jmgravenor
Sealiner
Howzit guys,
Bare with me as this is a report on my season since I got back from MRU.
I've finally started with uni and it's keeping me real busy. Already started getting assignments in the first week which I was definitely not expecting. Anyway, here goes...
I arrived in SA beginning September just so amped to fish. Having not caught a bass for 6 months. I was fortunate enough to be able to skipper the juniors at Clan for their divisional. It was an epic weekend although I was sick as a dog. Having a fever, sore throat etc. Anyway, still got to catch a couple smallies which was epic. Also got to catch up with friends which was cool too.
Still in pjs. Decided I was going to use my Falcon spinning setup more often and man oh man it's an excellent rod.
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And here's a pic of just a social night fish. Caught using a Revenge Spinnerbait.
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Following the junior weekend away was the first KBT of the season to be held at Clan. It was a two day event and I was still feeling terrible. Fever was hitting me hard. I drove up with Jason Fraser and we stayed with Marc Bywater in his chalet which made it so much more pleasant. I was convinced to go to De Kelder by Jason with me believing that we'd only spend an hour or so there as I needed to sleep. Long story short I went to bed at 4:30 feeling the worst I have ever felt. I definitely should have skipped that. I got an hour sleep until we got up and arrived at the KBT site to launch. It was honestly the worst having to fish for hours in the heat and the lack of sleep as well as the fever were not making things any better. I managed bag with a SPRO crank and BBB triple tail which is what I was aiming for.
After day 1, I contemplated fishing day 2 but it was just too much. I needed to rest. So I asked Malcolm if it was ok if I didn't fish day 2 and all was good. I was actually looking forward to it if it hadn't been for lack of sleep as well as sickness.
The next time I was on the water, it was oh so memorable. I received a call and was told to go fish on the Thursday or Friday. I can't actually remember now. But this was going to be the day. I called my buddy Matthias and he was in on the mission. So we left early the next day and arrived at the venue still pitch dark. We set up and waited for it to light up a bit. Once we were on the water, within my first 5 casts, I had a fish on the Jewel swim jig. We looked at each other and thought it was going to be an epic day. Hours went by. We fished for maybe 4 hours with only 12 or so fish to show for our efforts. We made our way to the opposite end of the dam and the bite just switched on. It was insane. Matthias lost 2 massive fish on his Jewel Swim Jig and BBB Cane Thumper which snapped him off. I had to lend him one of mine. We approached a piece of structure sticking out of the water and I made a cast between it and a bush. BAM. On. 700grammer. Second cast same spot. BAM. On. 1.4kg. Third cast same spot. BAM. On. 2kg model. Absolutely insane.
Matthias didn't want to miss out so he cast across my spot and nailed 2 smaller fish. After that moment I moved on about 20-30metres away and made a cast to some visible structure. BAM. ON AGAIN. 1.5kg model. Second cast same spot. BAM. ON. 2kg model. This day was just getting better. Matthias and I fished along some submerged structure that went out towards the deeper water, casting our Jewel swim jigs over and bringing it through the structure. It was madness. We hooked into fish after fish. Some sub-kilo and most fish over a kg. We approached the edge of the structure and I made a cast over the structure once more before I was to move on. As I retrieved the swim jig - it was an almost perfect scene - I watched my line as it cut through the water coming towards me and out of nowhere, I big wake, as you would see in something like Jaws, came towards me. I slowed the retrieve a fraction and was on. For a fish to strip 50lb braid like it was nothing is impressive. I watched this monster attempt to jump a few times but it was just too heavy. I lip-landed her and man I thought it would hit the 5kilo mark. It was weighed and came in at 4.09kilos. A New PB from 3.3kgs. What a pleasure.
We took some pics and got back to fishing. The bite died down as the sun came out so we made our way back to the car and I slept for about half an hour and Matthias just did his own thing. After about 2 hours of being at the car. We launched once again and headed back down the dam. The wind started picking up and so did the bite. I headed straight back to the area where I got the 4kilo model and proceeded to swim the jig through the structure. Fish after fish came out and very nice sizes too. Between 1.3-1.6kilos. Once I was sure I had covered all the structure, I made my way back to the edge where I caught the monster. I was still telling myself: okay, one more cast and I'm going to head back. With that being said I cast my swim jig out there and retrieved it. The swim jig was in front of me and I lifted it out. It was maybe 5cm out of the water when I saw a massive green flash and received a splash of water in my face. ON. AGAIN. This boy stripped the 50b braid even more than the previous 4kg. Yoh. There is no closer thing you get to a heart attack than that. Geez-louise. I lip-landed it and shouted for Matthias to come over and take pics. It was even bigger than the last PB that morning. I told him to catch me a dink quickly just to show the fish in proportion to a dink. I turned to get my scale and...nothing. It was't there. I left it in the car. Who on earth knows why. I knew that this fish was a new PB though. Not by much. 2 PB's over 4 in a day? Not many can say that they have had that experience.
