Ive been to Rhenosterkop twice now, the last time

J

Jake1

Senior Member
Ive been to Rhenosterkop twice now, the last time we caught more than 70 bass between 3 guys. It is a lot of fun to catch this many but not one was over 2kg,s. 

We did sight fishing with polaroids, and with no wind I could see how many bass there are- hiding in or near grass. Thousands,  it is unbelievable.

I saw a lot of people complaining on forums about anglers removing bass from Rhenosterkop dam. To be quite honoust I dont think these fisherman can made a dent in the population.

The only way to get quality fish (2kg+) will be by doing  the complete opposite of Catch and release. Removing of fish under 2kg should be encouraged at Rhenosterkop dam. If you dont know what to do with the fish, give it to the car guards, theyll never say no.

I would much rather catch 10 big bass a day than 20 small ones. Do you think it will work? This way of culling worked wonders to produce healthy 3kg+ bass in my own bass dam.


(ps- I havent removed any fish from Rhenosterkop yet)

 
 
R

Ryan

Sealiner
I agree - Selective harvesting is going to do so much for the system and make bassing in general better well the quality of the catch..

PS. I am the first to admit I remove small bass from all systems - amazing what a couple of small fish do for a guy begging at the robot's - at least theya re being put to good use..
 
S

sustan

New member
i agree to an extent ...but

once you give everyone the thumbs up to remove fish they start taking whatever they catch no matter what the size...bigger ones for themselves smaller for the car guards

i must admit though that we only caught one decent bass on our last trip a couple of weeks ago... howevert friends managed quite a few around 2-3kg... so im thinking we were not fishing the correct spots

 

 
 
R

Ryan

Sealiner
I honestly don't think it would make any difference taking out big ones too - culling should be indiscriminate.
But I can assure you you will catch 50 small ones for every 3kg+
 
B

basslover

Senior Member
I believe in catch and release, but proper culling is a very good way to keep a dam in pristine fishing conditions...i have read about culling and remember the best sizes to take out is fish over 600gm to around 1.5KG this way you keep the small ones there for bait for the bigger fish as bass are carnivorous...Thats my 2C
 
J

Jake1

Senior Member
sustan wrote: "..........once you give everyone the thumbs up to remove fish they start taking whatever they catch no matter what the size...bigger ones for themselves smaller for the car guards....."

I honoustly dont think anglers can put a significant dent on the population at Rhenosterkop dam- there is too many catch and release guys (mostly me included.) I agree with Ryan, only 1 bass out of 50 or possibly more is over 3kg.

Overpopulation of bass is realy bad for a system, the Kurper population, their main staple diet (except for small bass) definitely wont/cant be sustained.

I think by now we all can see Rhenosterkop is very favourable for bass, possibly the most favourable in South Africa -ideal climate, lots of structure, baitfish etc.

This dam definitely has the possibility to become South-Africas next "Lake Mteri" but unfortunately only if we can "think out of the box" -and controll the population of bass....My 2c
 
S

sustan

New member
in the winter months this year we were easily able to put 5-10 2kg+ bass on the boat...and about 20-30 between 800 and 2kg. we caught very few smaller bass. Im not sure why that is, maybe the bigger ones have moved to different places or something.

You say there are too many catch and release guys? i dont know about that. If you go during the week or wait until just before dark all the hook and cook okes come off the water. id say about just under half the guys who fish there take fish home. no matter what size iv seen PLENTY 2-3kg bass taken home. ( im not really against culling some smaller bass but hate to see any bass over 1.5kg removed)

Iv been there easily over 20 times and have pulled a few nets out. i have never seen one bass in them. Always big kurper and smal carp (over 30 per net all alive). The kurper do not stay as shallow as they do in RDW, you dont really see the bigger ones. if you see a net pull it out! No one is going to do anything! there is normally no one for miles.

 
 
B

BTTB

Senior Member
I have never been to this place so I am not qualified to comment.
I think the operative word is "culling" like you would do with Elephant, Kudu or whatever species of animal you wish to reduce the numbers of.
Open the area for an experimental week or month and allow people to take their catches home and then close it again.
During this period the process can be monitored under the eye of the authorities who can have the power to close the culling period if they think enough fish have been taken or the cull is not working for some or other reason.

My 2 cents.
 
S

sustan

New member
@BTTB this would never work at rhino head. The dam is in the middle of NOWHERE! The authorities dont give a rats arse about the dam as proven by the amount of gill nets (authorities have been contacted about this) and lack of facilities etc. I have never seen any form of authorities at the water to see whats happening, only the guy at the gate which is about 2km from the water. I have never seen a police boat or whatever you call it. Your craft can look like a bathtub with paddles...they dont care. There is not even a fence around the dam. There is a fence around the nature reserve which is where you launch your boats and anyone seems to be able to walk in and out as they farm cattle in it.

Seasoned bass fisherman will have to take it upon themselves to do the culling. It would mean that on my last trip i would have taken close on 90 fish home :/ I would not have felt very good at all killing 90 fish

 
 
B

BTTB

Senior Member
sustan wrote:
@BTTB this would never work at rhino head. The dam is in the middle of NOWHERE! The authorities dont give a rats arse about the dam as proven by the amount of gill nets (authorities have been contacted about this) and lack of facilities etc. I have never seen any form of authorities at the water to see whats happening, only the guy at the gate which is about 2km from the water. I have never seen a police boat or whatever you call it. Your craft can look like a bathtub with paddles...they dont care. There is not even a fence around the dam. There is a fence around the nature reserve which is where you launch your boats and anyone seems to be able to walk in and out as they farm cattle in it.

