ANGLERS MACHEE

ANGLERS MACHEE

ANGLERS MACHEE

A breath of fresh air and the musical tones of crickets, the dull croak of a toad and the crackle of a fire, life outdoors is what we aspire. We have had many memorable fishing trips and my most enjoyable was the day my wife and I went fishing. We decided to spend the weekend at a log cabin in Lydenburg. The temperature was much lower than that of Johannesburg but perfect for the atmosphere of a log cabin. We arrived at the cabin late on Friday afternoon and spent the rest of the day soaking up the sun and gazing at the serenity of nature. Towards the right of the cabin was a dam that was well stocked with lunker (huge) bass. The rest of landscape comprised vast open fields littered with cattle and mielie plantations. To the far right of the, a stream crept in and weaved its way through the plantation and before entering the dam it bent to the right and flowed out underneath the bridge and into the neighbouring property. We watch as the sun slowly disappeared below the horizon and watched as the dark sky was dazzled with millions of brightly coloured stars. As the night became cooler we ventured inside and was greeted by the warm crackling of an open fire. As we sat on the huge kudu skin rug, tossing logs into the fire and sipping coffee in the dim light, we both agreed that we would give up a day at a mall at anytime for a day and night spent like this. The next morning we awoke early and after having a farm style breakfast we decided to go fishing. I was not expecting to do much fishing or fish how I usually do, as my wife was not designed to endure the sometimes harsh and demanding nature of the sport. I was somewhat surprised when she climbed into the waders and followed me into the water. It turned out that my wife mastered the sport quickly and very soon started catching more fish than me. We also had the privilege of catching three rainbow trout that made a scrumptious meal. Fishing with a spouse is more rewarding than one can imagine and only becomes a problem when your wife wants her own boat.

ANGLERS MACHEE

This week we got some technical problems with Anglers Machee.I believe our man Ahmedy Rasool is tuck in some dam during the snowfall.So I have to deputise with something interesting.

We all know what varks barbers (catfish) so I thought while the man is stuck out there in the bandoos Il put something up.

You don't see this every day!!!This was a pretty interesting story from The Sunday Newspaper. Aresident in the area saw a ball bouncing around - kind of strange inTheHartebeespoort dam and went to investigate. It turned out to be a flathead catfish who had obviously tried to swallow a child'sBasketball which became stuck in its mouth!!The fish was totally exhausted from trying to dive, but unable tobecausethe ball would always bring him back up to the surface. The residenttried numerous times to get the ball out, but wasunsuccessful.He finally had his wife cut the ball in order to deflate it andRelease the hungry catfish.You probably wouldn't have believed this, if you hadn't seen thepictures.

ANGLERS MACHEE

Return to the land of Lunker's, Mteri 2006
Part 4 (continued)

Feeling rather dissappointed, we made our way back to the thickly covered point. The horny toads were substituted for 8" watermelon black red senko grubs weighted with split shot sinkers that were dragged slowly over and below the cover. I noticed a feint twitch on my line which made me strike and land a 2.5kg bass. I made long casts into the cover and slowly fish the open pockets of water. The grub has a lovely tail that makes the bait look alive and while thinking about its action I felt my line tighten. I set the hook immediately and experienced the power of a big fish. Knowing that it would be impossible to bring a big fish over heavy cover, we went to the fish. The fish continued to tug and when we got there, we noticed it wrapped around a huge cattail about one foot under the boat. My boat partner wasted no time, threw his hand in the water and emerged with a 4kg bass. Enthusiastically he casted into an open pool of water and his rod flexed as he hooked and landed a 3kg bass. My partners attention was diverted as he noticed and open pool of water neighbouring an old tree surrounded with cover. Instinctively he flipped the enticing grub and as he fed line to make his lure sink deeper, his rod jolted from his hand. He quickly recovered and vigourously set the hook. The fish dashed towards the tree stump and stole line by the meters. Unable to stop the fish and in excitement he shouted "go there, go there", while I battled grass and reeds with the trolling motor, he watched his line graze the tree. As we got closer, the fish turned and moved away from the tree into open water. His tight drag was no match, as the fish continued to fight harder and plough deeper. Finally the battle was over and the fish surfaced close to my waiting hands. My partner was relieved and smiled as the scale topped 4kg. A flat bellied fish that would weigh more than 5kg if spawning. And thats how we wrapped up our trip. We caught many fish and only mentioned the ones that engraved our memories. Apart from the excellent fishing, Mteri boasts an abudant gallery of untouched wildlife. We had the opportunity of seeing a falcon chase down its prey and fish eagles make off with their scrumptious catches. The fresh air and the eagle cries soothe and relax you, while the breaking of trees by baboons and grumping of hippopotamus add excitement. Spending time outdoors has more benefits that one imagine. It revitalises the body and fuels the human spirit. It has molded us into people with a passion for sport and love for nature, like the old sayings go, “work is for people who dont fish” and “everybody dies, but not everyone lives”.