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The next KBT was at Poortjies. A 2-day event. It was extremely hot but managed bag on both days using BBB Trick Stick, Jewel Swim Jig paired with a BBB Cane thumper and BBB Fighting Frog. Nice dam but fishing's getting tougher. Managed a fourth place which was nice.
The KBT after that was held at Bulshoek. I went up with my girlfriend and my friend Ryan. It was an awesome 2 day event with really good food being made by my girlfriend and the fishing was quite ok too. Nice venue. I just absolutely hate the flies though. That was terrible. Other than that it was nice with my fish coming off a SPRO fat Papa, BBB Triple Tail minnow, BBB trick stick and BBB Fighting Frog! After the comp we went off to Clan to meet up with some friends and camped there for 2 days. Which was epic!
I started uni and was overwhelmed by the workload so don't have much time to fish socially. The following KBT was once again at Poortjies. Just for the day. The dam was low and fishing was tough. I managed a bag but couldn't get into a decent fish. The partner I went up with managed a 2nd place at his first KBT so well done to him! The baits I had success on were BBB fighting frogs and BBB Trick Sticks.
After that, I was invited by a buddy of mine to fish a private venue. On arrival, this place looked amazing. I was so privileged to have been invited as this dam looked promising. Once we had set up, I didn't know where to go and just decided I would explore. We decided to hit the opposite bank and start there. I tied on a new colour BBB Cane Thumper I had received from Brandin(Shot bru!), and fished it on my Falcon Cara set up with 14lb Sunline. On the 3rd or 4th cast(It was definitely under 5 casts), my buddy told me that I placed it perfectly as there was a laydown exactly where I had cast the Cane Thumper. I looked back at the spot and my line was off to the side. GAME ON! When I struck, initially I thought it was a good fish of 2.5kilos as it jumped. It jumped again next to my friend and he started swearing. It jumped next to me...and then I understood why he panicked. This is the strongest bass I have ever caught. It dove down deep, stripping line. 1, 2, 3 times! I finally lip-landed her. I can proudly say that I remembered my scale this time. A 10.5lb SLAUNCH. Yes please thank you.
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The rest of the day was epic. Cloud cover. SPRO Frogs. SPRO Cranks. BBB Cane Thumpers and BBB Fighting Frogs. It was amazing once the cloud cover set in. Especially for my friend. He was getting hit left, right and centre. And he managed 3 or 4 fish over 2kilos. It was a memorable day. We were starving at midday as we had miscalculated the amount of food to bring. So we got a hold of a friend of my friend. And he got us some pies. Lifesaver. The day couldn't have been any better.
The most recent KBT was held at the Breede. I wasn't sure what to expect of it. On arrival, the river was full of grass. Once we had launched, I decided to head downstream. I managed a fish quite early. Unfortunately.. I got off my kickboat to wiz and my one flipper went in and sank away. So I had to kick 2.5 or 3kms back upstream. That wasn't fun. I managed to get bag towards 10AM. Once I had finally gotten back, it was just nice to chat with Snowball and everyone else to hear how their day was. It was a nice event with Vaughn(Who I drove up with) coming second. Well done bru!
The baits I primarily use are Big Bite Baits. Baits that just catch fish. There's no doubt about it. The rods I use are Falcon Cara and Bucoos. Amazing rods. Sensitive. Light. Gets the job done. I would recommend it to anyone looking to upgrade! Line...the best line I have ever used...Seaguar InvisX. Extremely strong with very little memory. You won't look back once you try it. All these products I mention are available at Ol' Bigmouth and Outdoors in Durbanville.
I want to say a huge thank you to my sponsors, Brandin and Wayne from Outdoors 365 Equipment for their ongoing support. You guys have helped me step up my game drastically. Thank you.
Also a big thanks to Malcolm and Andrew for organising the KBT. It's an awesome series guys. Keep it up.
I apologise if the report wasn't very detailed. I'm actually in class now. So yeah, I should probably get back to focusing on Public Relations. The next KBT will be at Clan. I just hope the fishing's good! See you guys there!
