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”.
Then an opportunity came up with this 2007 model dual console Nitro 482, and I decided to buy it. It has a 2007 model 150HP Mercury Optimax outboard motor. It’s a great platform to fish off, really stable on the water, and it’s good build quality. It should last me a lifetime, but hey let’s see!
I have 2 x Lowrance HDS 5m (Gen 2) units on the dash, and a Lowrance HDS8m on the bow. I was very fortunate to be co-sponsored by Brian du Toit at Windy Bay Agencies. John Easton from Fishtec also helped me a lot by helping me set up and using the units. I also have the Fishtec maps of some of our local dams like Inanda and Albert Falls Dams, which have a great deal of detail on it.
I don’t use the finders that much in the shallow water, but when fishing offshore, I definitely make use of my finders a lot.
Bass Digest: Are you a shallow or deep fisherman?
Mark Allen: In order to be competitive, you need to be able to fish either shallow or deep. However, you need to know WHEN to fish these areas. Shallow fishing can be mind-numbing at times, especially when you have these featureless banks as we are fishing right now in Kyalami bay, thanks to the rising water level of late. Other times it can be very rewarding. If I had to choose, I would prefer to fish offshore structure.
I am more of a power fisherman and it certainly helped at Inter Provincials held at Wriggleswade last year.
I was quite disheartened after practice day because the pattern that we latched onto was a very shallow bite with very light mojo and junior flukes type fishing, but at the end of the day, my offshore fishing was rewarded with a 4kg fish, which helped me win for Natal.
I must say it was a highlight of my career so far, for a number of reasons. It was a body of water which I didn’t really know (although I had fished it many, many years ago), I was fishing a technique that I wouldn’t consider calling my strength, and we came away with the win.
We had a very good team led by our team Captain, Ziggy (Fregust Ziemkendorf), good team spirit, the event was well organised, and although we partied hard, we worked just as hard!
We were able to figure out 2 main patterns for the tournament, and we stuck with that – I was fishing a small lizard while my partner, Carlo Talanda, was fishing a small junior fluke. The other pattern was using very small swimbaits through the grass. Carlo managed to catch 2 beautiful fish on day 2 with that technique, as well as catching numerous fish, which helped us to cull.
What was also rewarding, was being able to catch good fish using that technique in an area other anglers had just left.
Bass Digest/July, 2014