Bass Digest: Catching the heaviest 5 fish in every tournament is always the goal every angler hopes to achieve. What advice would you offer to any angler wishing to increase the size of fish they wish to catch?
Japie Botha: This is a difficult one. Because of the divisional and national tournament conditions it’s more important to catch a limit of 5 fish first. This sometimes proofs to be vital during multiple day tournaments where there’s an allocation of points towards the actual fish that an angler catch. You can then look for bigger fish if you are not onto a big-fish pattern. I would say that to be able to get the heavier fish you should know where to find them and this is where the time that you spend on the water comes in. It’s not difficult to catch bass when you know where they are.
Bass Digest: All Anglers experience bad days on the water, days when things just don’t seem to go your way. Was there any point in the season when this happened to you and what did you do to overcome this?
Japie Botha: This can very easily happen to any angler any day. It happened to me before in a tournament where the fishing just switched of. I had less than two hours to go and had one keeper on the boat. I was confident that the area I fished had fish and I scaled down using 8lb line and finesse baits and caught my limit in 15minutes. Only 5 out of 53 anglers caught limit that day.
Bass Digest: “What happens on tour stays on tour” but at Bass Digest we like to tell all. What is your funniest moment you can recall on tour?
Japie Botha: TI had a camera boat with me on day 3 and had a small overwind but you obviously don’t want to show that to the camera. I made a soft cast hoping that the line will come out only to burn/cut my line of which was more embarrassing.
Bass Digest: What advice do you have for young aspiring bass anglers that hope to achieve the level of fishing you have?
Japie Botha: 4 words, time on the water! To add some meat to this statement I can also say that hard work always pays off. I always do my best, it all depends what goals you have set for yourself.
Bass Digest: Being such an accomplished angler already, where to from here for you? What are your aspirations & goals for the future?
Japie Botha: I'm currently taking a year off divisionals for our wedding in March and the Federation Nation end of 2014. Im going to give the Federation nation my best shot since I’m “only” fishing against 7/8 other anglers for an entry into the Bassmaster Classic.
Bass Digest: Thank you for your time and we look forward to keeping track of your future bassing achievements. We also wish you all the best for the Federation nation and hope to see you make it to the Bassmaster Classic.
JAPIE BOTHA IS PROUDLY SPONSORED BY
Bass Digest/January, 2014