Bare with me as this is a report on my season since I got back from MRU.
I've finally started with uni and it's keeping me real busy. Already started getting assignments in the first week which I was definitely not expecting. Anyway, here goes...
I arrived in SA beginning September just so amped to fish. Having not caught a bass for 6 months. I was fortunate enough to be able to skipper the juniors at Clan for their divisional. It was an epic weekend although I was sick as a dog. Having a fever, sore throat etc. Anyway, still got to catch a couple smallies which was epic. Also got to catch up with friends which was cool too.
Still in pjs. Decided I was going to use my Falcon spinning setup more often and man oh man it's an excellent rod.
-
And here's a pic of just a social night fish. Caught using a Revenge Spinnerbait.
-
Following the junior weekend away was the first KBT of the season to be held at Clan. It was a two day event and I was still feeling terrible. Fever was hitting me hard. I drove up with Jason Fraser and we stayed with Marc Bywater in his chalet which made it so much more pleasant. I was convinced to go to De Kelder by Jason with me believing that we'd only spend an hour or so there as I needed to sleep. Long story short I went to bed at 4:30 feeling the worst I have ever felt. I definitely should have skipped that. I got an hour sleep until we got up and arrived at the KBT site to launch. It was honestly the worst having to fish for hours in the heat and the lack of sleep as well as the fever were not making things any better. I managed bag with a SPRO crank and BBB triple tail which is what I was aiming for.
After day 1, I contemplated fishing day 2 but it was just too much. I needed to rest. So I asked Malcolm if it was ok if I didn't fish day 2 and all was good. I was actually looking forward to it if it hadn't been for lack of sleep as well as sickness.
The next time I was on the water, it was oh so memorable. I received a call and was told to go fish on the Thursday or Friday. I can't actually remember now. But this was going to be the day. I called my buddy Matthias and he was in on the mission. So we left early the next day and arrived at the venue still pitch dark. We set up and waited for it to light up a bit. Once we were on the water, within my first 5 casts, I had a fish on the Jewel swim jig. We looked at each other and thought it was going to be an epic day. Hours went by. We fished for maybe 4 hours with only 12 or so fish to show for our efforts. We made our way to the opposite end of the dam and the bite just switched on. It was insane. Matthias lost 2 massive fish on his Jewel Swim Jig and BBB Cane Thumper which snapped him off. I had to lend him one of mine. We approached a piece of structure sticking out of the water and I made a cast between it and a bush. BAM. On. 700grammer. Second cast same spot. BAM. On. 1.4kg. Third cast same spot. BAM. On. 2kg model. Absolutely insane.
Matthias didn't want to miss out so he cast across my spot and nailed 2 smaller fish. After that moment I moved on about 20-30metres away and made a cast to some visible structure. BAM. ON AGAIN. 1.5kg model. Second cast same spot. BAM. ON. 2kg model. This day was just getting better. Matthias and I fished along some submerged structure that went out towards the deeper water, casting our Jewel swim jigs over and bringing it through the structure. It was madness. We hooked into fish after fish. Some sub-kilo and most fish over a kg. We approached the edge of the structure and I made a cast over the structure once more before I was to move on. As I retrieved the swim jig - it was an almost perfect scene - I watched my line as it cut through the water coming towards me and out of nowhere, I big wake, as you would see in something like Jaws, came towards me. I slowed the retrieve a fraction and was on. For a fish to strip 50lb braid like it was nothing is impressive. I watched this monster attempt to jump a few times but it was just too heavy. I lip-landed her and man I thought it would hit the 5kilo mark. It was weighed and came in at 4.09kilos. A New PB from 3.3kgs. What a pleasure.
We took some pics and got back to fishing. The bite died down as the sun came out so we made our way back to the car and I slept for about half an hour and Matthias just did his own thing. After about 2 hours of being at the car. We launched once again and headed back down the dam. The wind started picking up and so did the bite. I headed straight back to the area where I got the 4kilo model and proceeded to swim the jig through the structure. Fish after fish came out and very nice sizes too. Between 1.3-1.6kilos. Once I was sure I had covered all the structure, I made my way back to the edge where I caught the monster. I was still telling myself: okay, one more cast and I'm going to head back. With that being said I cast my swim jig out there and retrieved it. The swim jig was in front of me and I lifted it out. It was maybe 5cm out of the water when I saw a massive green flash and received a splash of water in my face. ON. AGAIN. This boy stripped the 50b braid even more than the previous 4kg. Yoh. There is no closer thing you get to a heart attack than that. Geez-louise. I lip-landed it and shouted for Matthias to come over and take pics. It was even bigger than the last PB that morning. I told him to catch me a dink quickly just to show the fish in proportion to a dink. I turned to get my scale and...nothing. It was't there. I left it in the car. Who on earth knows why. I knew that this fish was a new PB though. Not by much. 2 PB's over 4 in a day? Not many can say that they have had that experience.
