Date : 19 December 2012
Dam : BassLake (Henley on Lip)
KM from JHB : 50km
Every-time I take leave I take the opportunity to fish Bass Lake at least twice during my leave period to unwind from the work chaos. Today was session 1 and I was joined by Paul Pereira and David Moore. I haven't fished socially with these mates of mine for a looonnnnngggg time, at least well over a year. So it was well overdue.
When we finally got into the gate and made our way down to the water I noticed the water had dropped significantly since my last visit in November. Looks like the mine is pumping out more than is running in from the 3 natural springs that feed the quarry. I thought we were going to be in for a tough day's fishing as a lot of the structure was now out of the water. BOY, was I wrong :)
We made our way to the right of the launch where I quickly picked up a nice healthy 1,54kg off the new Xcite Baby UberShad in Watermelon Red Pearl. Watch out for this little lure, it is going to account for plenty of fish in the boat for this up and coming C4C season.
There was no lack of entertainment as the small fries (200g - 800g) just kept keeping us entertained. Xcite Baby UberShad (all colours) and BWG UberWorm (all colours) accounting for the majority of the dink action.
Now unfortunately the scale had seen some sun and was not looking so pretty as it completely over-heated. Paul said "dunk it in the water to cool it down, it's waterproof". Apparently it was not as waterproof as made out to be. So we had no scale. But we have been here a couple of times and fortunately can make a couple of guesstimates for the rest of the day.
Next up was Dave. Dave picked up this 3,6kg (Guesstimate, as the scale was now kapooped) and was over the moon, as he should be as this is his new PB and totally shattered his previous 2,2kg which has been standing for a long time.
15 minutes or so after Dave's fish and I landed this lovely lady. Sadly my "fish posing" skills need some attention as none of these pictures do the fish any actual justice. She was a beauty and fought hard. The ALX rod I used to catch this beauty was the "Dragger". When there was give needed it gave and when I needed some haulin' power it hauled!
I don't like holding big fish like this, but just to get an idea of the size of the fishes head we took this photo of the underbelly and gill plates.
With this +3kg, I found +- 15m of line sticking out her mouth and leading into her gutt. We took out as much line as possible and cut the rest out and disposed of it in the bin after the day's fishing. I just hope she passes whatever she swallowed as it would be a huge shame to lose such a beauty.
I picked up a few more over the KG mark and then decided to move over to the other side of the lake. Pity I did this as I missed out on some great action by Paul and Dave as Paul landed this beauty at about the 4kg mark.
Dave then landed another 3kg beauty and Paul another 1,5kg. I must add I am very impressed, as I fish nothing below 30lb braid at this place, but Paul came armed with 17lb Fluoro Carbon and Dave with 20lb Braided line. Paully paid the price with 2 snap offs, but proved that it is possible to land these beasts with some "light tackle". Well light for this place at least.
We got off the water at around 16:30 and Dave was still smiling ear to ear. All in all it was a great day with mates including some great fishing. I hope to do it again soon.