Rooikrantz Dam King Williams Town

Z

Zane

New member
Dear Forum,

I last fished Rooikrantz dam 10years ago.  I must say that even though I have stayed in Cape Town and fished all the prominant bass venues here, I have never experienced as good smallmouth bass fishing as at Rooikrantz.

I would like to know if it still produces good fishing
 
K

Kassie

Member
Hi.

I was scanning some old posts - so much better than working - and stumbled upon this one...

I fish for the KWT Bassmasters and we fish Rooikrans 2 to 3 times a year. Most recently, we fished there in March 2012 and earlier in September 2011.

Our club's 1 dam wonder managed a 5.3kg bag in September with a 1.555kg smallie to top off heaviest fish.

The smallies are not abundant but if you know where to look, you can specifically target them. Our 1 dam wonder knows a certain rock pile from memory and is guaranteed to pull at least 1 smallie from it every day.

The dam is possibly overpopulated as there are literally thousands of undersize buggers to get through to boat a keeper.

But amazing structure and cover in the form of rockfalls, about 400m of riprap, treestumps, enough lillypads to cover a full size farm dam twice over and thick grass/weed, deep (down to 12m) and shallow and a rivercourse. Naturally clean water to boot.

For Bassmasternonpro - the dam is about 20km outside of King Williams Town on the Stutterheim road in the Eastern Cape. Its tiny compared to any other famous bass dam - about 5 million cubic meters.
 
F

FLUKE

Sealiner
Wow, I also last fished there about 10 or 12 years back. I always found that it was underestimated as a Smallmouth venue. I always fished the steep banks opposite the launch while everybody else targeted the Largemouth Bass that took over the river.
The results spoke for themselves and I took the one comp with heaviest bag and heaviest fish all with Smallmouths. I only fished it a handful of times and always wished that I'd got to fish it before the Largemouth bass were introduced. I managed a 1,8 Smallmouth as my PB but would love to have got one of the 2kg+ fish that were rumoured to have roamed the dam.

Is it still safe to fish there? I don't even see any comps advertised for there anymore? :(
 
K

Kassie

Member
Hi.

Safety at a bass venue... Now there's a new topic to get going... Just kidding. When i was younger and single, i would leave home at about 3am get to my spot at 3:30 and fish on my ace till 7am, get in the car and drive home to shower then off to work. Never saw a soul.

But now, our club organises an armed (with a shotgun) guard whenever we go out there. We always camp over with about 12 to 15 guys in tents next to the old sailingclub clubhouse (which now lies in the grass as the locals have actually pushed the walls over). We have not had an incident there for as long as i have been going.

But very often guys go out in a group of 3/5 for a few hours and nothing happens.
 
F

FLUKE

Sealiner
Thanks, that's pretty much the same as I remember it. I was an EL Bassmaster member so unfortunately we seldom fished there and I haven't fished bass competatively for over 10 years. I'd love to get out their again sometime. Does KWT Bassmasters still hold an annual open comp there?
 
K

Kassie

Member
Hey Fluke.

Unfortunately not. The last KWT Bassmasters open competition at the Krans was in 2008 (which I won incidentally {with a 1st prize of R2000} - longest reigning open champ!! hehehehe)

The club recently had its 1st open comp at Wriggleswade about a month ago. Was a tagged fish comp.
 
F

FLUKE

Sealiner
Kassie wrote:
Hey Fluke.

Unfortunately not. The last KWT Bassmasters open competition at the Krans was in 2008 (which I won incidentally {with a 1st prize of R2000} - longest reigning open champ!! hehehehe)

The club recently had its 1st open comp at Wriggleswade about a month ago. Was a tagged fish comp
Click to expand...
 

I heard about that comp but I was shark fishing and I don't have a boat anymore so fishing Wriggleswade without a boat is a waste of time.

