Good carp fishing at Midmar
Carp angling has been rather productive over the last week, with dams in the Midlands producing good catches. Albert Falls and Midmar both seeing decent fish.
Reports of some excellent Carp at Inanda dam too. Shongweni has been quiet of late, but this gives you time to try out other dams such as Hazelmere and Inanda, which have been productive.
Inanda Dam hosts many small club fishing competitions weekly and most of these competitions involve Bass fishing. Reports from these organizers indicate many good catches of Bass in the Taxi Bay area, with top water action in the mornings using Strike Pro Thai Sticks and Zara Spooks, and crank baits throughout the day. Cactus Point produced some lovely fish throughout the duration of last week.
It is rather unfortunate that bank angling for Bass in KZN is extremely limited.
Most fishable areas are the same areas allocated to water skiers, Carp anglers and day visitors. Any areas outside of these borders are either game parks, private property or as with Inanda Dam, dangerous to fish alone.
Hazelmere is by far the dam with the most “fishable” shoreline.
It is relatively shallow, but all a bass needs in order to hunt is 12 inches of water.
Bass have often been known to feed in water as shallow as 6 inches. Hazelmere has a very nice river section to fish in just to the left of the entrance near the building.
On the other side near the slip ways, there is a vast area which ranges in structure from rocky outcrops, overhanging trees, grassy areas and just plain mud.
For better results, one needs to adopt a finesseD approach to casting and movement next to the waters.
Also, no bright clothing and noisy tackle boxes with sinkers that crash from side to side as you walk.
With regards to your tackle, take a look at going lighter on your nylon (8-10lb).
This has two main advantages over the average bank angler. Firstly you will be able to cast much further, allowing you to cast at Bass which have not yet seen you or noticed you in the area. Secondly, with the thinner, less visible nylon, your lures will have much better movement which will attract more bites and will be less visible to the Bass, eliminating any suspicion and doubt about consuming your lure.
Spend time fishing one lure. Specialize in one technique and perfect that before you move on to the next style or lure.
Try starting off with Zooms Super Fluke in the colour “Watermelon Red flake” or “California 420." This is THE most versatile lure on the market and can be fished all year round, in any dam, any cloud cover and any depth.
When fishing shallows from the banks, my favorite technique is either a weightless rigged Fluke or a light split shot rig. Both presentations have loads of action which most bass will not be able to resist. As a general rule of thumb, fish your Flukes very slow, bouncing off the bottom. If you think that you are fishing your Fluke too slow, and then slow it down further!
Inanda is a productive dam, but mainly from a boat. There are not enough banks to fish, my honest advice would be to fish Hazelmere for a while and try learning the areas and structure.
You will become successful after a good few outings to the Dam.
Castleburn is about 30km past Underberg and a very productive area to fish. A trip well worth the effort.
There will be big ocean fishing action off Pumula on the weekend of 24 and 25 May.
Boat, jet-ski and kayak anglers will be chasing glory at the Quattro King of the Sea contest.
Target species are wahoo, couta, yellowfin tuna and Natal snoek.
(File Photo:Wikipedia)
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