By Eugene Kruger
River Fishing is probably as exciting as it gets simply because of the possibilities of catching a monster and the amazing looking characters that swim in the river system. Most of us drive over bridges and and have a quick sneak down at the river below to see if we cant possibly spot a turning carp or 2.
We recently joined SA Specimen angler Danny Pretorius on a one night session at his secret spot on the Crocodile River for some Dark Croc River Carp. The spot is tucked away under lush bankside forest surrounded with all kinds of wildlife including the illusive Nile Crocodiles which have made their appearance a number of times says Danny. This adventure was something I have been looking forward to for a number of years and finally got to join Danny for a night on the river.
Our approach was simple – Feed loads of bigger particles like maize, tigers and samp – as the smaller particles seem to drift away with the current. The river was a lot shallower than I expected but like all rivers it had super cool structure to fish to including an old tree sticking out which created a good area for birds to sit on. This for me meant fish under the tree. Reeds beds were all over the banks and some had nice deep drops right next to them. We also found some sand banks which channeled the stream and meant that any passing fish had to follow the path and a perfect spot to drop a line.
That morning Danny was on and managed to land 2 fish right after each other – one being a nice 10kg plus fish. I had a few barbel in the afternoon and also dropped 3 fish in the snags. I quickly made sure that all my tackle was spot on and managed to get another chance early the next morning with a smaller dark river common taken on a maize stringer. While Danny and I were dropping my lines after that fish we heard in the distance Danny’s rod screaming off. Luckily the fish was well hooked and we managed to land yet another dark beauty.
We had 6 Carp (most didnt make the video) and 4 Barbel that night. What an awesome adventure and already looking forward to the next one at that spot.
