Buffelspoortdam

[Bassriff]

Hi Guys

Your mails make a very entertaining read.

I have last fished for bass when I was in primary school. I went with my Granddad. This only happened once a year. Those dasy are unforgettable. When reading Bergie's post on his trip with his grandson it reminded me of those days.

To get to my subject I recently bought the bare basics to start bassfishing. We went to Buffelspoortdam close to Rustenburg in North-West Province on 31 Dec with a two-man inflatable and lots of doubts and secret hopes of catching at least one fish. Not to be though.

The dam is very full and there are lots of waterplants growing from the bottom.

The water is clean in most parts. The sun was shining with a fervour. The wind blew reasonably strong most of the day.

I do not know the dam. There was a lot of boating activity. Only when we left did I notice that there were no boats up where the river flows into the dam.

I tried Texas rigs with the hook tip just slightly exposed with water melon Zoom red lizzards, weightless Zoom horny toad watermelon crawfish, Texas rigged Yum Houdini worm watermelon red flake and also tried a popper in green with neon yellowish underbelly which I worked according to the instructions I saw on this site for these.

I was too scared to try rigs or swimbaith that might get caught in the vegetation as any hook that had an exposed tip got gaught in tangles of the abundant aquatic flora.

I worked the plastics around the "biesies" and plantlife. My son tried har swimbaits from the bank. No luck.

Some carp angler lady told me that she sa bass ony early in the morning and the caught them with earthworms aff tha bank. She said that the sightings dwindle after 07H00. We were on the water by 08H00. Far to travel, inflate the boat etc.

Can one ascribe the blank run to the boating activity, wrong lures, temperature or just plainly our inexperience?

[Ninja]

Can one ascribe the blank run to the boating activity, wrong lures, temperature or just plainly our inexperience?

Hi Bassrif, a very warm welcome to the site.

This will not be the first time that you blank, it happens to all of us. If you read my report "Holiday Fishing II" you will see that I had just as hard time as you and I was on the water for 4 days with a boat. I think the main reason is water level. If the level of the dam shoots up you suddenly have an abundance of flooded vegetation and loads of of places for the bass to hide and feed. Another main factor could have been the barometric pressure; I'm a stern believer in that the fish feed best when there is a sudden and big drop in the pressure.

May I suggest you look at some of the forums in the archives on fishing conditions it will help a lot.

Enjoy the site and don't be scared to ask if you need to know something. :blue-cool: