Very thin 3.7kg Bass

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CarloT

Senior Member
Hi Guys.

In feb this year I caught a 3.7kg bass in a private dam outside dundee. It was the wierest bass i have seen. It had a massive head but and extreamly thin body. The wish weighed in at 3.7kg (Digital Scale).

I was fishing on my own and caught a small bass and while I was bringing it in it was tacken right at my feet by this bass in crystal clear water. Obv I Sh@t myself cause i could see the whole thing happen. I didn't manage to set the hook and the little fish died as a result of the attack and the big bass wasnt interested in it anymore.

The bass kept swiming arround in the same area and I cast everything at it but would not take anything. It eventually moved off and i was bumed.

I went back to the spot about an hour later and once again caught a small fish and it smased it agan. I fought it for about a minute and got it to the side, when i tried to lip it it spat the fish out and swam off... once again I was P'd off as it stayed in the area but would not take anything else... even large swim baits. It eventually moved off and so did I.

I when to another spot... about 20m away and caught yet another small wish, while reeling it in in got smashed again by the same fish but this time it swallowed the fish and i managed to lip the bugger... Unfortunatly after weighing it i tried to revive it but the thing's belly kept turning up. I left it in the water for about 20mins and it started getting attacked by crabs and i realised this fish was not going anywhere!

Question is. Has anybody seen a fish with such a massive head and such a skinny body that would not eat anything exept other bass while it was obv very hungry!!

Secondly, how much do you thimk this bass would have weighed if it was in good fat healthy condidtion!
 

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CarloT

Senior Member
The spring scale in the pic showed 3.4kg, but weighed it about an hour later with a digital and was 3.7KG's!
 
R

Ryan

Sealiner
This scenario is usually caused by too many fish in a body of water and way too much competition for food.
Fish develop huge heads and tiny bodies so that they can take larger food sources - sadly it looks like much culling of little guys is required in that body of water.......
 
C

CarloT

Senior Member
Makes perfect sense. The dam is full of fish around the 500g weight. 3 of us fished there over a weekend and I alone caught over 70 fish in the 2 days. of them about 90% were arround 500g. and 8 over 1.5kg. The record in the dam is 5.5kg and I have personally seen some monsters! The dam isn't big about 300m X 100m but has awesome structure and cover!

While throwing a awim bait at the big one a 2.4kg bass nailed it. It also had a huge head but was in much healthier condition.
 
C

CarloT

Senior Member
exept there only about 10 people that fish that dam. witch is prob why it's over stocked with smallies!
 
C

CarloT

Senior Member
Took the pic myself from my cell. it wasn't held closer to the camera!
 

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BucknutZ

New member
Thanx Carlot.

Next time you fish there please keep all the misformed fish so we can put them in the vaal river. The people from the vaal will think the fish are normal.
 
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pomerob

New member
[color="#0066cc"]Ryan[/color] wrote:
This scenario is usually caused by too many fish in a body of water and way too much competition for food.
Fish develop huge heads and tiny bodies so that they can take larger food sources - sadly it looks like much culling of little guys is required in that body of water.......
Click to expand...
This Scenario seriously effects the small fish but doesnt have such adverse effects on the large fish, they just become canabilistic. Indiscriminate culling could highten the problem. If the natural food sorce has been depleted then small bass has definately become the main food sorce.

rather than culling anything under 1kg I would rather advise to introduce a slot limit, a slot limit has a minimum return size as well. i.e slot limit 300 - 1500 would mean anything under 300g should be put back, this is the main food sorce and needs to be kept there to feed the larger fish. Any thing between 300g and 1.5kg should be taken out. However this needs to be closely managed and as the average weight of fish increases the slot limit should be reduced in stages as the dam continually improves.

I know of a dam that implemented this in kzn and in a space of 2 years they were able to re-intoduce bait fish such a kurper in self sustaining populations and in 3 years the average weight had increased from 280g to 570g. (3 of us fished there over a weekend and culled over 400 fish between 300g and 800g, talk about bass thumb)

last year SA Bass ran a set of articles on small dam management plus there is extensive information on the net for fisheries management and slot allocations ;-)
 
P

pomerob

New member
[color="#006600"]BucknutZ[/color] wrote:
what a beuty pomerob!!

Mate is that a floattube i see there in the picture?
Click to expand...
It is indeed a float tube, I love my tube, it could never replace my boat but dont ask me which I prefer because I couldnt give you an honest answer, I just love being on the water, if I had to I would be on the water with a couple of pool noodles strapped together. last year I caught 2 fish over 4kg on my tube and boy what a lekker feeling being pulled all over the place whilst fighting the piggies.
 
B

basslover

Senior Member
B

BucknutZ

New member
basslover, i might look into the floattube thingy myself but don't you think that a 2 man canoo might be better (and for the same price).

If your legs go into a wetsuite inside the tube and you get a leg stuck to a wire or something under the water how / if possible do you bend forward and untie the wire?

info would be great
 
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basslover

Senior Member
1. And im sure you wont get a new 2 man canoe for the same price.
2. Most of the tubes dont have wetsuites build into it??
3. and for the 2nd reason if that wil ever happen, the wire thing, well then you just get of your boat and untie the wire...
4. a canoe is awsome its allot faster you can take someone with you, but if the wind blow and your busy fishing, well then you dont have so much control over your canoe as you have with a tube...

Just my 2c
 
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