I live 5 min from the dam so have been fishing there for years. At times it can be a difficult dam to fish but all in all its a wicked place.
The key is to get a good spot. Many years of moving along the dam bit by bit I discovered 4 spots that always produce fish.I will try and describe the best I can. Avoid going to the national park main entrance side if how ever you decide to go there keep going right until you get to the Bloekoms at he end.
By far the best place to sit is at the A zone if it is open - it is on the public side, as you go through the gate keep going left until the end by the fence. There is a gate that will allow you to go to the other side of the dam if you get to the first long drop hit the water, aim for the wind pump (If you are there you'll see what I mean)
If the gate is closed then the 2nd best spot is across of the A Zone. As you go along the dam as described above you will get to the fence. Looking at the water with the fence on your left you will see a rietbos on the right tis halfway between.
3rd best is right below the wash room. I normally use the bait bout here to get as deep as posable.
And lastly - go through the gate keep left by the first bunch of trees, you will see there is a braai underneath the trees, basically the first spot as you come in. If that spot as taken look for the small Willow tree a bit further(20 - 30 meters or so) sit on the left side of the tree.
Bait.
Dough made from dam water with brown sugar and few drops of vanilla and Caramel to add to the sweetness. I use this as a base and dip all kinds of kak on it.
Dips
Any vanilla based stuff works well, specially during the night. Had some good results on BG(Butter and Grape) Tiger Nuts. Also try Peanut Butter, Banana Jamaica, Plakker, Stiker, Honey and Vanilla (home mede) and TCP. Aniseed works well too I normally use it in my ground bait. Recently I used Green Lipped Mussel which I brought in the UK and caught massif muddy's on it.
Its important to keep the ground bait going in all the time. If you are there for a couple of days you will be out of breath by day 3-4.
The bigger fish will come out at night. At 16:00 put some harder baits on like boilies or tigers and just leave it alone.
And please catch and release . If you try to keep fish in your keep-net overnight the otters will eat all of them so it is no use, and carp does not taste good anyways.
Over the years i caught some big carps, with the biggest at 7kg. Both me and my dad hooked fish that we could not land, we think that it must be big barbers. I use quite light tackle, and plaid this thing for hours but could not land it......the one that got away.......
Hope this info help any other questions just email me
enjoy
Will try out your advice next time i go!