Seasoned bass fisherman will have to take it upon themselves to do the culling. It would mean that on my last trip i would have taken close on 90 fish home :/ I would not have felt very good at all killing 90 fish

 
Click to expand...
I see.
Interesting place. Must be great fun catching all that fish.
Sound a bit remote. What are the facilities like. Can you camp over?

What would one do with 90 bass anyway? :p
 
C

chad 001

New member
No Facilities, and camping not a good idea, we have had friends held up by gun point there, there is an informal settlement just on the other side of the dam.
We have seen locals walk though the veld with hunting dog's, and literally kill anything and everything that moves in there way

Still love going there, my pb kurper comes from that dam, some nice big cat fish aswell.
 
P

popperdotcom

Member
I understand there is possible need for limiting the population at times. But as soon as you hand it over to the public there will be people that abuse it -and within the decade we will need to stock it. Mteri got good because it was left alone. I get your point though.. Its not like water affairs are exactly on top of their game and managing our waters well. And the fishermen are often the people who really care about the water. Big bass eat small bass so taking small fish wont affect big bass numbers. If there is a lack of food because of population - it is the smaller bass that will struggle, not the bigger ones. It is self regulating surely? Regarding other species.. Well thats another question altogether, but there is little doubt that bass affect kurper population for example. That i definitely agree with. But killing bass to save them doesnt make sense. Maybe im completely off the mark here ?
 
B

bassing africa

New member
popperdotcom wrote:
Mteri got good because it was left alone. Regarding other species.. Well thats another question altogether, but there is little doubt that bass affect kurper population for example. That i definitely agree with. But killing bass to save them doesnt make sense. Maybe im completely off the mark here ?
Click to expand...

Have a look at Mteri or any Zim dam,they have great bass fishing as well as great kurper fishing. Bass is not killing the kurper numbers, a couple of years ago rhenosterkop was a great kurper fishing venue until the guys start abusing it, taking way more kurper than their limit allow. guys was telling everyone who wants to listen how they filled deep fridges over a weekend with kurper.

Everyone talking about culling needs to go to Rust de Winter now after all the "culling" 10 years ago RDW was fishing like Rhenosterkop is fishing at the moment, RDW can still be a great venue at times but it's not fishing the way it used to, even the average size have come down quite a bit in RDW.

Just let nature take care of itself, and it will take care of you with :wfish
 
J

Jake1

Senior Member
BA you said "Just let nature take care of itself, and it will take care of you "  Well if we did that we wouldnt have introduced foreign species in the first place...... or am I missing something? 
 
N

nutt

New member
Hi Guys

Firstly, Culling is a very contentious issue and has only proven to be successful when it has been controlled by authorities (Lake Fork in Texas was a prime example producing 4 of the top ten biggest bass ever caught in 15 years prior to 2001). So because there are no authorities that are concerning themselves with the sustainability of our resources (Nature Conservation included) this is not a good idea at all. Secondly it must be remembered that a bass only lives anything from about 8 to 16 years, this all depends on sex (Females live longer than males) and more importantly climate (i.e. bass live longer in a colder climate than a warmer one) and this is only if there are no other external pressures like fisherman, pollution etc. This is why dams fish in cycles of 8 to 10 years (i.e. the fishing is really good at a particular dam everybody goes there and kills the fish and suddenly it tapers to the point that no one fishes the dam because they don’t catch as many or any fish. Then they stay away for a couple of years and then suddenly reports of good fishing take them right back and the cycle repeats itself). It must also be remembered that when the bass population are reduced the fodder fish thrive because there is less predation, so some down turns are a blessing in disguise too.

 

When a dam like this fishes well it is prudent to remove mid size fish and if you can identify females and take them out all the better (because males work harder than the females during sporn, they do not live as long so you don’t want to cull too many of them as you could seriously affect the population). This reduces the pressure on the available food resources and ensures a continuation stock of bass when the older fish die.

The right course of action is to take the LIVE fish and stock dams which have experienced a downward trend in population which would serve well to boost the population in that system.

 

In this particular case to giving the car guards bass as food has helped you kill the fishery entirely because the guards are from that little informal settlement across the road and they now know how tasty bass are and it’s a source of free food. They are going to clean out the dam for you anyway; it won’t be long before you start seeing nets etc in the water there. So don’t worry about catching many small fish as there won’t be anything to catch in there in the near future. One just has to go to Inanda Dam in KZN for proof of this.

 

That’s my 2 Zim dollars worth. Love to hear comments.

 

Cheers

 

Nutt.    

 
 
S

sundance

New member
There is already a lot of nets in  Renosterkop. We took out 400 meters of nets last week. there were lots of kurper and carp in the nets
 
R

Ryan

Sealiner
Bass are native to N. America so no disrespect Nutt but comparing Texas to SA is of little relevance.

Have the bass in Inanda not shown a downturn due to the baitfish dissappearing because of explosive bass populations?

Anyways guess it will be left upto the individual it would be nice though if the anglers control bass populations before the authorities are left to it and their piscacides etc.

Basically I have no real answer other than a thumbsuck but things have to be tried mistakes need to be made and we need to learn from these to make and do things better.

My humble 2c
 
I

Icepack

New member
Well said nutt!!!!!!!

I just hope that more people see things the way you do and dont think that they are Sir David Attenborough and know how to solve our fishery problems.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top