Competition steps up as bass take the bait

Another fact pointing to the competitiveness of the season is that every team in the top 37 competed in the last event at De Hoop Dam.

The long drive to the venue and the predicted windy weather did not deter the eager Lowveld bass anglers as 44 teams in total participated with five new teams making their LBT debuts.

Team Secret Mustard took top honours with a hefty limit of 9,225 kilograms.

Also read: Lowveld Bass Trails end season with show stopping finale

The De Hoop tournament was only the second LBT event to deliver an average weight per bass weighed of over one kilogram.

The only other occurrence was in September 2015 at Kwena Dam when the average weight of fish brought to the scale was 1,077 kilograms.

Also, team Secret Mustard’s five-fish limit at De Hoop was the second biggest winning bag weighed in an LBT event over the past two and a half seasons.

These are the heaviest four winning bags since the beginning of 2014:
1. Thermocline at Driekoppies in August 2015 – 9,695kg
2. Secret Mustard at De Hoop in May 2016 – 9,225kg
3. Hazyview Midas at Injaka in March 2014 – 9,010kg
4. Angling & Outdoor World at Kwena in September 2014 – 8,980kg.

Also read: Its all about that bass at Driekoppies Dam

Patterns revealed:
It might have been the first time fishing in the LBT for Giulio Nolli and Greg Schluep of team Secret Mustard, but these seasoned tournament anglers put on a bassing masterclass to win the tournament by 0,755 kilograms. On how they did it, Giulio remarked, “We fished the main dam all day throwing spinner baits in the morning covering water between six- to 12 feet to fill out our limit and at 13:00 we switched to pitching the thickest clump of trees by the dam wall area with varkenelli customs tungsten weight in front of the Itty’s Secret G80 in Junebug and Watermelon Red on a Mustad flippin hook.”

Second place went to team Hazyview Midas who caught their limit pitching Texas rigged craws with heavy tungstens as well as fishing jigs against big trees where there were rocks on points in 12- to 15-metre water.

Ben Gottschalk of team Wittus Angling weighed the biggest bass of the day, and ended in overall fifth place. “We basically fished isolated timber and rock beds in the shallow bays and the two baits that worked best for us were spinne rbaits and junebug and black weightless flukes,” said Ben’s brother, Frank.

Next tournament:
Saturday June 11, will see the LBT rolling into Vygeboom Dam for the second time this season, with the prospect of another decent winning bag on the cards. Team Imbongolo won the first Vygeboom tournament of the season with a five-fish limit of 6,305 kilograms, and in June 2015, team Thermocline took first place with a bag of 5,2 kilograms. The dam is currently 58,6 per cent full. Entry fees are R500 per team. Registration will take place at the venue on the day and the skippers’ briefing will take place at 6:45.

• Biggest bass: Wittus Angling, 2,540kg – Marine Components and Garmin voucher of R2 000.
• Second biggest bass: Secret Mustard, 2,440kg – Wittus voucher of R750.

Here are the top-10 from De Hoop Dam (minimum of five fish caught):
1. Secret Mustard, 16,225 points – R3 500 cash from LBT, R2 500 cash from Subaru Nelspruit and vehicle and fuel prize for next event
2. Hazyview Midas, 15,47 – R2 000 cash from Venom Lures and R1 000 cash from LBT
3. Hooked Again, 14,515 – R2 000 cash from NTT Barberton
4. Imbongolo, 14,44 – Angling & Outdoor World voucher and Itty’s secret baits hamper
5. Wittus Angling, 14,225 – Midas hamper of R1 600
6. Fish Eagle, 13,88 – Solly’s voucher and Sakata hamer of R1 400
7. Thermocline, 13,33 – Solly’s voucher and Midas hamper of R1 300
8. Bent Rods, 13,3 – Midas and Liqui Moly hamper of R1 110
9. Ambassadors, 12,9 – Marine components voucher of R1 000
10. T+H, 12,62 – Garmin voucher of R1 000.