Johanv

Over here the winters get cold as well. Defiantly not as cold as over in your valley. But the fishing in winter do produce some nice fish. Our dams are also full of fish of around that size and do become a problem when fishing a comp and you need 5 fish over 30cm. Bass are also not stocked in our dams as our government also sees it as an intruders. A good fish for me is 2kg up as we have loads of fish between 1kg and 2kg. I was fortunate to weigh in at least 2 fish over 1 kg in our club competitions and one over 3kg's. My PB is 4.1kg's and the current South African record is 6.29kg's. We have Northern strain in most of our dams and some dams have Florida strain. We have the same problem with our carp fisher man. They remove loads of fish during the spawn and even if you try and educate them they just get hard assed

I am just interested as it seems your waters are managed pretty well as our problems in our dams are that there are too many small fish and not enough food for the bigger fish as the small ones get the food first

But on a fishing trip would you get 1 fish over 30cm and loads of fish under 30cm. With us, we can go out and get 200 fish all under 30cm and only 5 fish just under 1kg. But then you have days where you just get fish over 30cm but way under 1 kg or you can have days where you can get some nice fish. All depends on where you fish. As our coastal dams produce better fish than inland waters

You guys have some nice fish there. What are the rate of fish you get there being under 30cm

Some of the South African bass 7.42LB 9LB 3.5LB 3.7LB 3LB

Howdy from South Africa. Well I was here but due to circumstances went quite for a while. On my side I just wanted to start fishing competitively in 2007 and just see where the year takes me. I joined a club and we started our club tournaments in July of 2007 and at my first comp I walked away with biggest fish 7.42LB and heaviest bag at 13.99LB at a dam that is really hard to fish. The temp was -4 degrees and water temp was 4 degrees. I continued the rest of the year always being in the prizes and are currently in 3rd place. Witch I think is really not bad for my first year and we have some of your countries top anglers in our club. So let's hope I can keep up the pace in 2008. Our season ends May this year

What is your all time PB

Thanks guys. Over here a fish of that size is a very proud PB. There are some guys that get over 10lb. But one day. But at least my one was taken from the bank and not a boat

Well using live bait in South Africa is against the law. Or so I am told. But get a big fish on lures just makes it so much more fun. But there is guys using live bait and we all try and get them convinced that using lures are the better option. But No never used live bait and don't think I ever will But I have had the opportunity to get on a small largemouth and all out of NO where a big one came and took it. And with that the small one just moved up the line as a soft plastic lure would and at the end both fish were released

i agree with Fish Chris 100%. I could not kill a big fish and it has never crossed my mind. And will not do it

I have been thinking that as well. But somebody told me that bass look for structure and that does not mean just the normal stuff. Structure can be classified as dirty water in clean water. Where the troll motor picks up muck and mud from the bottom. Bass see that as an ambush point and move in. Can you guys please clarify if this is correct? As I have also picket up fish wile others were struggling to get lures unstuck and muck was thrown up by the troll motor

I use a Senko t-rigged on grass and lily pads or a Horne toad weightless over the top. Or if the grass is just under the water lever I run a chatterbait over the top and dam is that fun

I own the whole range and the best color for me are: Watermelon red The General Pumpkinseed Green joker

Welcome to the site. And don't feel left out. I am from South Africa and have not been on this forum for very long. But all the guys here are really friendly and willing to help. I have learned more from this site in 1 week than months on different sites and speaking to some of the local guys here. So ask away if you need anything

See and people say Cartoon Network is a waste of time lmoa. 3KG. Dam. if our record was 3 kg's it would be broken every weekend by some body. Make No mistake. They are hard to find. But every week you hear of some body getting a 3kg+ fish

Anything I buy from the states is a good deal. Bass stuff here in South Africa is SO expensive. I bought 3 Quantum reels with 3 Bass Pro Shop Reel bags and the Quantum Hot sauce reel oil for the same prize as I would have paid for 1 of the same Quantum Reels here. But unfortunately my friend that use to stay in the sates moved back here so now I don't have anybody that can collect and ship it for me :'(

I would go for Chatterbait morning session and when temperatures pick up I would go for T rigged Senko and Mojo rigged senko in Green pumpkin watermelon laminate

This is actually a very interesting topic and would love to see the replies of other users. But the problem I have with removing the rear hooks. Is what if you get a short strike. Where the fish just grabs the back of the crank bait. I have seen this happen before and mostly hook the fish up on the rear hook.

Another good one from them is the beast. I imported some last year and they have come in handy in some situations where other baits did not want to work and the action is excellent

Thanks will give it a try on a new dam we practicing for a tournament at the end of the month. Never fished there before so want to try different techniques to see witch would work

That's why I hate being in South Africa. You guys have all the good stuff there and might only be months before we get the if we do get them

Whittler: I sent you a PM

Then you the man to speak to about places on the vaal lmao. I am currently fishing the B.E.T.T Tournament and the Vaal River is one of the places we fishing twice. So would you mind me joining you some day for an outing on the vaal? Thanks. Hmmm No that fish came out from just down the road from you guys. Bass lake.

So how would I do it? Just dead sticking and giving it a twitch every now and again. Or retrieving it as I would with a senko

Well I have only been using the chatterbait for about a week now and had my first attempt at it at a comp we fished on Saturday. I must say I am very impressed by it. Got bag limit with in the first 30min of the comp but as temperature picked up the biting stopped as well. First cast retrieving it I felt the blade stopping and I the hook and bam. First fish. The way I do it is to play around with dept in the shallow at the start. So air and water temp is still low. I will cast the bait close to shore or structure. And then play around with it. Couple of jerks and then retrieve. Or just a steady slow retrieve. But I want to get the chatterbait to jump around like the video they have on the chatterbait site. Any opinion you guys mite have will be appreciated. The more info I can get the better