Bass Digest/February, 2014
THEEWATERSKLOOF BASS CLASSIC 2014
COMPETITOR REPORT by JM GRAVENOR
Day 1
Early start to the morning as we got up and got ready by 4:30am. As usual, the mad rush insued to get the boats launched. We had pulled number 19 for the first day's pull away.'s. Our number was called and we gunned our way to our first spot in an attempt to capitalise on the morning bite. The ride was hair-raising, as there were some really rough waves from the wind and wakes from the other boats. I really enjoyed the ride on Marc's Ranger despite the initial choppy waters. Definitely a dreamboat!
On our way to our 1st spot we noticed the majority of the field just around the corner from us. Everyone was of the belief that the 4.24kg model was caught by the sawmill (They weren't wrong). By now 2 hours had passed and we had nothing to show for our efforts.
We made a call to leave the over-populated area and made a turn to Eagle Island where a number of boats had been sitting for a few hours.We got to our spot where Marc was certain would produce some quality fish. This time I was armed with a heavy texas Fighting Frog rigged on 17lb Seaguar Invisx. We started pitching the standing timber agressively, and after an hour we only had one dink for our efforts. Then suddenly Marc struck and after a short fight our first keeper was in the boat. 30 minutes later Marc set the hook on another fish, immediately the fish attempted to hang him up in the timber, however Marc turned the fish and after an acrobatic display we both knew that this was the fish that would put us in a good placing. Although being Theewaters, anything could happen! I grabbed the net to scoop the fish and I was panicking more than Marc, and I was shouting "Drag!", "Drag!", "Get the Drag!", as the fish dived under the boat. I must admit I feel a bit stupid for trying to tell a pro how to fish. Marc was confident with the 12lb Seaguar Tatsu and tired out the fish until was in the net. High fives all around as we placed the 2.5kg Largie in the live-well. All that remained now was to cull the other small keeper.
We decided to let our fish-holding spot rest for Day 2 and pulled into another spot. On his first cast, Marc was hit using a Jewel Flip-n-jig with a BBB swimmin' Craw trailer. Now we had upgraded our dink with a 1.4kg model. YES!
We headed back to the weigh-in and weighed our 2 fish bag for the day. It came in at 3.9kg and earned us a respectable 4th place for Day 1. I was fairly disappointed that I hadn't managed to help upgrade our bag.
We emptied the rubbish out of the boat and rigged up our rods and made our way to the bar. There were many stories flying around about how big fish were lost and how things could of been different. Everyone seemed cheery about the day's fishing as the Theewaters Sports Club prepared Saturday nights meal. After eating 2 delicious (slightly salty) burgers we made our way to bed with the thought of initiation still bugging me.
Day 2
We approached day 2 with a different plan, as the pressure was surely taking it's toll from day 1 and it was going to be tough, or so some thought. We drew 32 for the 2nd day, and once we were off, we made our way to the spot where Marc caught the 2.5kg the previous day.