So I have taken the leap and am now finally doing what I love doing best fishing and all those wonderful fishing related stuff. I am busy currently doing a dvd project on winter barbel and carp.
Gino Sada a camera guy and myself headed off to a local dam close to pretoria yesterday in search of winter barbel and carp
When we arrived the dam was windstill and very cold water temp was a mere 12 deg C. We started searching the banks for barbel and around trees that were occupied by nesting birds but sadly there was not a whole herd on offer.
Anyways we decided then to move off to the deeper water in search of carp and we found some good feeding activity but for some reason or another we could not connect to feeding fish. anyhow about 1 hour later we went in search of barbel that may have come out and started tanning in the shallows and this is when we came along the pattern - barbel were hanging on the points where there were exposed rocks - they were readily taking lure but I believe due to the cold water condtions the take was very gentle and subtle for barbel in general.
I went tight with the first barbel
and he came to the boat weighing in at a little over 19lbs.
I managed to get another before Gino too but that was a little racing snake.
Then Gino picked up one of the most beautiful barbel I have ever seen - looked like a slab of marble
We approached an island and off the point came a massive barbel - Gino with calling rod in hand presented the big Loodkoppie the barbel came up looked at the loodkoppie but refused to eat it even went so far as to allow gino to rest the lure on the fishes head before it returned to the deep dark murky depths of the dam.
The dam we were fishing seems to have much water grass and we had a hard time finding carp as they were out on the mud flats. We found one feeding activly and as gino dipped it started swimming off so he placed the leadhead in the direction the fish was moving and although I have never seen a carp take a leadhead on the move this one did and a few mins later Gino landed a little beauty in pristine condtion
Not more than 5 mins later the wind came up and was belting and we picked up a few barbel here and there - I dropped quite a few carp but they were little guys and the dam having a prdominantly sandy bottom made finding bubbles rather difficult.
The wind combined with the grass made our lives very very difficult but we had a great day considering it was the middle of winter - all I can say is Summer roll on.....
Gino Sada a camera guy and myself headed off to a local dam close to pretoria yesterday in search of winter barbel and carp
When we arrived the dam was windstill and very cold water temp was a mere 12 deg C. We started searching the banks for barbel and around trees that were occupied by nesting birds but sadly there was not a whole herd on offer.
Anyways we decided then to move off to the deeper water in search of carp and we found some good feeding activity but for some reason or another we could not connect to feeding fish. anyhow about 1 hour later we went in search of barbel that may have come out and started tanning in the shallows and this is when we came along the pattern - barbel were hanging on the points where there were exposed rocks - they were readily taking lure but I believe due to the cold water condtions the take was very gentle and subtle for barbel in general.
I went tight with the first barbel
I managed to get another before Gino too but that was a little racing snake.
Then Gino picked up one of the most beautiful barbel I have ever seen - looked like a slab of marble
We approached an island and off the point came a massive barbel - Gino with calling rod in hand presented the big Loodkoppie the barbel came up looked at the loodkoppie but refused to eat it even went so far as to allow gino to rest the lure on the fishes head before it returned to the deep dark murky depths of the dam.
The dam we were fishing seems to have much water grass and we had a hard time finding carp as they were out on the mud flats. We found one feeding activly and as gino dipped it started swimming off so he placed the leadhead in the direction the fish was moving and although I have never seen a carp take a leadhead on the move this one did and a few mins later Gino landed a little beauty in pristine condtion
Not more than 5 mins later the wind came up and was belting and we picked up a few barbel here and there - I dropped quite a few carp but they were little guys and the dam having a prdominantly sandy bottom made finding bubbles rather difficult.
The wind combined with the grass made our lives very very difficult but we had a great day considering it was the middle of winter - all I can say is Summer roll on.....
