Team persevere to bag a win
Electing to change a venue for a Lowveld Bass Trail (LBT) event is never an easy decision to make, but due to the low water level at Kwena Dam and various other concerns, the LBT committee decided to move the venue for the third round to Injaka Dam near Hazyview.
This in itself was a risky move, as statistically Injaka is the trickiest venue on the calendar. Nevertheless, a total of 36 teams made their way to the dam.
As expected, the fishing was far from easy. Less than half of the participating teams managed to weigh in a five-bass limit, while 14 weighed two fish or less. This just highlights the incredible feat of team Ambassadors, which weighed in a monstrous winning bag. Their weight of 7,5 kilograms bested the second-placed team, Hooked Again, by nearly three kilograms.
Their winning bag also included the largest bass of the day, a chunky fish of 2,255 kilograms. To underline the achievement of the winners even more, excluding the top-three teams, the average bag weight was a mere 1,243 kilograms.
Ambassadors are enjoying a good run of form at Injaka Dam. At last year’s final, they finished seventh, and in their two tournaments before that they came in first and third. “We had no fish by 10:30, but we persevered with larger baits like flukes, spinnerbaits and jerkbaits to draw out the larger fish. It took a lot of patience, and most of the day, but we managed to get a bag of big fish in the end. Due to the cold front in the week preceding the tournament, our normal spots weren’t producing so we kept moving. The fish we found were very isolated and tight to the structure,” said Shaun Fredriksson from Ambassadors on their winning tactics.
“Our first fish of the morning, a bass of around 700 grams was hooked on a white spinnerbait,” said Hannes van Wyk from team Hazyview Midas which took third place with a bag of 3,94 kilograms. “We moved up to a section just past the second bridge where we boated a decent keeper on a Texas-rigged purple dead ringer. We caught three further smaller bass in the same area with flukes. We changed areas again to a bay on the left just before the narrows and stayed there from 11:00 until we had to leave to get back for the weigh-in. We caught keepers in the river channel at the end of the bay in three metre water on drop shot. We caught several smaller fish in this bay on Jr flukes. In total we caught about 15 fish for the day.”
On Saturday May 14 the LBT will roll into De Hoop Dam for the very first time. Besides being a popular social fishery, with many boats travelling from Gauteng every week to fish it, the dam has become a popular competition venue as well.
Winning bags are usually between nine and 12 kilograms.
• Biggest bass: Ambassadors, 2,255 kilograms – Marine Components Service voucher R1 000 and a Garmin discount voucher R1 000
• Second biggest bass: Hooked Again, 2,205 kilograms – Wittus Angling voucher R700.
Top-10 positions from Injaka Dam (each team caught a limit of five fish)
1. Ambassadors, 14,5 points – R4 000 cash LBT and R2 000 cash Venom Lures
2. Hooked Again, 11,585 – R2 000 cash Subaru Nelspruit, R1 000 cash LBT and a Subaru vehicle
experience valued at R600
3. Hazyview Midas, 10,940 – R2 000 cash NTT Barberton
4. Thermocline, 10,135 – Angling & Outdoor World voucher R1 000 and Itty’s Secret Baits hamper R700
5. Bucket Mouth, 9,885 – Midas and LBT hamper R1 500
6. Wicked Bass, 9,810 – Solly’s voucher R700 and Sakata hampers R600
7. Fish Eagle, 9,365 – two fly rods Midas R800 and Solly’s voucher R300
8. T&H, 8,920 – Light kit Midas R900
9. Osprey, 8,775 – Midas hamper R800
10. Dobba Dobba, 8,750 – two shade sails Midas R600 and a LBT weigh bag R100.
