Gcvanheerden
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Still in search of monsters.
- Thread starter Gcvanheerden
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Mission Man
Senior Member
nice catches GC
Gcvanheerden
New member
Ja ek dink maar om n receiver stel te kry
Good catchs GC. One thoing you can try is to skin those chickens. The way i rig my bomb is to skin 2 and leave one with feathers. I than give the feathered one 2 to 3 sprays of dead red leave it for a couple minutes, let the feathers absorb the spray and than take it out. Its always interesting to see what gets you a quicker bite rate. If the big ones arent biting i find it extremely fun and interesting to see if i can decrease the bite between my runs. Also helps you to understand what sort of scents and why they work, how did the current or wind effect it in relation to the bite. Also its the advantage of knowing the water you are fishing very well, you can play around with these sorts of things as you know the norm.
Gcvanheerden wrote:
Baie goedkoper opsie vir jou en werk baie beter op baie meer stokke is baby monitors. Jy kan hulle op te vir so maks R250 by pawn shops en trust me dit werk.
Baie goedkoper opsie vir jou en werk baie beter op baie meer stokke is baby monitors. Jy kan hulle op te vir so maks R250 by pawn shops en trust me dit werk.
Gcvanheerden
New member
Ek het dit al getry skuimkop maar die dam is bietjie te ver van waar ek slaap,maar ek sal weer try dink die settings was verkeerd.
Gcvanheerden
New member
Nobbles it looked like I got more bites in the rain and I think if i could have gotten more baits in the water I would have caught more.It seemed they did not like half carp since I had half carp in two spots that looked promising yet no runs.The bite rate was a bit low after the rain but if I could have gotten to the inlet after the rain I think it will hold good catches,hopefully we are getting a boat saturday or friday so then I can target that spot,the water is really shallow though probally 1-1.6m will that still be worth it targeting that spot on boat?There is another spot closer to the dam wall that just screems barbel,the water is 5m deep(really deep for the dam I am targetting since the dam is really dry and shallow,the spot is normally 7-9m)there are willows in the water and if you cast a bit farther out the water gets shallower so far my money is on that spot because of all the structure and drop offs.
Next time try the birds skinned, it most certainly lets out a bigger scent trail, if the fish can get onto a scent trail faster your bite rate will increase, the best i have managed to get it down to and keep it there with out a feeding spot is between 15 and 20 min through out a 4 hour period. It took me an hour to get my system right tho. For me i like to see how fast i can get a fish to bite, it has taught me a great deal on feeding behaviour, how to judge a current or where that scent trail is going to move to. I have also played around to see what rate the scent will travel, but this is a work in progress.
If that is the deep spot on the dam GC fish it. I would position baits in various areas around the willows. But the depth is good and the structure sounds fantastic, are the willows dead or alive? I would go with the baby chickens and platties first, see what your average size of fish is and than prepare a carp bait. I would find where the smaller fish are feeding and than cast the carp away from there, but still in the deeper area. Reason being is the big old boys don not want to play with th energetic and noisey youngsters. They want to realx in peace and quiet. The inelt will be a great place to fish as fish of all sizes will be together there as it will always be an active feeding site. You will also get big carp there. I have found that i now fish further back from the inlet, my inlet at midmar i fish for 10kg fish close to where the umgeni enters, but for larger fish i will fish the wider water further away. My reason for this is that the big fish again want a big meal, so there prey will be feeding off smaller fish closer to the inlet and they will go in there to feed but will hang back when not, also the fish they prey on ahve to move around to get to where they want to eat, so have to go past certain areas. I am doing a bit more work on this theory over the holidays. Live bait will be my bait of choice.
Withn the drop off there, do you have a fish finder? I would scout that drop off, i love to fish a sloping bank. I have found that given the barometric pressure fish will hold to different spot on the slope, but 8 times out of 10 there are fish holding at the bottom of the bank, if you find alot of bait fish in the shallows than the bigger fish will be using the deeper water as cover and abushing up into the shallows. But your right, from your description the area screams barbel.
Just a suggestion on your carp bait, increase the scent, i like to cut my baits under the jaw and bash the head in a bit, yes you are getting scent from the dead red and you are from the guts but crush the fish a bit more get some other scents going. Also how many sprays of dead red did you put in the gills?
If that is the deep spot on the dam GC fish it. I would position baits in various areas around the willows. But the depth is good and the structure sounds fantastic, are the willows dead or alive? I would go with the baby chickens and platties first, see what your average size of fish is and than prepare a carp bait. I would find where the smaller fish are feeding and than cast the carp away from there, but still in the deeper area. Reason being is the big old boys don not want to play with th energetic and noisey youngsters. They want to realx in peace and quiet. The inelt will be a great place to fish as fish of all sizes will be together there as it will always be an active feeding site. You will also get big carp there. I have found that i now fish further back from the inlet, my inlet at midmar i fish for 10kg fish close to where the umgeni enters, but for larger fish i will fish the wider water further away. My reason for this is that the big fish again want a big meal, so there prey will be feeding off smaller fish closer to the inlet and they will go in there to feed but will hang back when not, also the fish they prey on ahve to move around to get to where they want to eat, so have to go past certain areas. I am doing a bit more work on this theory over the holidays. Live bait will be my bait of choice.
Withn the drop off there, do you have a fish finder? I would scout that drop off, i love to fish a sloping bank. I have found that given the barometric pressure fish will hold to different spot on the slope, but 8 times out of 10 there are fish holding at the bottom of the bank, if you find alot of bait fish in the shallows than the bigger fish will be using the deeper water as cover and abushing up into the shallows. But your right, from your description the area screams barbel.
