Regarding my
BIG BASS caught on the heat of the day theory...
Here is a webpage and info I saved some time ago from another African fishing site.
This page discusses the big Zim bass records and history etc.
NOW, READ THE TIMES IN THE COLLUM SHOWING THE CATCH INFO ETC OF THE RECORDS...
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ZIM BASS RECORD
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[align=left][/align]Probably the most captivating and sought after subject on every Bass fisherman’s mind - even stronger than mere numbers of bass or tournament winnings - is the thought of one day catching a record fish, or more so, a world record fish. Well, Africa’s Basser’s, we are not far off the mark now.
On Wednesday 8th August 2001, 19 year old Danyal Patel of Buffalo Range in Zimbabwe’s Lowveld hooked and landed a bass that is probably amongst the top forty biggest bass landed on the rod and reel in the world. Danyal’s fish, caught at noon, regurgitated a bream of 250 grams which would have counted toward overall weight. After the midday catch, the fish was only weighed at 6pm that evening.
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Having caught and released several fish over 10 pounds and one topping the scale at 14.8 pounds before, he knew when he hooked it that this one was different, and a trophy worthy of keeping. The fish viciously attacked a chartreuse Ark buzz bait with a clacker fished on 17 pound line using a 6’6" graphite rod. Not only does he have a knack of catching big fish but constantly runs rings around his Dad who employs him as a cattleman, an occupation which affords him ample opportunity for a cast or two without being noticed. This time he got caught!
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Danyal with his new All Africa Record bass weighing 7,995kg.[/font][/align][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
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Danyal’s fish had similar measurements to the Nhamo Mkondo’s previous all Africa record of 7.295kg (16lbs 3 oz) which has stood for three years. The latter having a length of 27" and Danyal’s having a length of 27" and a 21.5" girth. The fish was weighed on two separate certified butcher scales and witnessed by three senior Bass Master Members.
What’s even more intriguing is the fact that Danyal caught his fish off the bank in a storage dam no bigger that three rugby fields in total area, with an average depth of 5ft. The dam, which will remain anonymous for obvious reasons, is littered with crab scales along the shore line and has abundant populations of tilapia and Limpopo sardines. More importantly, it has a good cross section of bass - fingerlings, wristlings, through to five pounders and as proved - records.
The Lowveld is renowned for producing big bass. In actual fact Danyal’s elder brother Zane Patel, landed a fish in 1987 on Lone Star Ranch which was an unofficial record. Unfortunately, not realising its significance he gutted it, but it still beat the previous Lake Kyle record of 9 pounds. Some mention was made in the press of bass caught exceeding 10 pounds. Later Dave Duncan of Hippo Valley also set a new record, but who knows what lies beneath that maze of water ways?
Several of us this year have made repeated trips to the Lowveld with the hopes of landing a record bass. I personally made six trips, lured by Danyal’s haunting phone calls of big fish, one of which he caught topping 14.8 pounds in July of this year. Special mention must be made to Danyal’s brother Zane, Derek Richter and Glen Mac Harrison for realising Danyal’s potential as an all species angler and encouraging him to fish with Tom Oxden-Willows’ juniors, where he has received his Junior Colours. More importantly we compliment the Lowveld anglers for their “labour of love†in translocating bass throughout the drought, floods and farm occupations in order to protect their future.
In my quest for a record, I visited Bangala Ranch, and was disgusted to say the least at what I found. At one time this was a prime fishery for both bass and bream, and a game ranch of international note boasting most antelope species including over hundreds of sable. Today, all have gone and the ranch laid waste through burning, poaching and tree cutting. We saw not one bream and all of the 50 or so bass we boated weighed only a third of what they should have. Every ant hill around the dam had a fire, a fish rack and a dugout as unsustained poaching is rife. The only survivors were the hippos and crocodiles and who knows how long they will last.
