Howzit ladies and gents?! I have some spare time o

[dorsalfin]

Howzit ladies and gents?! I have some spare time on my hands so I thought I might as well start my gallery.

I haven`t caught to many memorable fish but being a inland boertjie, I am working hard on changing that.

So the very first fish I can actually remember was a barbell I caught with the help of my father at our local dam, Kalkfontein. This was probably the fish that gave me the deadly ``fish-a-holic`` virus that most of us suffer from.
It was no monster but at that age, it was quite a big fish for me.

 

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Since then, I guite mastered the art of catching them catfish on bait from the side and have caught quite a few in my years of fishing for them. I have also put a few friends on some cats in Kalkfontein dam over the years.

 

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A fish that had my friend Wessel out of breath for some time.

 

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A few very early season fish from last year.

 

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OK, ok, last freshwater fish for a bit.

 

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So, when I was small, we did quite a few family holidays to mainly J-Bay but it took some time before we began getting some fish.

The first holiday I can really remember was this one during March-April at J-Bay. It was quite a good one as me and my dad got our first two garric, I landed my first in-ed, a small poensie, my pb cob and my brother got a nice cow.

For me,probably the most memorable fish for the trip was tis diamond of 40 odd kg I got from Kabeljous surf. It gave me a tussle of 45min on an old 400/1 and 20/40, .45mm mainline and a live mullet. I was so tired, at that age, I thought I was not going to see the next day.

 

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I also got my first garric the next day, same spot with a live mullet. Me and my father both landed one directly after each other.

 

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I also got my first Poensie, not big , but WOW, what a fight it was.

 

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A few minutes later, I also got my PB cob,dont know the weight, any guesses?

 

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So there on, J-Bay saw us almost every March-April. Never caught any huge fish there but got quite a few small raggies, a lot of shad, some cob, a few smoothound and gullies.

 

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My pb hound of 24odd kg.

 

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Pb gulley.

 

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Then, three years ago, I got my PB raggie for then. To be honest, I was in the clouds over this fish as the spot we fish has a lot of them and bigger but we cant seem to get them out as the terrain is extremely foul and they know exactly wat to do when hooked.

Going again this year and let me tell you, this time I am ready for them.

 

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So we decided to head down to the famous Splash rock that June-July to target some leeries but to no avail, that year the garric were very scarce when we got there. I was on with one briefly but lost it. Later that trip, I at least landed my first hammer.

 

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Next Year, we went back and I got my leerie, it was one of those ``my trip is made, I can go home now`` fish for me.

 

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We have done a few Transkei trips before this but never got really memorable fish but then, well, just say the ``tippie fever`` got me. Two years back, I managed to hook into 4 nice tippies within two days, arial displays, the worx, but terminal tackle was not prepared for them so the rest goes without saying. These 4 fish tought me some lessons and made me pay some school fees.

The very next day, 22k worth of rods and reels of me and my father was stolen, not a nice thing to happen in the middle of your trip.

 

[dorsalfin]

We have done a few Transkei trips before this but never got really memorable fish but then, well, just say the ``tippie fever`` got me. Two years back, I managed to hook into 4 nice tippies within two days, arial displays, the worx, but terminal tackle was not prepared for them so the rest goes without saying. These 4 fish tought me some lessons and made me pay some school fees.

The very next day, 22k worth of rods and reels of me and my father was stolen, not a nice thing to happen in the middle of your trip.

 

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So 2013 was the first Mazeppa trip I organized and although the fishing was not as expected, I at least got my first garric on artificial, a 16kg hammer and my father got the fish of the trip, a 214kg raggie.