Kick-ass Bassfishing

[The Owner]

Last Sunday my father got a call from one of his friends, Andre Botha.  They talked a while when Andre mentioned that he was going to Renosterkopdam the following day and he wanted to know if I could join him.  My father asked me if I wanted to go and after looking at my schedule, I told him I would love to go - so it happend that Andre and me would be fishing Renosterkop the following day.:fishn

Arriving at the dam we were very satisfied with the weather as it was a hot sunny day and there was only a slight breese blowing on the dam.  We decided that we were only going for bass during this trip, even if we see plenty of other species.  Both of us are Artlure anglers and thus its very rare that we target only one specie on a day.  It would be a "dedicated bassfishingtrip"!  After launching we started by working an area close to the launch, the area consisted of a rocky point that went in far in to the deep from the shore. We both started by casting spinnerbaits, but with no success I switched to a weightless junebug superfluke. Still we got no bites, it wasn't long before we moved on.

As we drove in to the river we spotted some great structure, so we stopped and started casting with our plastics. The shore was full of submerged trees with watergrass making a shelter on each tree - the perfect place to find lots of bass.  Andre landed the first bass, a small one, but we both lost a few before he landed this one.  This is when the fun started cause with every cast we either missed a bass or caught one.    After landing Andre's bass I casted for the next tree, I waited for the weightless fluke to sink to the bottom...the line started picking up - BAM - I strike - on is the bugger! I quickly managed to get it away from the structure.  The bass wanted to submerge a few times, so I kept my rod down to prevent is from throwing my hook.  After a good fight Andre landed the bass.  I was very satisfied as I started the day with a bass of 2,5kg.  We caught about 40 bass for the day, and about 15 bass over 2kg's. The funny thing is that we saw a lot of carp feeding and could easily have caught them, they were eating between the grass on the shallows. Throughout the day we saw their mouths and heard them sucking on the surface, we also had a few that were eating in dipping range, but it was a basstrip. We saw 5 species for the day - barbel, carp, bass, blues and vleikurpers(the vleis was as big as my hand!). This is the best bassfishing I have ever experienced! Another tip I want to highlight is that I fished weightless and Andre fished both mojo and texas(both of us fished the same lure - a junebug superfluke), I caught most of the big bass while he only caught 2 big one's - so I think its safe to say that the big one's prefers the weighless setup.  Oh and the dam is swarming with bass between the size of 25-30cm.

But I must add that I think the dam has to much bass and they will have a negative effect on the smaller species in the long run.

My first bass for the trip and also the biggest one for the trip!

Andre with another big one - note the stomach full of eggs

Andre's biggest one - man did he enjoy this trip!!!

Note the scars on the side of this bass, these scars are inflicted by other bass during spawning

A good days fishing!

 

[HennieB]

Is it safe at Rhenosterkop? What size carp are there?
Nice report and congrats!

 

[The Owner]

Well its safer than it was a while back, in the weekdays there are very few people there. You still have to pay R80 to have someone watch your car and the police makes comes around everyday to see if everything is in order at the launch. I don't know how big the carp get at this dam, but I saw some carp that would weigh around 6kgs

 

[Enigma]

Lots and lots of Carp, barbel and kurper

Biggest we've landed is 17kg (Carp) and quite a few of 10kg+

Fishing from the bank is all but impossible because of all the snags in the water.

We make a feed spot in the morning, run around and catch bass and kurper on lures and then fish the feed spot in the afternoon. Average carp is 2-3kg and give a good pull but the big ones need a #7 - #9 hook with 25lbs braid and a strong mainline or you're going to end in the bushes and be cut off.

 

[The Owner]

This week Andre Botha and me made two trips to Renosterkopdam. The first trip was tuesday. My father joined and Ferous of Solomons joined us, we decided that ferous and me would fish from our boat and my father would join Andre on his boat. Tuesday the most of the bass were caught in the afternoon when the water's temp was at its highest, while in the mornings to my surprise the fishing was slow as the water was still cold. We again caught about 40 bass on each boat. I only managed to catch 1 over 2kg, Ferous caught lots of big bass. My father and Andre smacked the big bass and Andre caught his new PB of 2,5kg!(Atleast that what the crappy scale weighed it), most bass were caught on junebug superflukes and watermelon seed Mr. Jumbos.

Friday only me and Andre whent. The fishing was much more difficult and we had to work hard for our fish. Andre caught 1 bigg bass and about 5 small one's. I caught 1 big one and 1 small one. We saw a lot of bass, but they were lockjaw, probably because of all the fishingpressure. I lost a few bass, the bass had to be aggrevated before it would take a lure, therefor I used a frog that I worked very fast on the surface - it turns out bass easily throw the hook when using a frog. In both trips there were a lot of carps and barbel feeding, so if your going to Renosterkop I would urge you to go for these two species 'cause there is no fishing pressure on them at the moment. Tight Lines:fishn

Ferous's big bass

My biggest bass for the day

My father's biggest bass

And finaly the biggest bass of all three trips
Andre's new PB