After a challenging first leg of this year’s Lowveld Bass Trail at Vygeboom Dam in February, anglers returned for redemption in the third leg this past weekend.

With all 45 teams managing to weigh in fish, this was already a great improvement from last time. Anglers were met by overcast conditions on arrival and murky waters as the dam’s level increased prior to the competition.

Team Bass Fever (Flip and JP Maritz) managed to outperform all teams, weighing in a decent bag of 8,18 kilograms. Team Awol (Nico and Melissa Combrink) took second place with the biggest fish of the day and a bag weight of 7,45 kilograms. Team Subaru Nelspruit (Danie Stassen and Brian Wilkinson) took third place with 7,06 kilograms.

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For team Bass Fever, the decision to go up river was made after take-off. Upon arrival, it had already been occupied by three boats.
“We settled for a ridge where we got our first three kickers. We then made the mistake of leaving which cost us dear. We luckily found more big fish but luckily we found one kicker in the main dam on a point. By this time we had four kickers and one small one in the boat. We decided to move back up river but the early spot was occupied. Luckily we managed to upgrade the small one to 600 grams which put our bag at 8,18 kilograms. Out biggest fish was 2,15 kilograms. All bigger fish were caught on a chatterbait. We would like to thank the organisers and sponsors for putting together yet another great competition,” the team reported.

For Team Awol, all indications and pre-fishing reports were of the better fish coming out in the river section. “We decided to spend all our time and effort on finding the better quality fish, though having to gamble with fewer bites, by focusing on a small stretch with varying rocks and boulders in the river section. We targeted the fish with slow retrieves on spinnerbaits, swimbaits and plastics, having success throughout the day,” the team reported.

Bass Wizzard currently top the log with 35,116 points, followed by Subaru Nelspruit in second with 33,762 and Salmo Lews in third with 32,66.
With five legs of the competition remaining and only about six points separating the top seven teams, it still is anybody’s game.

The next leg of the competition takes place in of the country’s most sought-after dams, Driekoppies, known to produce fish of more than five kilograms, with an abundance of two to four kilogram fish roaming the vast expanses of this prime Lowveld venue.

It is taking place on May 1.