Just a suggestion on your carp bait, increase the scent, i like to cut my baits under the jaw and bash the head in a bit, yes you are getting scent from the dead red and you are from the guts but crush the fish a bit more get some other scents going. Also how many sprays of dead red did you put in the gills?
Gcvanheerden
New member
Nobbles,the willows are alive.I will probally have access to a fishfinder next time but how I got to know the dam is by going with other people on their boats with fishfinders.I spray about 2 to 3 sprays.When will you target each spot?The best spot I can target from bank is a rock point with water of about 4m in the drop off not really any structure other than that rock point.
Gcvanheerden
New member
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Gcvanheerden
New member
Nobbles I try to position my baits just on the edge of the drop off since inside the drop of it is really silty but outsied the drop off there it is sandy I don't really think this will make a difference since it is probally only 4 meters wide if it is that much.
2 to 3 sprays is perfect, you can over do it with the spray so thats perfect. I would target the all around the area. Typically when i know an area should hold fish and i have an eliment like the rock point i will put baits at different depths around it. I would certainly put a big carp based bait in the deep spot in the drop off. Small fish will be holding in the shallow water and the barbel will be resting in the deep spot and waiting for a fish to either stray towards them or they will get up and feed in the shallows than go back down to depth. I would place a bait on the shallow area and in the drop off and tahn one a bit further back from that but still in the deep water if there is any. Other wise place the third bait in a different point in the deep area. But i would need to see it to have a proper recommendation on what i think will work. But the main thing is, is that if you have a spot like that learn everything there is to know about it. When the fish are there, what bait worked best the average size fish etc. The one thing i can say is NEVER BE AFRAID TO BLANK. The main thing you will find with speciman barbel is to find that one spot that will produce big fish is going to take time and effort. Odds are you will catch a big fish with randomly placing bait, but if you want to take it seriously thatn time and effort are required to identify a spot that will produce big fish more often than not. Yes you will spend some frustrating time blanking and not getting results, but all time and effort is rewarded in the long run.
Gcvanheerden
New member
Ja I used to blanks lots but when I put in some effort to find the good spots my catch rate has increased alot.I want to put a livie in the drop off near that rock point.I had mini runs on a 500gr livie my previous session but the barbel didn't swallow it and I had to pack up when I retrieved him some of his scales were removed.This was not even in the deepest spot this was right in front of the house about 80m out in the river that was about 1.9 meters deep.
Target the area. I would start in the deep spot and work my way back in the water depth. I like to fnd the fish rather than the fish find me. Dont be afriad to move the bait sooner than normal. But only do this if the is some sort of strike pattern emerging. If other fish are biting on smaller baits than big fish will also be feeding, you just need to find what depth they are swimming at. I have a very strong feeling you may have a very productive winter in that dam.
Gcvanheerden
New member
Not so sure about the winter I tried fishing a bit this this winter but the fish were almost dead had carp runs about every 7 hours and barbel never picked up and I had three barbel lines in the water but I will try again this winter hopefully I will catch something.Something that I also notice is that we catch the bigger barbel on small baits and when we put out half carps the barbel we catch wil just be about 3 kg bigger like that like that one in the report that was roughly 7 kg was caught on a single day old.I still believe my 15kg fish will come from a half carp or livie altough we had success on smaller baits.
Try where you say it is silty, float the bait a bit with bait foam to get it off the bottom. Dive down to see how thick that silt is also. In winter that would be the first place i would fish, a nice hole like that will hold fish of decent size.
Fish of certain sizes usually shoal together, you may just find you put the babay chicken in the right spot at the right time, or the area you fish doesnt usually hold the shoals of small fish. But the old rule will always remain, the bigger the bait the bigger the fish. I used to put a bait out i always think is far to big and nothing will ever touch it, its my incase bait. you would be surprised how often that gets an enquiry from something and is how i broke my reel. What is the hostory of the dam you are fishing, when was it built, how old is it, did barbel occur naturally in the river system before the dam was built? also what is the biggest barbel caught there?
Fish of certain sizes usually shoal together, you may just find you put the babay chicken in the right spot at the right time, or the area you fish doesnt usually hold the shoals of small fish. But the old rule will always remain, the bigger the bait the bigger the fish. I used to put a bait out i always think is far to big and nothing will ever touch it, its my incase bait. you would be surprised how often that gets an enquiry from something and is how i broke my reel. What is the hostory of the dam you are fishing, when was it built, how old is it, did barbel occur naturally in the river system before the dam was built? also what is the biggest barbel caught there?
Gone.fishing4
New member
Guys great Post this following it and the content is great, Gc keep it up Your Monster is on its way, Nobbles / Skuimkop and Fs, Guys your info is Great you guys are inspiring lots of young and also the so called old fishing buddy's with the Barbel forum you guys have here.Keep it Up
Nobbels, Get that list to Me Please FS, need those Prices
Cheers
GF4
Gcvanheerden
New member
It is quite old built in the late 1800's early 1900's it was built to power mills,it is fed by the leeu rivier.The dam was dry about 30 years ago but not completely.Don't know the biggest catch ,you know anglers some say they regularly catch 18 kg fish and one guys pb is 25kg yet no pics...It is like the local dam for the ladybrand guys since it is 60km from there.I am not certain about the dam drying up since that was also heard from guys.Do you think that will have a impact on the size of the fish?If anyone knows the dam;s history please share it.
Gcvanheerden
New member
Thanks gone fishing I hope the monsters way to me is short