Adam Ismael emailed me and said Swoosh you have to put this monster up. Thanks Adam

WEEKLY ANGLERS TRIVIA

ANGLERS MACHEE

Return to the land of Lunker's, Mteri 2006
Part 3 (continued)

We decided to go back to spot where we got the 4.5kg, but were unlucky in landing more lunkers. Later that day we ventured to end of palm bay which was literaly down to one foot of water. We noticed alot of bass on spawning beds and as we approached the shoreline, a crocodile the size of our boat, entered the water and dissappeared. This was enough to startle us, and we retired, stating that two encounters for the day were more than enough. On our last day, the 30th we woke up feeling rather sad as we had not landed a 5kg. We ventured up to concrete dam wall and fished the bay immediately to the left. After a couple of casts we moved down to the next bay. Our fishing method had changed from the days before and we were more aggetated in our approach. We briskly fished the bay and moved on searching for lunker bass. We finally ended up in a stretch of water that branched into two bays. One to the left of the river and the other to the right. After much deliberation, we fished the bay on the left. The weather had cleared and it was much warmer again. As we approached, we noticed thick cover on the point of the bay situated in six feet of water. We went back to our weightless horny toads and senko's. After skipping our lures a few times in open water and dragging it over the thick cover, we moved deeper into the bay. The water was shallower and revealed a few spawning beds and some fleeing bass. We made over a dozen casts, but received no attention from weary bass……………

THIS WEEKS TRIVIA QUESTION

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…………..

ANGLERS MACHEE

Return to the land of Lunker's, Mteri 2006
Part 1

In keeping with the phases of the moon, we scheduled our recent trip to Mteri, Zimbabwe from the 25th to 31st of July 2006. We departed from Johannesburg at 3am and headed North towards Musina. Our crew comprised eight people traveling with a VW Microbus towing a VX70 fitted with a 150hp Mercury motor and, a Toyota Hilux towing a splash bass fitted with a 60hp Mercury motor. We arrived at the border at approximately 11am and crossed into Zimbabwe within an hour. We reached Mteri at 3pm and while a couple of the guys stayed at the lodge to unpack, a few of us decided to spend our first Zimbabwean sunset hunting monster bass. The dam level has risen by at least 7 to 8 feet and many of the fishing spots that we knew from the previous year no longer held fish. We were informed by the lodge manager as well as regular fishermen that a some bass had already spawned while others were waiting for the next full moon. With this in mind, we focused our efforts on spawning beds and reed structure that hugged the shoreline. We also targeted staging bass by fishing reed structure (snortabela) in deeper water close to the shore. We noticed numerous swirls and quickly discovered that bass reacted aggressively to a skitter pop as well as horny toads that were skipped across the surface. Although we had a number of bass rise for our lures in our first few hours on the water, we were unsuccessful in landing any. We were awake early on the morning of the 26th and with a game plan in mind headed towards the old dam wall. Our fishing tackle used were Gloomis GLX rods fitted with Calais 100 reels and spooled with 20 pound Gary Yamamoto Sugoi fishing line with Owner 5'0 wide gap hooks. We rigged our hooks with watermelon red horny toads and fished the weeded shoreline and cattails using various retrieval speeds. It was an exciting start to great fishing as we caught many fish over 2kg. Later that day we made our way to the main river channel and fished deeper water. By than the wind had picked up considerably which prompted us to bump chartreuse and white skirt terminator spinner baits against flooded palm trees. Within minutes I felt a dull snag on my line and instinctively striked and set the hook. As the line tore off my reel and the fish headed for deeper water, the only thought that nagged the back of my mind was "barbel" as the fight went on and the fish surfaced, my eye caught the dark green flash and immediately sparkled as we landed our first 3.2kg bass

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ANGLERS MACHEE

ANGLERS MACHEE-HOOKED

WEEK 2

Hot spots of the week

Carp - Tago (Vaal river section)
Bass - Midmar dam
Fly fishing (Yellow fish) - Vaal river section (Raaswater and oorneeboo)

Winter has arrived. It is the time of year to take it a little easy on the fishing, especially if you spend time on a boat or wading in the water unless you are a fanatic or crazy like us and continue like it is summer. Winter fishing has one pro, and that it is catching unbelievably good quality fish and more than one con, the famous is catching a cold and ending up with an aching body. Sometimes the con is more dominant and you tend to feel a little stupid when people question your mental status especially since you like an advert out of ice-land.
The tip for the winter fishermen is to dress very warm and try not to get your clothes wet.

Tight Lines – Carp, Barbel (cat-fish), Yellowfish, etc.

