Approaching a new venue is always some what intimidating. Approaching a new venue in the winter months well, that is just seriously daunting. We all know how difficult a venue can prove to be in winter even if you are considered local.
Some Karpioene anglers got together to take on wild waters in the mountains of Limpopo. We had very little knowledge regarding the venue but knew what potential this venue could hold. These waters are very seldomly fished by anyone besides the locals from the surrounding communities. So with it being winter and having very little resources to extract information from we knew we had a big task on our hands.
Fishing in winter entails alot of precision. Doing every little bit to the best of your ability. Finding the perfect drop off, structure, table top or margin. In my personal experiences, it is so important to identify every piece of evidence as to where the fish may be holding up or their partolling routes. Look for fish surfacing possibly broken grass in the margins and the most important, know your fish finder. If u can make use of these methods then you already have the edge.
We arrived late on Friday afternoon with a bit of sunlight to spare. Knowing the days are shorter in the winter we knew the number 1 priority was to get onto the water and spend time getting to know the features that may well hold the quality fish we were looking for. Having plenty to choose from we had to choose which features we thought looked best and looked to be holding more fish according to the finder. Amongst the 4 fishermen we found features such as ledges(stepping 4-5m) and a couple dead trees. These would be our target areas for the weekend to come.
As the evening progressed we quickly realised our thoughts of it being a tough weekends fishing weren’t just thoughts but instead a reality. Brandon hill managed a common for 7.6 kg at 2am saturday morning whilst the rest of us saw dawn without a fish yet. Sean Tucker would be up next with his alarm interupting our breakfast. He managed to land a small soccer ball common of around 6kg. Knowing the venue holds bigger carp and more specifically bigger mirrors we changed tactics slightly. We noticed both fish had been caught at the same depth so we each made sure we could find some sort of a ‘hot spot’ on that specific depth.
That night Sean had 2 runs on his right hand rod which both ended up in snags and eventually lost. At around 3am Eugene’s rod screamed away and he bagged an absolute stunning scaly mirror of around 8kg. This fish was truly beautiful and had almost a linear pattern on him and a nice fat belly as well. The sack was full of mussel shells when we released her and we knew there could be some treasures hiding in the depths. Whilst packing up our campsites Sean had another take at around 11am and he was on the water in heartbeat. Luckily the fish swam into open water and he managed to land this one…and oh what an amazing looking character this was. A Fat Round Mirror of around 8kg ended up in the cradle and he had so much fun shooting and releasing this beauty. She ended our session on a true high and had us fist pumping all the way back to Pretoria.
The baits we used in this session were mainly hemp, tigers and very little sweetcorn and we also mixed some crushed Psycho originals for that added attraction. Small mouse trap on 6m depth was all it took.