Pity nothing is fished there anymore. I was also the open comp champ in about 99/2000. I won a hot wheel with gas bottle, a Weber and a Rotisary braai and a whole lot of meat, tyre and shop vouchers for Heaviest, Bag, Bass and Smallmouth. I could sure do a lot of cooking after that LOL
 
K

Kassie

Member
You got a point there - it is a pity. Its a lekker little dam where you can easily keep an eye on the blokes around you - jonga what they're using (maybe livebait!)...

After organising our last comp, I know how much effort goes into it. And then its always the same old story. Everyone thinks the comp is a brilliant idea (as long as I dont have to do anything and can pitch on the day and fish). Organising prizes these days is not easy...tough times.
 
F

FLUKE

Sealiner
Kassie wrote:
You got a point there - it is a pity. Its a lekker little dam where you can easily keep an eye on the blokes around you - jonga what they're using (maybe livebait!)...

After organising our last comp, I know how much effort goes into it. And then its always the same old story. Everyone thinks the comp is a brilliant idea (as long as I dont have to do anything and can pitch on the day and fish). Organising prizes these days is not easy...tough times.
Click to expand...

Getting prizes wasn't even easy 12 years ago, I fished Border for a few years and we used to organise the Wriggleaswade classic and the All Species. It was hard work for a lot of criticism in how you did it and very little financial reward to subsidise the cost of nationals. All of which is why I now fish river, rock & surf, a little bass but mostly for Big Sharks and I won't go near a club.

I fish in the odd social comp but stay away from the formal stuff.

I fish when I want, Where I want and How I want purely for the reward of a Enjoying my Fishing::S 
 
B

boepens

Sealiner
Eish good ole rooikrantz. I like the dam.
I used to fish for wriggleswade bassmasters but left about 3years ago
Biggest bag at rooikrantz for me was just shy of 6kg when I still belonged to kwtbm

Fluke and I now pull the big toofies for fun. Lol

The smallies come out well from may to august. On the rocks with small suspending jerkbaits
Ask allan he knows.

Check this 3kg from clan.
 

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K

Kassie

Member
Hey Boep

Allan lies like a cheap watch!

He gets so many fines at our meetings for talking mud! HAHAHAHAHA! We are actually working on trying to see if SARS will accept his Basscourt fines as a tax deduction.

And he also known as "One-dam(n)-wonder"

He shines like a new coin at the krans but coughs a bit elsewhere! Yes he does know the place really well...
 
M

mipretorius

New member
Have you guys ever fished the dam , KWT side of the fish river, on the ght road. Just before you cross the bridge you turn right towards the 'settlement'. theres two dams further down that road. Fished the one dam for like an hour saw millions of baby bass but got nothing,did not have enough time to wonder around the dam though. Spoke to the locals, they fish for the barbel. They say there lots of fish there. But i have been told that its full of HUGE bass
 
M

mipretorius

New member
Have you guys ever fished the dam , KWT side of the fish river, on the ght road. Just before you cross the bridge you turn right towards the 'settlement'. theres two dams further down that road. Fished the one dam for like an hour saw millions of baby bass but got nothing,did not have enough time to wonder around the dam though. Spoke to the locals, they fish for the barbel. They say there lots of fish there. But i have been told that its full of HUGE bass
 
M

mipretorius

New member
mipretorius wrote:
Have you guys ever fished the dam , KWT side of the fish river, on the ght road. Just before you cross the bridge you turn right towards the 'settlement'. theres two dams further down that road. Fished the one dam for like an hour saw millions of baby bass but got nothing,did not have enough time to wonder around the dam though. Spoke to the locals, they fish for the barbel. They say there lots of fish there. But i have been told that its full of HUGE bass
Click to expand...


Map of the googles say the dams are called sinqumeni and mankazana
 
K

Kassie

Member
Never been there myself - sounds dodgy

Do you need to take a 9mm and a few spare clips with just in case?:uzi

Cast, fire, twitch, fire, retrieve, twitch twitch, fire, reload!!!!
 
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