Teams bag bigger fish in the sixth round of trail
The sixth round of the Lowveld Bass Trail (LBT) was hosted at Driekoppies Dam on Saturday. Driekoppies, a 1 870-hectare dam, was in the past known for its population of colossal lunker largemouth bass.
The largest bag of 6,295 kilograms was weighed in by Tjaart Kruger and Vincent Cadle of Team Loose Goose, while the biggest bass, a lunker of 2,975 kilograms was caught by Team Alligators.
The sixth round of the Lowveld Bass Trail (LBT) was hosted at Driekoppies Dam on Saturday. Driekoppies, a 1 870-hectare dam, was in the past known for its population of colossal lunker largemouth bass. During the past few seasons these large fish had been on the decline, and the dam was teeming with small juvenile bass. However, the weeks leading up to the competition produced much better average-sized fish than in the past, and expectations for big bags were higher than they had been for a while.
The level of the dam, according to www.dwa.gov.za, had dropped to 85,5 per cent by the time of the tournament, with key features like Croc Island clearly visible. This drop definitely played a key part in the good fishing experienced by the 45 boats competing for first prize of R5 000.
Seven bass over two kilograms hit the scales during the weigh-in and an impressive 38 teams managed to weigh a five-fish limit. A total of 195 bass were weighed with a combined weight of 100,76 kilograms.
The average was 0,517 kilograms which is a vast improvement from the 0,366-kilogram average at the same venue last season.
Team Wittus missed out on the largest bass prize by 0,010 kilograms, while Team Angling & Outdoor World weighed a bass just 0,125 kilograms shy of the bar set by Alligators.
Winning patterns
Thanks to the blustery late-morning conditions, spinner baits, and predominantly the Venom Lures Double Turtle Back hidden head spinner baits burned over grass growing in less than 10 feet of water took their fair share of hard-hitting bass.
Team Green Bass relied on a bait that Kevin Van Dam himself spent close to two years designing and testing, the Strike King KVD Jerkbait.
These baits fished effectively both fast and slow, and essentially, they suspend perfectly straight out of the box which meant anglers could spend more time fishing them and less time tuning them. The biggest bass on the day couldn’t resist one of Driekoppies Dam’s perpetual favourites, Zoom’s 8″ Magnum Lizard. They work because they’re just so easy to fish. Just cast it out in your chosen area, lift your rod tip slowly, reel down your slack and repeat.
Big movers in AOY points
Jonathan Zeederberg and Jaco Stroh of Team Green Bass made a big jump in the AOY standings, rising 11 places from 49th to 38th. A second-place finish at Driekoppies Dam helped them overcome their disqualification at Vygeboom Dam in June and a joint 22nd finish at Injaka Dam in May. Team CC made a similar 13-spot jump, rising from 59th to 46th. Nelspruit ATV finished 17th at Driekoppies, making the top 20 for the first time this season and moved into 34th in the race to make the LBT final. Other anglers who made big jumps after round six were: Fischen seven places (42 to 35), Visarend six places (37 to 31) and Loose Goose five places (14 to 9).
Each team’s best six events count toward the Angler Team of the Year point standings, and although we’re way more than halfway through this season, anything can still happen. There’s still a lot of fishing left, and at any given tournament, any team can beat another. In fact, anyone in the top 10 or 15 has a shot. Anyone more than 20 points behind the leader is running on fumes, though, and better start notching up podiums at every stop from here on out. With only two regular events left, every point will be critical.
Next tournament
The next competition will again take place at Driekoppies Dam on August 8 and will yet again begin at 07:00. There’s only one slipway at Driekoppies Dam, so if you intend on joining, please arrive early enough so all the boats can be launched before the scheduled skippers briefing at 6:45.
Enquiries: info@anglingandoutdoor.co.za.
Top-10 teams at Driekoppies Dam
1. Loose Goose – R5 000 from Rencor Construction, two Liqui Moly Caps
2. Green Bass – R3 000 from Cardinals Mitsubishi Nelspruit and Venom Lures, two Liqui Moly Caps
3. Alligators – R2 000 from Subaru Nelspruit and LBT, two Liqui Moly Caps
4. Angling & Outdoor World – two Liqui Moly Caps, Angling & Outdoor World voucher and a Strike King hamper valued at R1 600
5. Wittus – two Liqui Moly Caps, two Loomis & Franklin Reels from Midas valued at R1 500
6. CC – two Liqui Moly Caps, Liqui Moly oil, and two hampers and two sunshades from Midas valued at
R1 300
7. Ambassadors – two Liqui Moly Caps, Loomis and Franklin Reel and a Okuma Reel from Midas valued at R1 200
8. Rugged – two Liqui Moly caps, and Big Bite Baits hamper valued at R1 000
9. Swazi Gold Two – two Liqui Moly caps, two sun shelters, two sun shades from Midas, two Jock Pub & Grill vouchers and two Suzuki cups valued at R900
10. Bass Wizard – two Liqui Moly Caps, bait bucket, two sun shades, two sunglasses from Midas and two Jock Pub & Grill vouchers valued at R800.
