SINCE RECIEVING SO MUCH INTEREST IN BASS FISHING, WE'VE DECIDED TO DEDICATE AN ENTIRE WEBSITE TO BASSING! |
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TACKLE NECESSITY – First Aid Kit by Christie Thomas When
you spend a l As new technology improves so does our equipment; many anglers find themselves experimenting with new tackle, and this includes line. Braided fishing line is something more and more fishermen are using and experimenting with – it has many advantages but there is one great disadvantage to using braid. Try setting the hook with the braided line still lying across or nestled in the fold of your index finger where you have held it to feel for extra sensitivity whilst fishing. It bites!! Braid easily burns and often slices open the tip of your finger, which makes it very difficult to carry on fishing effectively unless the injury is taken care of immediately. A braid cut is initially dry but give it a couple of minutes; when you start feeling the burn you may also notice blood dripping down your hand. This type of injury needs treatment. Most
often injuries on the boat What to Pack First of all you would need a durable and waterproof bag or container to pack your supplies in. Include tweezers which can be used to remove bee stings, thorns, glass shards and wood splinters. Make sure the tweezers have an angled edge which is better when you have to remove small things from your skin. You would need a small container with over-the-counter pain and fever relievers – make sure to have a selection of tablets of which the main ingredient consists of aspirin, ibuprofen or naproxen sodium in case of specific medical allergies. Alchohol wipes, hand sanitizer and unscented baby wipes can be used to thoroughly clean the areas around the wound and the hands that will be treating the injury. Include plasters (band-aid), bandages, a couple of small gauze pads and some antibiotic or antiseptic cream such as Germolene or Neosporin. Add a hot/cold pack (which works when certain chemicals are mixed by breaking the seal and react with each other). Arrange and pack these items into smaller Ziploc bags to keep them clean and dry within the larger bag. You could also include waterproof matches, and a pocket-knife or handy tool (Gerber/Leatherman). Keep this kit, an emergency blanket and spare clothing in one of your boat compartments where it is easy to find (make sure it is a dry compartment).
Q & A
By Christie Thomas
Throughout the years, I have received many fishing related questions from readers. Some questions were simple and easy to answer, whilst others needed a little more time, and research, before committing myself to ‘paper’. I would like to share one of the most frequently asked questions, and my subsequent reply. Baitcasting reels seem to pose the most problems, and mastering the art of casting without ending up with a huge overwind, the ultimate goal. Bass fishing and baitcasters are synonymous. Any bass fisherman (or woman) worth their pound of salt should be able to fish with one, right? This is one of my most recent questions regarding baitcasters, just received last week. “I have recently started trying my hand at bass fishing. Went out, bought a whole bunch of equipment and like most beginners, I guess, I am battling to cast my baitcaster reels. I am experiencing serious overwinds early in the cast. Any other tips on casting a baitcaster reel will of course be appreciated.” Nico, Johannesburg. Unfortunately,
casting with a baitcaster takes a lot of practice before you can fee
 FISHING BY TEMPERATURE by Christie Thomas This time of the year your temperature gauge has to be the most important tool on the boat; use it to help you locate bass, and as a guide for lure selection. Fish are cold-blooded creatures, thus greatly affected by the temperature of the water surrounding them. As the weather starts warming, so does the temperature of the water. Remember, it is not just the surface temperature which guides a fish’s behaviour; it is the water temperature of the entire water column in which the fish is currently located. Early spring - when the water temperature is between 45°F (7.2°C) and 54°F (12.2°C), bass will begin their initial movement away from the deeper water where they have spent the winter. The shift is gradual and the bass will still be sluggish in the cold water. Look for largemouth bass on bluff banks, submerged points, creek channel banks, and in creek bends away from the shoreline. A few bass may move to shallow water, especially during warm, sunny afternoons, but they will not move far from deep water! The majority could be found in depths from 25- to 8-foot (depending on the overall depth of the body of water). Drop-offs with cover, flooded stumps, brush, trees, and boulders will attract the most bass. Use slow-moving lures because bass’s metabolism is still slow this time of the year –jigs with trailers, Texas-rigged plastics and finesse presentations. Concentrate in the area where you catch one fish; bass tend to be gathered in loose groups at this time. Spring (Pre-spawn) – when the water temperature in the shallows climbs over 55°F (12.7°C), and stabilises above that temperature, bass will start moving up from deeper water. Now you can start looking for bass in the backs of bays and wide tributaries with expansive flats. Concentrate on bays and tributaries on southern shorelines, since they receive more sunlight and are protected from the cold south winds. They will be the first to warm up, and the first to be populated by bass. Keep in mind that murky (muddy) water warms faster than clear water, and areas with abundant cover often hold more bass than areas with little cover. Bass feed heavily when they first move into shallow water. At this stage a surface temperature gauge is really important. Check all possible spawning areas – chances are that the warmest area will provide you with the most fish. With the warmer water, bass’s metabolism would have improved enough that you can now start fishing with spinnerbaits, crankbaits and topwater plugs, in addition to the jig-&-pig and Texas-rigged worms. The males will now start roaming shallow flats, using any available cover such as stumps, laydowns, brush and rocks. The larger females will occasionally venture into the shallows on a feeding spree, but for the most part will stay in the deeper water nearby. Bass will be more active during the warming trends, and may feed throughout the day. However, a severe cold-front can shut things down overnight. Spawn – As the water temperature climbs into the 60’s (15.5°C and above), bass will eventually scatter and become more territorial as they select spawning sites. Spinnerbaits and crankbaits can still be used effectively but plastic worms and floating minnows (jerkbaits) are more effective this time of the year. Bass do not feed while they are spawning, but will attack anything which trespasses into their beds, including lures. Fish responsibly during the spawn! I prefer to leave the bedding bass alone so that they can spawn at liberty. Not all bass spawn at the same time. Look for bays with cooler water temperatures where you can still fish for pre-spawn bass. Water on the main lake body usually warms the last, which means you can still catch hungry pre-spawn bass when those in the shallow creeks and bays are spawning. |
As Winter
Approaches by Christie Thomas In the Limpopo Bushveld, May is kind of an in-between month. It is not quite as cold as June, and definitely not as hot as March or April, although I must admit; this season’s cold weather seems to have jumped out from behind a bush to surprise us with an early attack. It is always difficult to determine a true autumn in our region if one goes by temperature alone, but the change of colour on some of our local trees in the area are always a good indication that the season is turning. Right now the days are still hot but there is a definite drop in night-time temperatures. Is this drop significant enough to start moving the bass out of their summer haunts? Perhaps not. What we feel as air temperature has very little to do with water temperature. The greater influence comes from the change of the sun’s angle and the decrease in daylight hours. Do I continue
looking for bass in their summer habitat whilst it is still hot during the day,
or has it cooled down enough to start looking for bass in the shallows? Fishing at this time can
sometimes be really confusing. The
answer to this question is a bit of both.
