With the Autumn feeding frenzy in full swing in many of the Lowveld dams, it is with much anticipation that LBT teams will be heading towards the ever popular Driekoppies dam this coming Saturday.
This will be the fourth stop of the 2019 LBT tour after the consecutive Highveld events were concluded at Nooitgedacht dam during April.

Third leg of the 2019 Lowveld Bass Trail

Driekoppies is the first venue of 2019 that poses a high chance of any team weighing in a massive bag to take the win as opposed to the previous events where small fish populations ruled the waters. With the dam level increasing continually through the last 2 months and rapid level changes in the last 2 weeks, fishing will have its challenges and teams will need to pull out all the stops to out-fish each other on the day.
The dam is filled with vegetation structures in the form of reeds, weed, lily-pads and grass and currently sitting with a water level around the 75 per cent mark.

Pre-fishing reports still indicate an abundance of small fish in the grass, but a lot of better quality fish being caught promises a positive outlook to the upcoming event.

This will be the first time in LBT history that Driekoppies will host the fourth stop during the month of May and it will be interesting how the fishing pressure affects the results on the day.
Competition time for round 4 will be from 07:00 to 15:00.
Registration will open at 06:00, an hour before the competition start time.
Captains meeting will strictly be at 06:45 at the registration tent. Please ensure that all anglers are present at the captains meeting so that everyone is familiar with the LBT rules.

The road through Jeppe’s reef and after the dam turn off is in bad condition and will take longer to travel through. Please allow sufficient travel time to the venue.

Venue:
Launching, registration, weigh-in and prize giving will be held at the Komati Basin Water Authority. (-25.708177, 31.517124)

Entry Fee:
The entry fee for the competition will be R500 per team entry which excludes all fees required for accessing the venue.
Please take note that there will be entry fees applicable to the launching venue which will be in the region of R80 per team, payable at the entry gate.

Teams that have pre-entered the year will need to report to William upon arrival. These teams will also be required to pay the below R100 for the venue to William.

Launching process:
Please ensure that your boat is ready to launch before entering the launch queue. This includes boat plugs in, boat straps off, covers off etc.

Higher water levels will make logistics difficult regarding traffic. Organisers request that no vehicles park closer than 50 metres to the slipway and gazebo’s. They need this space and area for other teams that still need to launch their boats. Committee members will direct traffic during the morning.
You are also requested to use the parking lights of your vehicle when backing up to the water as to avoid blinding people further up the slipway with headlights.
Please adhere to the instructions of the committee members directing traffic to simplify the process.

For 2019, they will again introduce the incident report form. These forms will be available through the season at the weigh station. Any incident shall be logged through the use of this form. Any incident/complaint/dispute not logged in this manner shall be ignored by the committee. These incidents shall be handled before each prize giving ceremony commences. Please familiarise yourselves with this form and its purpose.

Pre-fishing
Please take note that the LBT rules state that no pre-fishing is allowed five days in advance of any regular scheduled event. Pre-fishing is not only limited to lines in the water but also includes scouting fishing locations, launching of boats on competition waters and graphing lake contours.
Any team found contravening this rule will be disqualified from the event.
No fishing shall be allowed by any competitor on the May 1 which is a public holiday. Officials will monitor persons accessing the venue this coming week. Please do not risk being disqualified during the skippers meeting.

For any additional queries, please feel free to contact the LBT committee.