Hi there guys. Im looking for more info on donalds

[RiaanGerlach]

Hi there guys. Im looking for more info on donaldson dam. We are looking to go there over the festive season for 4 days and want to know is it open for anybody to fish? How is the facalities? Ablution and water and showers? All recent info of the lower lake and so on?
Any info will be highly appreciated.

 

[JohannM]

I doubt you will still be able to get a booking for December.

We had an event there in October where we caught 2.5 tons of carp in 2 days, boilies only.

Hope it helps

 

[RiaanGerlach]

Hi there Johan. Luckily I got a booking. After a long and hard search I got the contact details. Its an impressive number you cought for 2 days. What stands did you fish on and what type and flavour boilies? And what was your groundfeed?

Thank you for your reply.

 

[Boerseun123]

Hi Guys check my post, http://www.sealine.co.za/view_topic.php?id=96071&forum_id=33

I was there this past weekend, and there was some open stands.
I only used a tiger nut with a fake maize on the hair.
Ground bait was: tigers, hemp, chickpeas.

this weekend the guys with boilies caught almost nothing

Water, showers, toilets ---BAD
It was awesome fishing, hope this helps.

 

[RiaanGerlach]

Dankie Boerseun vir jou reply. Ons gaan einde desember. Hopelik vang ek ook iets. Gaan maar alles doen soos die pro's se en duim vashou.

Waardeer jou info.

 

[VinceM]

Boerseun123 wrote:

Hi Guys check my post, http://www.sealine.co.za/view_topic.php?id=96071&forum_id=33

I was there this past weekend, and there was some open stands.
I only used a tiger nut with a fake maize on the hair.
Ground bait was: tigers, hemp, chickpeas.

this weekend the guys with boilies caught almost nothing

Water, showers, toilets ---BAD
It was awesome fishing, hope this helps.

Pop your tigers with corn etc. and fish one hand very tight over your hookbait. if seen guys dumping in buckets and blanking. what swim u booked ?

 

[VinceM]

RiaanGerlach wrote:

Hi there guys. Im looking for more info on donaldson dam. We are looking to go there over the festive season for 4 days and want to know is it open for anybody to fish? How is the facalities? Ablution and water and showers? All recent info of the lower lake and so on?
Any info will be highly appreciated.

Give Johan at GT a call their bait is dominating Donnies. They have weekends coming up to fish and learn how to fish boilies ..If it wernt for work projects I would have gone there.. to fish with them

Give him a call he will advise on what/how,where etc.
Be humble and keep at it.

 

[RiaanGerlach]

Hi there Boerseun. Ive booked swin 1 and 2 for the weekend and we move to swim 15 and 16 in the week.

Keep on. Fish on.

 

[RiaanGerlach]

Hi Vince. I booked swim 1 and 2 over weekend and move to swim 15 and 16 in the week. What do you meen with keeping one hand on the baits and blanking on baits?

Thank you.
Riaan.

 

[VinceM]

Keep your freebees close to your hook bait. if seen guys dumping buckets of feed at a time and wondering why the don't catch.. If u feed a swim for a coupe of days with say boilies u just need to put out a few free baits with your rig and the fish should pick it up with confidence. If u mass bait the fish will suspect the area and feed cautiously and find it difficult to find your rig between all that feed.

U can also try dropping your rig with the freebees and put out a few nuts. make them swim around so they are off guard. U should get a run..

Donnies is a pressured lake with guys fishing it weekend after weekend. so u will have to try methods they don't use.

And don't feed when u got fish in your swim. check for movement on the surface.

 

[JohannM]

I would not fish Donnies with a few freebies. Its fine with a particle approach but I doubt you will really get the fish going. When fishing boilies the fish feed aggresively and you are better off with a few kilos around your hookbait. Those carp patrol in shoals up and down the bank wiping out everything in their path looking for food, not particles.

We had 22 swims fishing in October and we could see how the fish move from swim to swim as they wipe out the baited areas.

If you have a spot going on Boilies and maybe some pellet and the fish are on, you can easily land 5 - 10 carp a day per angler.

When the dam is pressured fish seem to move down to the dam wall at swim 1. The guys fishing swim one in October caught 41 carp with 25 fish over 12kg in 48 hours with their biggest fish weiging 14.3kg.

That is the kind of average and tempo you want. Approaching that dam with particles will result in an average fish more in the region of 8kg. Deffinately not what we are after.

 

[JohannM]

Also, does it make sense to fish a dam with a particle if it has been pre-baited for you with boilies for free?

 

[JohannM]

Also, does it make sense to fish a dam with a particle if it has been pre-baited for you with boilies for free?

 

[carpoholic]

Johan,I agree with you that it is a good idea to keep fishing Donaldson with boilies from now on,after all the boilies being introduced there recently..fish will grow nicely this way.

On the other side I feel fishing particles at Donaldson will always give good results if fished correctly.I personally never blanked once at Donnies fishing particles on a regular basis over the past 5 years and cant recall a average caught on a session under 10kg.My best weekend session resulted in 4 fish over 14kg and many between 11-14kg,all on particles.

Two years ago my wife caught the biggest mirror,if not the biggest fish in Donnies at 17.76kg on particles,now a resident of top lake...

Donaldson for me is the easiest dam for some reason,fish population I reckon.One of my friends who fishes conventionally even caught fish between 11-13kg on mieliebom and dough...

Im convinced when the fishing is on,the amount of fish makes for carp gowing crazy and eating anything in site and this happens alot at Donnies.

 

[JohannM]

Agreed - Particles tend to produce good fish alot but mostly in the month before spawn and before winter.

Fish are alot less picky about what they eat then.

I also find Donaldson easy. The dam is way overstocked with carp. I agree with you that the large fish stock makes it an easy dam to fish.

Yes, I know about that mirror, it was caught at Top Lake on a DNA boilie last September at 44lbs.

 

[JohannM]

Did that fish good to be honest. He picked up 3 kilo's and is in great condition.

 

[VinceM]

Agree...

I found that this method(Handfull) of tigers helped me bank my first carp at Donnies. I had a few sessions blanking , Yet to fish boilies at this venue . Johan if u say a few kilos of boilies how do u spread them and what methods do u apply ? I really do struggle with boilies maby u can help me out with a few pointers on how to use them correctly ?

 

[VinceM]

VinceM wrote:

Agree...

I found that this method(Handfull) of tigers helped me bank my first carp at Donnies. I had a few sessions blanking , Yet to fish boilies at this venue . Johan if u say a few kilos of boilies how do u spread them and what methods do u apply ? I really do struggle with boilies maby u can help me out with a few pointers on how to use them correctly ?

I have only recently started to pick up on the fish and stopped blanking. So any new method is welcome ! Always room to improve.

 

[RiaanGerlach]

Hi there. Thank you all for all the feedback.
Ive got a price list from gt for the boilies. What flavour boilies must be feeded with and what flavour is for hook baits?

 

[JohannM]

You can fish any GT boilie in Donaldson. We have fed all of them and the fish will pick up any of them.

Keep it simple. Choose one or two boilies and fish them.

Do not combine with particles. Rahter combine with pellets.