I met Ryan at 5:30am in Brits to go to our league comp at Roodekoppies. We arrived at the dam, sorted out our tackle and launched the boat. At about 7:00am we were off and decided to go try for barbell first.
With the water that is so high, there’s a couple of trees standing in the water with nesting birds in them. Our method of choice was to buddy cast for the barbell. We arrived at the first tree and started to buddy cast, after a couple of casts I had a hard knock, but he did not stay on. We made casts all around us, but nothing. We took out our carp dip sticks because we were in the shallows and saw a couple of bubbles and decided we might as well try for carp before the wind picks up. We cruised around in the shallows looking for more bubbles, but they were scarce. The bubbles that we saw made dipping difficult because it was between 3 and 4 meters of water.
After we cruised around for a bit and not getting carp or barbel so far, we headed to the bridge and thought we will try for Makriel. Also nothing.
By this time we got a bit worried because we had no fish on the boat and it was about 10:30 already.
We went into a small bay and started working for small’s. Ryan got a size Vlei quickly and we each got a Miskiet vis. I dipped in an open spot in the grass and oh my word, guess what I caught on Powerbait? A small carp!! I could not believe it. It was very small and luckily there is no size limit for carp, but 10 points is 10 points! Ryan dipped in almost the same spot and also got a small carp. I got an undersize Vlei and had to throw it back.
We moved into another small bay where we tried for some ghielies, but with no luck. I dipped into a hole again and luckily got a size Vlei. We moved along the bank where some of the locals were busy catching blues and we thought we might as well try and get our blues there. There’s a lot of blues now at Roodekoppies and it wasn’t long before we each got a size blue on the boat. You catch a blue with almost every cast. We moved closer to the side and worked for ghielies again. Ryan got a Dwarf Kurper and Canary Kurper and after a while I also got a Canary kurper.
We headed back to the bridge and started trawling for barbel. We could see them turn. After a while I got an “On Dad†and sadly after a couple of seconds an “Off Dadâ€. We continued further and at last I got a barbell that could not leave my rattle trap alone. We landed it, but it was not big at all. Probably around 2.5kg. We tried to get Ryan one, but time was running out and we had to go back for the weigh inn.
We each ended on six species. Cliff (Kanarie ) did very well as he won the day with 8 species.
All in all it was a tough fishing day, but still better than a good day at the office.
I will post some photies of the carp that was caught with powerbait.
With the water that is so high, there’s a couple of trees standing in the water with nesting birds in them. Our method of choice was to buddy cast for the barbell. We arrived at the first tree and started to buddy cast, after a couple of casts I had a hard knock, but he did not stay on. We made casts all around us, but nothing. We took out our carp dip sticks because we were in the shallows and saw a couple of bubbles and decided we might as well try for carp before the wind picks up. We cruised around in the shallows looking for more bubbles, but they were scarce. The bubbles that we saw made dipping difficult because it was between 3 and 4 meters of water.
After we cruised around for a bit and not getting carp or barbel so far, we headed to the bridge and thought we will try for Makriel. Also nothing.
By this time we got a bit worried because we had no fish on the boat and it was about 10:30 already.
We went into a small bay and started working for small’s. Ryan got a size Vlei quickly and we each got a Miskiet vis. I dipped in an open spot in the grass and oh my word, guess what I caught on Powerbait? A small carp!! I could not believe it. It was very small and luckily there is no size limit for carp, but 10 points is 10 points! Ryan dipped in almost the same spot and also got a small carp. I got an undersize Vlei and had to throw it back.
We moved into another small bay where we tried for some ghielies, but with no luck. I dipped into a hole again and luckily got a size Vlei. We moved along the bank where some of the locals were busy catching blues and we thought we might as well try and get our blues there. There’s a lot of blues now at Roodekoppies and it wasn’t long before we each got a size blue on the boat. You catch a blue with almost every cast. We moved closer to the side and worked for ghielies again. Ryan got a Dwarf Kurper and Canary Kurper and after a while I also got a Canary kurper.
We headed back to the bridge and started trawling for barbel. We could see them turn. After a while I got an “On Dad†and sadly after a couple of seconds an “Off Dadâ€. We continued further and at last I got a barbell that could not leave my rattle trap alone. We landed it, but it was not big at all. Probably around 2.5kg. We tried to get Ryan one, but time was running out and we had to go back for the weigh inn.
We each ended on six species. Cliff (Kanarie ) did very well as he won the day with 8 species.
All in all it was a tough fishing day, but still better than a good day at the office.
I will post some photies of the carp that was caught with powerbait.
