appreciate everyones views and opinions as it wouldn't be fun if we all agreed on everything and had nothing to learn from each other!

 

[Fishpaste]

1 week encounting.....::H

 

[Grunty]

Overheard on my boat last weekend ..................:
Hay DAD youve got a new reel ......... Shhhht

later Mom: Kids tell me you got a new reel ..... and then the fun started ----- & it wasnt my birthday!

 

[Grunty]

Does your dead red spray have garlic scent? I have a bottle of red bait dip colour that has a strong garlic smell (all we can get locally). Use it but not noticed a great difference in hook ups.

Anyone else had success with garlic as a flavourant?

 

[Fishpaste]

Grunty wrote:

Overheard on my boat last weekend ..................:
Hay DAD youve got a new reel ......... Shhhht

later Mom: Kids tell me you got a new reel ..... and then the fun started ----- & it wasnt my birthday!

Oooh, that must have been fun! My daughter is 2yrs now and I'm sure it is inevatable...
If you don't tell the Mrs it doesn't count as a lie...I actually bought a bass rod the other day and just worked it in between the old ones quietly!

 

[Fishpaste]

First Day – Thursday 21st March 2013
Left JHB at 02h00 in the morning and arrived at the dam at 05h30. It was our first trip to Bloemhof Dam (Sandveld) so we had a few navigational issues before we found the correct path towards the bridge side. We ended up sitting about 500m to the right of the boat launch. We made a feeding spot at about 200m with chick chick and whole corn kernels and proceeded to cast for the duration of the day and only landing small carp and grassies.

Second Day/Third Day – Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd March 2013
At around 10h00 on Friday morning we started dropping our lines around our feeding spot and it took no time at all to start pulling good size fish compared to the previous day. For the 2 days we landed not a single fish under the 3kg class with most averaging in the 4kg mark and the biggest being 6.5kg. We also landed 4 cats which two of them taken on corn (4kg and 6.5kg) and another two (4.5kg and 8kg) on grassie. I hair-rigged a large grassie head on another rod and had probably had 10 very short runs through the course of the session with no hook-ups so I can only imagine that they were small cats who could not get it down their throats…

All in all it was a very very pleasant experience at Bloemhof with temperatures soaring on Saturday to 36 degrees Celsius. There were not really any strong winds so it didn’t really affect us in any way.

Baits
All fish were caught on corn and floaties (Garlic, FX, Aniseed, Tutti Frutti) with the exception of 1 on boilies. Must admit that we didn’t try boilies for too long as we could clearly see that corn and floaties were the clear favorites. My brother also tried tigernuts without any takes…

 

[SARTJIE]

F1%hpa%te

I BELIEVE THAT NW IS ALOT BETTER TO TARGET CATS I WENT THERE AT DES FOR TWO DAYS , CARP WASN'T TO BAD -+ 1.5 BUT AT NIGHT IT WAS AN DIFFERENT STORY AS WE WERE UP THE WHOLE NIGHT ABOUT 40 BETWEEN ME AN MAY FRIEND I KNW IT DOESN'T SOUND POSSIBLE BUT WE DID SUCCEEDED TO GET THE BIG BOYS +-18KG

 

[Fishpaste]

SARTJIE wrote:

F1%hpa%te

I BELIEVE THAT NW IS ALOT BETTER TO TARGET CATS I WENT THERE AT DES FOR TWO DAYS , CARP WASN'T TO BAD -+ 1.5 BUT AT NIGHT IT WAS AN DIFFERENT STORY AS WE WERE UP THE WHOLE NIGHT ABOUT 40 BETWEEN ME AN MAY FRIEND I KNW IT DOESN'T SOUND POSSIBLE BUT WE DID SUCCEEDED TO GET THE BIG BOYS +-18KG

Hi Sartjie,
Did think on the way back that I might give NW a go on the next trip so that I have a comparison between the two stretches of water. Loved the dam!
Thanks for your input!

 

[SARTJIE]

Im going this long weekend ill give an update hopefully it successful 

see the photo below it was from the previous tip

 

[Fishpaste]

SARTJIE wrote:

Im going this long weekend ill give an update hopefully it successful 

see the photo below it was from the previous tip

Hi Sartjie,
Looks exactly like th ones I was after...but I thoroughly enjoyed myself under the carp.
I know you already said, but please give us a report back of your trip and even a couple of photos of your rigs, water depth and location at NW?
Much appreciated!

 

[XTN]

Dagsê manne en maninne,

Ek het bietjie gaan soek vir water levels op die damme, veral Bloemhof. Ek is geen expert op die gebied nie, maar dit lyk of Bloemhof bietjie sukkel (21%). Ek sal die links ook opsit waar ek die inligting gekry het, saam met grafieke.

Ons wil graag in Desember weer n draai daar maak, maar dit lyk nie goed nie.

Enige raad en bydrae sal waardeer word.

http://www.reservoir.co.za/
http://www.dwaf.gov.za/Hydrology/Daily/Default.aspx

 

[gpz]

Wat hengel betref is 20% nie 'n probleem nie (sommige mense reken dis beter), êrens in die 90's en hier rondom 2005 was Bloemhof so laag as 7%.
Die lae vlak beteken net mens kan nie so naby aan die water kamp nie en dat dit moeiliker is om by water uit te kom (veral by Sandveld).
Die SA Jnr. kampioenskappe gaan 6 - 14 Desember by Sandveld gehou word. Soos ek verstaan gaan hulle waarskynlik die stuk tussen die jetty en die brug gebruik, so as jy daardie tyd Sandveld toe wil gaan sal jy Vetrivier kant moet sit.

Hier is 'n foto van Sandveld wat oor die naweek geneem is.

 

[XTN]

Dankie gpz !

Ons beplan om die 26ste tot 2de jan te gaan, so ek glo ook dat die dam baie besig sal wees oor daai tyd. Ons probeer maar om weer so naby as moontlik aan die brug te sit. Laas jaar was die dam op 55%, en nou 18%(vanoggend bevestig met kantoor), so ek naam ons sa; beslis 'n verskil sien aan die water level, maar soos die kantoor dame bevestig het..."die vis loop mooi" hehehe.

Weereens dankie. Indien jy nog fotos het, van die hoe die dam nou lyk, kan jy dit gerus "post".

hoop die groottes loop!

groete

 

[gpz]

Oorkant Sandveld