A tight line refers to method of fishing and is associated with attaching a lead wait or sinker to your line. This kind of fishing would generally be done from the shore. The fishermen would attach a lead weight or sinker to the end of his line. A hook is now attached to the main line about 2 to 3 feet above the lead sinker. The main reason for the sinker is to enable the fishermen to cast the bait (on the hook) to the required or anticipated distance. The sensitivity of the policemen or dopertjie is affected by the distance of the hook to the main line, the further away the hook, the less the sensitivity. It is also important to understand the due to underwater current, depth and gradient the baited hook does touch the dam floor where it has been casted. More often than not, it would drift closer to shore. Many fishermen add a swivel or snap shot swivel to the main line and thereafter attach the hook and sinker. A swivel prevents the twisting or knotting of line that is caused by casting as well as underwater currents and swirls. Carp, barbell, yellow fish, mud-fish etc are bottom feeders. Their feeding habit involves eating directly off the ground.

Hunting

Another great sport that can be performed during winter, is hunting. Hunting season usually opens from about May up to the end of August. This is enforced on reserves that are controlled. The nice thing about hunting is, the biltong. Game meat or biltong is referred to as Venison biltong. Many people cannot eat venison and some say the taste is different. We enjoy venison, especially that of Impala. Impala meat is tender and some people refer to it as sweet. Others also believe that Impala meat has aphrodisiac properties.


Ahmed Rasool

While we waiting for Ahmedy Rasool I thought Il just put these pics up of dome owes catching in the Congo River and Faaiz Oz always says that the rivers are safe...in AFRICA. What are these Tiger Fish .

"Uhm regarding the pic on the left. When can I start Ahmedy.

Thats a fine ................

Pair of Bass, Im not talking about the fish"-swoosh

ANGLERS MACHEE

Anglers Machee – Hooked,

Week 1

Introduction

We hope to create an interactive blog catering for the guys who are pro’s at the sport as well as the novice who goes to a dam to occasionally to wet a line.
Fishing may be divided into a relaxing, chilled out sport or may be very enduring, the choices rest with you. To clarify some terminology that may be used in freshwater angling or fishing in time to come is explained as follows;

1. Tight lines, pap gooiers, pap swaaiers – Generally refers to the guys that want to chill out and catch some carp.
2. Blues or Kurpers – This refers to a fish called a Tilapia. These fish are generally caught on light tackle presenting an excellent fight. This is a bit of a messy sport because you have to use earthworms or even a brown bread mixture.
3. Bassfishing – Black Bass, scientifically known as Micropterus Salmoides. The fish is not indigenous to South Africa. This poses a problem of the preservation of this species. The fish is caught using artificial lures and plastic worms.
4. Flyfishing – As the name suggests, and no, you don’t sit the whole day and catch flies, but you merely try and cash fish using artificial flies. This sport was pre-dominantly associated with trout. Today, this method of fishing can be used to catch Carp, Blue kurper, Black bass, Yellowfish and even Barbel (cat fish).

In the weeks to come we will try and discuss various topics relating to the various kinds of fishing. This is an interactive blog and welcomes any questions, suggestions as well as topics from our readers.

Ahmed Rasool

(picture of Voondoo Barber caught in Thailand)

ANGLERS MACHEE( FISH IN GUJRATEE)

We are proud to launch our new post called ANGLERS MACHEE. Machee as I said is Fish in Gujratee. The articles will be written by a oke who writes for SA BASS ANGLING MAGAZINE. Our very own Ahmedy Rasool. Like I said its good to see our owes out there making an impression. Now Ahmedy and the lads are no slouches when it comes to Fishing. So we will make this fishing post Interactive with pics of the owes catches, hot fishing spots, Questions and answers, Tackle, boats etc

So this will be interesting. Also If any one got pics of the other species in South West Africa please send them through!For me that is
Swoosh

WHAT A MACHEE

Ok owes I know there are guys on this blog that want a fishing Post. I said to the owes I will create one and when the guys go out they welcome to send me the pics and reports on the destinations. Guys like Freddy V,Ahmed Rasool, Faaiz, Zubair Loonat and a host of other guys will like this post. Today we got a catch from the Blue Dam in HomeStead Park Dam believe it or not. Thanks Nicholas Anelka for the Pic.

Guys Is Voondoo Barberrs a myth or reality

FISHING IN THE SUMMER

The Summer is creeping in. I was just talking to Cam the other day, telling him that wen the roza kicks in on Saturday afternoon, We should go to Oupa Fats, Throw in a few rods with brown bread and let the day pass. The owes were also talking about a big camping trip. Nothing like the owes, water in front , the smell of Braai and the dobertjie swaying in the wind. I know there must be some serious fisherman that follow my Blog. Ive heard of the Myth of Voondoo Barbers near the dam wall. Huge buggers almot the size of Sharks. Ive seen Big Barbers in my time, But as the corcocodile hunter used to say. Crikey. Have a go at this