-
-
-
The next KBT was at Poortjies. A 2-day event. It was extremely hot but managed bag on both days using BBB Trick Stick, Jewel Swim Jig paired with a BBB Cane thumper and BBB Fighting Frog. Nice dam but fishing's getting tougher. Managed a fourth place which was nice.
The KBT after that was held at Bulshoek. I went up with my girlfriend and my friend Ryan. It was an awesome 2 day event with really good food being made by my girlfriend and the fishing was quite ok too. Nice venue. I just absolutely hate the flies though. That was terrible. Other than that it was nice with my fish coming off a SPRO fat Papa, BBB Triple Tail minnow, BBB trick stick and BBB Fighting Frog! After the comp we went off to Clan to meet up with some friends and camped there for 2 days. Which was epic!
I started uni and was overwhelmed by the workload so don't have much time to fish socially. The following KBT was once again at Poortjies. Just for the day. The dam was low and fishing was tough. I managed a bag but couldn't get into a decent fish. The partner I went up with managed a 2nd place at his first KBT so well done to him! The baits I had success on were BBB fighting frogs and BBB Trick Sticks.
After that, I was invited by a buddy of mine to fish a private venue. On arrival, this place looked amazing. I was so privileged to have been invited as this dam looked promising. Once we had set up, I didn't know where to go and just decided I would explore. We decided to hit the opposite bank and start there. I tied on a new colour BBB Cane Thumper I had received from Brandin(Shot bru!), and fished it on my Falcon Cara set up with 14lb Sunline. On the 3rd or 4th cast(It was definitely under 5 casts), my buddy told me that I placed it perfectly as there was a laydown exactly where I had cast the Cane Thumper. I looked back at the spot and my line was off to the side. GAME ON! When I struck, initially I thought it was a good fish of 2.5kilos as it jumped. It jumped again next to my friend and he started swearing. It jumped next to me...and then I understood why he panicked. This is the strongest bass I have ever caught. It dove down deep, stripping line. 1, 2, 3 times! I finally lip-landed her. I can proudly say that I remembered my scale this time. A 10.5lb SLAUNCH. Yes please thank you.
-
The rest of the day was epic. Cloud cover. SPRO Frogs. SPRO Cranks. BBB Cane Thumpers and BBB Fighting Frogs. It was amazing once the cloud cover set in. Especially for my friend. He was getting hit left, right and centre. And he managed 3 or 4 fish over 2kilos. It was a memorable day. We were starving at midday as we had miscalculated the amount of food to bring. So we got a hold of a friend of my friend. And he got us some pies. Lifesaver. The day couldn't have been any better.
The most recent KBT was held at the Breede. I wasn't sure what to expect of it. On arrival, the river was full of grass. Once we had launched, I decided to head downstream. I managed a fish quite early. Unfortunately.. I got off my kickboat to wiz and my one flipper went in and sank away. So I had to kick 2.5 or 3kms back upstream. That wasn't fun. I managed to get bag towards 10AM. Once I had finally gotten back, it was just nice to chat with Snowball and everyone else to hear how their day was. It was a nice event with Vaughn(Who I drove up with) coming second. Well done bru!
The baits I primarily use are Big Bite Baits. Baits that just catch fish. There's no doubt about it. The rods I use are Falcon Cara and Bucoos. Amazing rods. Sensitive. Light. Gets the job done. I would recommend it to anyone looking to upgrade! Line...the best line I have ever used...Seaguar InvisX. Extremely strong with very little memory. You won't look back once you try it. All these products I mention are available at Ol' Bigmouth and Outdoors in Durbanville.
I want to say a huge thank you to my sponsors, Brandin and Wayne from Outdoors 365 Equipment for their ongoing support. You guys have helped me step up my game drastically. Thank you.
Also a big thanks to Malcolm and Andrew for organising the KBT. It's an awesome series guys. Keep it up.
I apologise if the report wasn't very detailed. I'm actually in class now. So yeah, I should probably get back to focusing on Public Relations. The next KBT will be at Clan. I just hope the fishing's good! See you guys there!
