Oh jislaaik, herewith some education my boet:
It would be logical, but wrong, to assume that the ancestors of Southern Africa’s bass populations came from the United States. In fact, an ancient copy of the Cape Piscatorial Association’s magazine “Piscator†reveals that South Africa’s first largemouths were actually bred in Arnhem, Holland, in the summer of 1927.
From there 49 fingerlings in six cans were shipped to South Africa via England in the care of the late Mr P J Neville, Honorary Secretary of the Rand Piscatorial Association which had ordered the fish. Using a primitive arrangement of a foot pump, a football bladder and rubber tubing to aerate the fish every five hours, Mr Neville took such good care of his charges that only four were lost on the voyage. Modern bass anglers owe him a debt of gratitude.
On 20 February 1928, Mr Neville handed the 45 survivors over to Mr F G Chaplin at the famous Jonkershoek Hatcheries in Stellenbosch and, in October the following year, black bass bred for the first time in Southern Africa. A few other shipments followed in later years, with minimal success, and it is safe to say that the majority of largemouth bass now in Southern Africa can trace their ancestory back to the original shipment.
Smallmouth’s arrived in the country almost 10 years later when 29 survivors, out of a shipment of 55 ordered jointly by the Cape and Natal, were handed over to Jonkershoek on 22 October 1937. Soon afterwards Natal claimed its share of the shipment and all were lost during transportation.
At the end of 1937, the fate of the smallmouth bass in South Africa rested with 12 surviving fingerlings at Jonkershoek. That they reached maturity and bred, thus giving rise to the present populations throughout the country, has been a source of regret to many conservationists ever since, thanks to the smallmouth’s decimation of indigenous river fish.
Spotted bass arrived two years later and although they were successfully bred by both the Cape and Natal, they have never played a major role in South Africa.
The first Florida’s in Southern Africa were imported into Zimbabwe in the late seventies, and were bred at the Matopos hatcheries outside Bulawayo from where fingerlings were stocked into several public dams in the early eighties. In South Africa, Florida’s were imported by the Natal Parks Board in 1979 and bred well at the Umgeni hatcheries. Six thousand fingerlings were stocked into Goedertrouw Dam in 1981 and the rest is as they say history even though Cyclone Damoina had a devastating effect on Goedies in early 1984!
Now stop talking so much kak, more to follow.