The Bass Angler

WCBAA Elite Series Winning Strategies

Regional Event 1: 21 August 2010 at Clanwilliam Dam

Category A: Gavin Khoury

“I started off fishing relatively fast in the morning, targeting aggressive fish. I was alternating between a rattle trap and crankbait. I managed to pick up a few good fish and continued to cover water. I had a fairly decent bag quite early on and decided to slow down later in the day. I continued to rotate a couple of areas I had fished earlier and managed to cull a few more fish throughout the day. My main rig of the day was fishing a baby mojo with a fluke and a senko in about 8 to 10 foot of water.

I believed that the secret to picking up the bigger fish was to slow down and target the rocky areas. I found that the bigger smallies were lying in about 10 foot of water and with rock close by. Although I managed to catch a fair share of largies I only weighed in one and culled the rest. In the end I managed a bag of 10,75kg.”

Category B: Cor Agenbag

“Being almost spawning time and the water still being fairly cold at the time, I decided to target known smallie spawning areas and the holding areas close to it. My main lures were the Spro Akuru lipless shad and the Spro Mike McClelland stickbait. The idea was to hit my spots fairly quickly before boat traffic and angling pressure make the fish wary and to also make good on a “morning” bite.

“My plans paid off handsomely with three fish in the boat after 20 minutes, the biggest being a smallie of ±2,9kg. At my next spot and within a couple casts I had my 4th fish – a real “dawg” of ±3,2kg! The 5th fish was in the boat a couple of minutes later on the same pattern. During the day I managed to upgrade some of my earlier fish to end with a bag of smallies totalling 10,8kg.”

Category C: Alan Ross-Watt

“I started the day running up towards Rondegat as my plan for the day was to target largemouth bass for the whole day. I had seen a lot of fish up shallow during the Winter Classic and was banking on finding fish in same shallow spots. On the way to the shallow grassy bay I decided to stop for a quick couple of casts at the first point of Rondegat on the steep cliffs. On my first cast with a mojo rigged pumpkin Zoom fluke I caught a fish of about 1,7kg. As it seemed that there were no other takers I headed to the shallow bay.

“The bay had a grass bottom with a rocky bank at the one end. I sat in about 6 foot of water and fan casted a weightless 4’ pumpkin Cullem senko in the grassy areas and fished my mojo rigged fluke at the rocky areas.

I alternated between these two spots most of the day and only got 5 fish altogether but two of the largemouths where over 3kg’s. At about 15h00 I moved out of Rondegat and went to fish the steep cliffs just before the campsite where I was fishing a mojo rigged pumpkin Zoom grub in about 15ft of water. I caught a smallmouth of about 1,6 kg, which helped me cull a slightly smaller largemouth. After this I headed back to the weigh in station where I weighed in 10,98kg.

“Thank you to the dedicated people who have made the Elite Series possible. It has added great value to the regionals and has given a fisherman the chance of winning some money.”

Regional Event 2: 22 August 2010 at Clanwilliam Dam

Category A: Mike de Wet

“On the first day of the regionals I found some fish in the top end of the river. I decided to go back there for the Sunday morning and see if there was still some fish there. I fished in the current with a Terminator Arkansas Shiner spinnerbait with a single gold willow blade. I quickly caught two fish on the spinnerbait and then caught one on a rattle trap. The fish then seemed to have gone off the spinnerbait bite so I decided to throw a white zoom super fluke weightless. This result in me catching my last two fish and had bag by 8 o’clock. I then left the river and managed to cull two more fish in the main lake. I caught approximately ten fish for the day and managed to weigh a bag of 8,4kg.”

Category B: Bryan Pope

Although the first day was fairly uneventful, the second day of fishing brought with it great excitement, not to mention the heaviest, winning bag for the day.

“My partner and I started fishing in the river. It was a slightly overcast with intermittent drizzle.  The visibility was excellent, allowing us to see almost to the bottom of the dam. Shortly after our first cast, we caught our first smallmouth bass of the day, using a chug bug.

“We then decided to make our way to what has been nicknamed ‘Pope’s Rocks’. We had not been there long before signs of life beneath the surface became apparent. This area produced numerous smallmouth bass caught in about 18 to 20ft of water using green pumpkin red Gary Yamamoto Stretch 40’s on Mojo and Carolina rigging.

“We then decided to try our luck along the bank, looking for cliff faces.  Using the trolling motor, we investigated the bank.  By casting perpendicular to the bank and making use of stick baits and horny toads, both Roy and I were able to land a substantial number of smallmouth and largemouth bass.  We joked that we had without doubt hit the honey hole! We had two really big bags to show for our efforts well before midday. My bag weighed in at 10,01kg and Roy’s at 9,39kg.”

Category C: Johnnie Enderstein

“With the weather changing from cool and cloudy on the Saturday to cloudy with rain on the Sunday I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy day on the water. After catching most of my fish the previous day on a Rapala crawdad coloured crankbait with a diving depth of 6ft off a few points I had some confidence and decided to stick with it. It wasn’t very long before the wind started to pick up and a few light showers later I started changing lures, spots and techniques. After trying out most of my favourite lures at fishing spots without any luck it started to look like a long cold and wet day on the water. I almost tried out everything in my tackle box and then decided to stick with the old faithful Carolina Rig fishing as slowly as possible in the conditions. At 10h30 soaking wet and with no fish in my life well I started thinking of going home.