[align=left]With little or no Parks intervention in the management of bass in Zimbabwe, we can be proud of our achievements, but nevertheless we should not develop a laid-back attitude because our dams are productive... now! We should elevate bass fishing in Zimbabwe and Africa to the stage where we can earn enough foreign currency to encourage proper Parks management of this valuable resource. Only then would we be able to save such dams as Chivero, Mazvikadei and even prime venues like Albert Falls in South Africa .[/align]
[align=left]Several states in the USA have developed brood-stock hatcheries where only bass over 13 pounds are loaned to the system and later released by their owners. The genetics of these fish, including fish of over 18 pounds, are vital to produce world record fish. Our brood-stock of fish in the 10 pound range has made Lake Manyame what it is today. A world record fish, if kept alive would make some lucky guy a multi millionaire overnight.[/align]
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A true appreciation of the record fish’s size compared to Danyal’s young nephews - Junaid and Joshua Young.[/font][/align][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
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I recently fished at Albert Falls Dam in Natal RSA with over 600 competitors and was sad to see such a decline in catches. This may be due to several factors other than poor weigh bay management (lack of oxygenated water while queueing for 30 minutes or more at the weigh-bay), thus increasing the normal 25% tournament mortality figures to maybe 30%, which don’t normally show up till some time after the event. This leads us to believe that cast for cash competitions aren’t as valuable unless the waters can sustain this sort of impact annually. For some reason, fish definitely become stunted when handled consistently.
Ex-Zimbabwean Bass Founder, Gerry Leach who was responsible for introducing Florida strain large mouth bass to Zimbabwe, is tirelessly working to improve and promote bass angling in Southern Africa. He has offered to enter Danyal’s fish on to their web site at
http://www.sa.angling.com and is obviously proud to see his efforts of years gone by bearing fruit.
I can assure you that with the bass angler’s management policies, all eyes will be focused on Zimbabwe sooner than most have predicted. Fish in excess of 18 to 19 pounds are there and certainly some of the measurements received for a 20 pound 12 ounce fish - measuring 27" x 27" - will move us closer to the world record mark of 22 pounds 4 ounces. This American caught fish measured 32" long with a 28" girth.
Where next? Your guess is as good as mine but its all a question of timing...
Editor’s Note. - A record application for Danyal Patel’s fish has been submitted to Howard Voss, keeper of the Zimbabwe National Angling Records, and is expected to be approved as the new Zimbabwe and All Africa record bass. For easy reference, we once again publish the table of past Zimbabwe Record
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Date [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
Time [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
Place [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
Angler W[/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
eight / [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
Length / [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
Girth[/font]
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*1953 [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
Mushandike, Masvingo [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
J. Erwing [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
3,771kgs[/font]
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*08/10/70 [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
Muturikwe, Masvingo [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
A. Hodgeson [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
3,997kg[/font]
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*--/08/77 [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
Muturikwe, Masvingo [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
G. Banks [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
4,040kg[/font]
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-/--/87 [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
Two Trees, Mhangura [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
M. Williemse [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
4,290kg[/font]
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30/08/87 [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
Private Dam, Shamva [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
H. Duplessis [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
4,915kg [/font]
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18/03/89 [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
4pm [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
BlackmoreVale,Cheg. [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
J. VanDiepen [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
4,947kg [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
57cm [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
51cm[/font]
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25/01/90 [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
6.30pm [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
Chiredzi [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
D. Duncan [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
5,150kg [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
66cm [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
51cm[/font]
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21/06/90 [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
2.30pm [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
Two Trees,Mhangura [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
R. McNeilage [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
5,500kg [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
67cm [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
50cm [/font]
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09/12/90 [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
2.30pm [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
BlackmoreVale,Cheg. [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
E. Smit [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
5,610kg [/font]
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10/10/94 [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
3.30pm [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
Biri River, Selous [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
M. Draga [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
6,275kg [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
67cm [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
53cm[/font]
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21/09/96 [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
12.45pm [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
Priv. Dam,Centenary [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
B. Buckby [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
6,500kg [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
61cm [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
57cm[/font]
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05/07/98 [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
11.15am [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
Manyame Dam,Darwendale [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
N. Mkondo [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
7,295kg [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
67cm [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
56cm[/font]
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08/08/01 [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
12.00 [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
Private Dam, Lowveld [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
R. Patel [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
7,995kg [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
67cm [/font][font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica"]
54,5cm
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*These fish were the original Northern strain, a smaller, slower growing fish first introduced in 1932. The introduction of the faster growing Florida strain in 1981, and its cross breeding with the original strain, can account for the larger record fish from the late eighties onward.
Looks to me like a pattern? Big bass feeds on the heat of the day?
Regards
Herman
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