ANGLERS MACHEE

Return to the land of Lunker's, Mteri 2006
Part 2 (continued)

We headed out to the old dam wall the next day and realised that the fishing pattern had changed considerably. We continued to toss weightless horny toads, flukes and senko's, but did not get much strikes. The fish were no longer active and we knew that surface fishing would no longer be productive. We changed our line set-up to a Carolina rig weighted with tungsten and a plastic bead. We immediately noticed a turn around in the strike rate and landed more fish which were much heavier than the day before. The average fish caught on the carolina rig weighed in well over the 2.5kg. One of the boats that were fishing with us fished the shoreline immediately to the right of the launch pad and within minutes, landed a few hefty bass weighing in at 4.2kg. The weather pattern changed on the day of the 28th and we noticed a cool breeze rippling across the water and lowering the temperature. The fish seemed to hold closer to cover and were very shy. We slowed down our fishing speeds and concentrated on open pockets of water that were nestled between thick structure. The fish were not agressive and the lure had to be presented directly to them, to entice a strike. I noticed a sudden change in the stance of my boat partner who swiftly took up all his slack line and set the hook. At first, he looked dissappointed and mumbled "stuck" and than his line darted off towards the thick cover. He tried to steer the fish clear and get it to surface using his heavy line and back bone of his rod, but to no avail. Finally the fish surfaced ten metres infront of us and could not go further while his line lay entangled like a spiders web. We moved over the thick structure and after chunks of grass being cleared from our trolling motor, we landed a healthy 4.45kg bass. As we set around the braai fire that night, and replayed the dramatic event of catching the lunker, we noticed the eagerness and enthusiasm of every angler to go out and bring back a 5kg or even heavier. We woke up much later on the morning of the 29th and borded our boat very casually. It was as if though we reached a point called "satisfaction" As we left the marina we reached consensus that today was the day to explore and fish the areas that were unfished. We made our way to the point of palm bay and fished similar structure that grew lusciously on the shore. A very quiet and peaceful morning and we somehow had a good feeling about the particular spot. I heard the soothing sound of air being propelled from below the water and as I soaked up the relaxation I quickly replayed the sound in my mind, and this time, it sounded as if though it was blown out of a nostril. In saying to my partner, we quickly looked over our shoulders in fright. Our eyes opened in awe, as meters behind our boat stood a hippopotamus. His huge body stood half out and half in the water and was literally the size of our small boat. At the sight of us noticing him, he splashed into deeper water and it seemed as if though he was making his way towards us. We quickly pulled up the trolling motor, started the outboard and moved across to the opposite shore of palm bay. We were unable to fish with concentration the rest of the day, as we kept on looking over our shoulders for hungry hippo's…………..