Bass are in a transitional mode right now, getting ready to move to the
shallows but not quite there yet. There are a couple of tools you could use to help
track down these fickle fall fish. As
the daylight hours shorten and the nights lengthen, bass instinctively start
reacting to the change. They know that
the time is approaching to ‘stock up the larder’ for winter. Bass will slowly start the migration up to
shallower water, with the occasional trek to forage in the shallow water
gradually escalating until they can be found shallow for the majority of the
day during the peak fall fishing period. The most important tool is your depthfinder. Use it to identify key structural elements which bass will use to stage on, or around, during their migration. Migrating bass will start moving toward the back of bays, up smaller creeks, or to shallower staging areas. They will stage anywhere there is cover on structure along this path. When we talk ‘shallower’ most of us tend to literally think of shallow water (2- to 10-foot) but often, especially with dams like Mokolo where the majority of the water is very deep, it can also mean deep water bass rising to a shallower stratum in standing cover, such as flooded brush or trees. Another important tool is your temperature gauge. Even when the weather feels frigid outside, the water temperature could still be relatively warm. During the early fall your cooler water will be key, whereas during the winter the warmer water should hold more bass. As for tackle, you may want to carry a wide variety of
lures suitable for different applications, anything from drop-shot, to topwater
lures, spinnerbaits, deep-diving crankbaits, jigs and worms. During the peak autumn period bass often feed
quite aggressively; this is when fast moving baits should work well. Do not be afraid to fish with larger lures as
the food supply has had a whole summer to grow to mature size. FOUR LURES by Christie Thomas Judging by our recent spate of exceptionally high temperatures I would like to hazard a guess that spring is definitely over in the bushveld. Summer is a great time for bass fishing, and as long as you keep in mind that bass will move deeper to escape the considerably warmer shallow water as the summer season progresses, and that bass prefer to feed in the shallows during the low-light and cooler periods of the day, you should be OK. To target bass I would suggest that you learn to fish comfortably with four specific lures. These four lures will help you put bass in the boat on a regular basis. If I were told I was only allowed to pack a 2-liter ice cream container to take fishing, these four lures would take precedence over anything else in my tackle box. Spinnerbait A spinnerbait is one of the best fish-finding lures you could ever fish with. It is a lure that can be presented under a variety of different scenarios; from flooded brush, submerged weedbeds, and standing timber, to bridge pilings, boat docks, and submerged roadbeds. A spinnerbait can be retrieved fast enough to make a wake bulge just below the water’s surface, or slow enough to bump the bottom like a Carolina-rig. It is a great lure to ‘burn-the-banks’ with when trying to find active bass roaming the shallows.  Crankbait Another power bait; I class the crankbait in the same terms as a spinnerbait. It is a lure that can be used to cover a great amount of water when fish are spread out and difficult to target. Square-lipped balsa crankbaits can be fished ultra-shallow, amongst the timber, and through flooded shoreline vegetation; whilst big-lipped, deep-diving crankbaits can be coaxed to bump structure at 20-foot depths.  Soft plastics There are a myriad of soft plastic lures available on the market today, but I can assure you, everyone has their choice favourite. I have several favourites, which I apply under different situations, but if I had to select one, graded on fish- catchability, my first choice would be a Yum Houdini Shad, a bait designed to imitate a minnow. My second choice would be a Yum Dinger, a soft stickbait which looks like nothing but has a fish-catching record second-to-none. Soft plastics can be used in countless different presentations, but the most popular presentations would be Texas-, Carolina-, and mojo-rigged.  Topwater A topwater lure is another great lure to use when you are trying to locate fish. Even though their productive window period is quite small – early morning, late afternoon, and the occasional overcast day – you know that if you have caught fish, had a blow-up, or even missed fish, in a specific area on a topwater plug, you can go back later in the day and fish that same area with a different presentation and still catch fish. The topwater action proved to you that there are bass in the area; you just need to figure out the best way to catch them throughout the day. Enjoy your summer of bass fishing – but always be prepared – protect yourself against the heat, the sun, and dehydration! |
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