'Nother Noob

[R11]

Hi there

I started bassing a year-or-so back on our local dam in the estate where I live. The dam has been stocked about 4 years ago and up to date I have only managed a pb of just under 2.0 kg.

NO boats or kickboats allowed on the little dam and as the season progressed I started finding it increasingly difficult to figure out the patterns. The dam has lots of grass and I am at the moment only fishing a few options:

Soft plastics (fluke, worm.)
Swim jigs with some paddle-tail trailers.
Spinner bait.
normal jigs, (But it is a schlep trying to fish it here with all the weed.)
I have a number of poppers and floating jerk-baits, but have had no success on them.

I have been drawing a blank for the past two weeks and just cannot seem to locate the big fish. I only get nibbles from the youngsters.! I have tried deep channels, shallow water etc. but to no avail.

What would be your suggestions as to where to start searching and which patterns to try out?

I am close to Hartbeespoort dam and it is getting cold in the afternoons.

I would appreciate your ideas?!

[Riprap]

Hi R11 and welcome boet.
Try a CBC rig with flukes or twin tail zoom fat alberts - you didn't mention water clarity?
See the link below:

<!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.bassfishing.co.za/bassingnews/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=4352">modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=4352</a><!-- l -->

You can also make your own size sinkers as follows:
Cut (snip) mojo sinker into required size, flatten one side to drill a hole slightly bigger than the hook barb, round off and flatten sharp edges with a nail file, paint black with a permanent marker. or
Use a splitshot on a small loop of light nylon to slip on the hook.

For what it's worth.........this is but one of thousands of possible suggestions which you might get!

[R11]

HI riprap, thanks! Water clarity is very murky at the moment. (we had a bit of a storm on Easter Sunday.) I would say that visibility is about 15-20cm! Temperature I am not too sure of but i am fishing black, Junebug colours in this water... Not sure if this is correct...

[Riprap]

Then don't be scared to try baitfish & white pearl maybe with some glitter :blue-question: :blue-question:
Every body of water has a different on switch!

[webbrent]

Also don't be shy to get a Top Water bait, like a Hollow Bodied Frog like this <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://goo.gl/Uzue0">http://goo.gl/Uzue0</a><!-- m -->

Have to agree with RipRap as well. Try different colors. Watermelon Seed, Baitfish etc... "The Rules" state dirty water darker colors, clearer water, lighter colors. Pffft sometimes "The Rules" just don't work :blue-shock:

Depending how thick the grass is that you are fishing, I like to fish Worms and Flukes weightless with a very little Splitshot on. UberWorm specifically gets a lot of action in grass patches

[Ernst]

I fished chocolate water not to long ago an for me a junebug 5" cat's senko on a mojo rig worked a charm cast it to your structure give line till it reaches the bottom engage your spool let it lie for 5 or so seconds give it a slight twitch then twitch it all the way back to you.

but as Riprap says anything could work and you can open a savings account with all the 2c worth's you gona get at the end of the day it could be pressure bass can learn and they learn fast.

[R11]

Thank you all for the responses.

Yesterday afternoon late I tried started fishing with a weighted creature bait in white colour which produced nada. I then switched to a weightless junebug 5" worm with a flat tail. This only produced action (few chases) on the fall and a chase or two when retrieved over the grass. I then switched to a Rapala X-rap as the fish obviously wanted a faster action. This produced 2 small (landed) fish. I think the point is that I am constantly changing if nothing works in the first 10 or so casts.

I am still searching for the larger ones though! They seem to have stopped feeding now already which I find strange...

Blue Skies
S

[R11]

Late yesterday afternoon, 17:45 - 18:00 I landed three fish. First ON, was a 1.8kg boytjie, then a 800g toddler and then a very very small baby bass, about twice the size of my Sensation mini popper.

It was good fun, but also strange that the feeding frenzy lasted only about 15 minutes. Another bank angler close to me also hooked one and landed one fish of about 1kg. After this time the bite turned off completely.

This late in the AVI, I only use top-water and on this occasion it was the Sensation mini pop (KURPER) which did the trick.

St