BASSING
MARK & CAMERON ALLEN
Welcome to the final part of our Bassing Escapades session with Mark & Cameron Allen on Albert Falls Dam leading on from our June 2014 Edition.
Bass Digest: Mark, do you belong to a club?
Mark Allen: Yes I do. I belong to the Inanda Bass Club. It’s a very strong club at the moment, and what’s nice about clubs is you get to meet new people and learn from them while you are competing. A lot of guys will share their spots and knowledge, but not everyone will. Of course one must understand that some of these guys fish Divisionals and they work hard to find the spots and figure out patterns so you can’t just expect them to lay it all out for the others.
Juniors are getting to spend quality time with the senior members and gaining good experience. Look at Martin de Kock for instance – he has been assisting the youngsters a lot lately. He’s a phenomenal angler to have helping you. As long as we can keep the youngsters happy and interested, it will be good for the sport in the long run.
Bass Digest: Cameron, tell us about your first memories of bass fishing...
Cameron Allen: Well, as my Dad said, I was about 4 years old when we saw those guys catching under the bridge. I remember my first tackle box was a tiny little thing with these grubs in it –bright yellow, and pink and orange. I can’t recall whether I caught anything on them but I do recall catching lots of fish on spinnerbaits in those days.
I remember our first little boat that we got a few months later – a little yellow boat with a 28lb trolling motor.
Mark Allen: It was almost like the Tug. I’ll never forget, one day I took the wife and two kids to go out and navigate the Vaal. We quickly learnt that we needed some outboard power, so we got ourselves a 25hp motor and chucked it on the back. Man it was chaotic!
Bass Digest: Tell us about your boats and what you had before...
Mark Allen: We progressed from a 25hp Yammie to an Evinrude (which, funnily enough landed up falling off the back of the boat, was salvaged and then rebuilt). Then we bought a speed boat (Swift 160) and did a bass boat conversion on it. After that we bought our first bass boat, “Bass Esprit”, and then moved onto a “Bass Seeker”.
Bass Digest/July, 2014