The chase for the ‘big one’

This is the year for records! This is the year I will get my personal best (PB) bass! A few years ago, while doing an afternoon session at our local dam, I hooked into a monster fish which I thought was my friend, Mr Whiskers, but turned out to be the biggest bass I have seen in many years. It was late afternoon in November of 2017 and nothing was happening.

Our afternoon sessions are always eventful, but on this day, everything seemed right except for one thing – there were just no bass around. Cast after cast, I hit the rocks on the opposite bank. I was hoping to entice a bass to react, but nothing. My bait of choice for the rocks is always a weightless fluke – this is best fished when you cast as close as possible on the rock bank and allow the fluke to just linger on the edges.

We find that bass will normally react to this style as soon as the fluke is pulled off the ledge or edge of rocks. Sometimes the fish will actually come up to the edge when it hears the splash and then react, which is a very exciting style of fishing. So here I am, casting away at the edges when on one specific cast, something big swirls under the bait. I strike solidly, pulling the fluke out of the water… I cast again, but nothing. Just as I begin to lose hope, I notice a shadow trailing the bait as I retrieve it.

Still thinking this is a barbel, I call it catfish style and all hell breaks loose on the surface. The fish hits the lure hard and starts to swim away. I immediately free-spool it until it’s far enough to strike. It was a hard fight – the fish didn’t break the surface, but rather stayed down and continued to strip line from the reel. I put enough pressure on the fish to turn it and get it to the bank. Until it was 10m from the bank, this monster bass barely broke the surface. It was huge! Feverishly, I reset the drag and slowed down…

A couple of minutes later, I had landed this beauty. I was ecstatic! My friend, who was a couple of metres away, came running at the sight of my catch. The afternoon before, I was cleaning my bakkie and had taken my scale out of the van. There was no way I was risking killing this fish just to get a scale, so I opted for the next best thing – a quick photo of the fish and then she was released. I could not believe it – the trophy fish I had been hunting for years had finally been caught, but no claim can be laid due to the fact that she wasn’t weighed. A bitter pill to swallow, but I won’t make that mistake again, that’s for sure.

Also read: Ladysmith fisherman Ralph Pandoy shares some tips to catch “monsters”

But it’s okay, because the fish survived and some lucky angler has the chance of catching the fish of their dreams some other time. The famous spots at Spioenkop Dam are at huge risk during the spawn, as many big spawning fish are killed during this time. There’s nothing wrong with taking one or two for the pot, but those big pregnant females that are easy targets during this time are at big risk of not completing the spawning cycle.

Fish need to be released so they can continue to breed for generations to come, and so that their numbers don’t decrease and die off. There is nothing better than just taking a quick photo and getting the rush of adrenaline as you see your fish swim back into the depths. Catching bass can be enjoyed by the whole family; it’s not as time-consuming as fishing for carp and the thrill of catching this fish is one that will turn any non-angler into an avid bass angler.

We are really blessed to have a special dam on our doorstep, which is on its way to being a premier bass dam in the province very soon. So let’s go out and have fun, and protect the species so they can continue to live in our waters.

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