“Then a bass picked up my Stretch 40 on the Carolina Rig. Unfortunately it came off without even showing itself, which gave me a little bit of hope. At 11h00 with the wind howling I decided to move to point of a bay with an offshore hump in about 16ft of water and an old road’s rocky edges not far away. I decided to use the wind and drift from the point towards the middle of the bay and over the hump and old road. I used the Carolina Rig with a half-ounce weight with a green pumpkin red flake Stretch 40. On the first drift I managed a good keeper and immediately moved back to the point and started drifting again. Every time I hit the 16ft mark at the hump I hooked a fish! In the end I managed to get my bag of 5 fish of 4,98kg off that hump. With my fairly low bag weight I did not expect to be in the money but to my surprise I won my category. It just showed me again to never give up with bass fishing and never to mind the conditions.”

Regional Event 4: 19 February 2011 at Kwaggaskloof Dam

Category A: Anrè de Villiers

“All my fish came on a mojo rigged Zoom Super Fluke on 12lb line. I managed to get 4 good largemouths and 1 smallie. The better largies came off stumps in shallow water...you had to deadstick the fluke and the bite was very soft. I managed a bag of 5,36kg”

Category B: Joint winners – John Rhodes and Guy Paulet

John Rhodes - “We fished a pretty tough event with the high water temperatures and very little wind.  I eventually managed to figure out that the fish preferred smaller baits.  I fished most of the rest of the day with a tiny and junior fluke in water between two and five foot targeting fish that were breaking the surface.  I caught five fish for the day weighing 3,22kg.”

Guy Paulet - “Initially I fished the stumps on the ‘largie banks’ with a mojo-rigged watermelon red fluke and then a crankbait and got a limit of smallmouth early in the day. After culling a couple of the fish I then moved to the gravel banks closer to the dividing wall to fish for active fish that were feeding on Gill Christella. In the shallow water I had a lot of success with a leadhead and on dropshot but the fish I caught was smaller on average. We spent most of the day on these two areas and I made a couple of small upgrades as the day went on. My bag weighed in at 3,22kg”

Category C: Simon van Wyk

“Knowing that the dam level has dropped a lot, I decided to make use of whatever structure was left. My first stop was the gum trees near the sunken road, which proved to be too shallow. I then stopped at the dividing wall; also with no luck.

“Knowing that it was crucial to get bag early as it was overcast, I decided to go to the main wall. On my third cast there a caught a 25cm smallie. There were allot of surface action and I knew that the spot had potential.

“Being overcast and with all the surface action I started to throw a surface popper. About 5 casts later I missed what seemed to be a beast. Luckily it did not disappear and was lying 1ft deep, scanning the surface for ‘that thing he just missed’!

“On my next cast the popper landed next to fish which immediately took the popper. About a minute later a 2,03kg largie were in the boat.

“By now I was pretty sure that if I could get four more fish that could be weighed, things could turn out well. Back to the largie flats I found the fish in one foot of water on the structure. With a weightless fluke more fish were landed. The day came to an end with a bag of 4,51kg thanks to the 2.03kg largie. Thanks to all the organisers for a well-run event.”

Regional Event 5: 19 March 2011 at Theewaterskloof Dam

Category A: Marc Bywater

“I started on a rocky point and after my way up a stump line and pitching in a few bushes I picked up my first fish. Although one fish in the boat feels good; it was not going to win the day. I decided to stick it out in the area for the first two hours and then to do a ‘milk run’ of three spots. While doing my milk run I caught one fish. I then noticed a spot under the Draaiberg Bridge that looked very promising and that has not received a lot of fishing pressure. Here I found a tree with a nice drop-off and managed two more fish. After numerous further pitches I realised that the spot was not going to produce another fish and with only two hours remaining, I then headed for the dam wall and managed my 5th fish. All of my fish were either caught on a Big Bite Fighting Craw or the Squirrel Tail or Lizard. My bag weighed in at 4,88kg.”

Category B: John Rhodes

“It was an extremely tough day on the water. However when it is tough for one it is tough for all! I only managed 4 fish for the day; all of these were caught on a Fighting Frog in Junebug colour. I pitched lay downs and stumps in about 3 to 5 feet of water for the day.”

Category C: Stephan Brits

“My day started with two of my spots already taken so a quick decision was made to grab the first gravel point that I could find. Luckily for me there were some good timber and a laydown still in the water for everything else was high and dry on the banks. On my third cast to one of the stumps there was a swirl and seconds later my first keeper was in the boat. I fished the spot till ten and got another two small fish out of it. I made a move to find similar areas but all was taken. The move to Graymead Bridge was rewarding - after finding another good fish on a tree in about 6ft of water. Fishing was very slow after that so I started running around to cover the water and maybe pick up the odd bass still sitting in a tree or rock pile. In the end I fished a couple of trees with one isolated tree in a bit deeper water. My last fish came out of this one. My success for the day I would say would be getting three of my fish out of one spot and covering every centimeter of it. Another thing would be having a lot of confidence in my junebug Zoom U-Vibe Craw. I managed a bag of 4,53kg in the end.”