mission happened while walking back to the car....we moved slowly down a section of stream, where I saw a small pool ( more like a puddle ) a few metres downstream. The water was ankle deep but I was messing around and had a throw anyway. Armed with a small squirrel tail plastic I launched it towards the puddle and BOOM, there was a movement out of the right hand brush and I was on. Even though the largie just about fit in my hand I remember holding it up to my face and looking deep into its beautiful natural flesh and wandering if anyone had ever seen this fish before? The mountains around me, the smiles of my two buddies, the fresh breeze on my cheeks and the fact that there was not a soul in sight for approximately 40 kilometres made me wonder if this feeling would ever change or disappear?
To this day that tiny bass in the Franshoek
mountain stream lives deep within my
soul and has played a big part in my
mission for adventure.
18 months later, after numerous fishing
trips, comps and hundreds of bass, I’m
glad to say that I still get that feeling.
But my sense of needing to find fresh
new spots often has me in a google map
infused frenzy! You see, I have become
motivated to get to know the bigger,
more frequented spots on the circuit as
well as some regular KBT hangouts, but
I constantly find myself asking the
question of ‘what if!?’ I so often hear
stories of guys discovering new dams in
distant towns and can’t seem to shake the
idea that the perfect venue is out there!
Two months ago I forced my car off a very busy Cape highway to have a few throws in a piece of water I have seen on a weekly basis for the last 30 years but have always dismissed as a ‘dead’ dam. Why was I so quick to write off this piece of water? Because it’s next to a highway and nobody ever fishes it? Really!? I have now safely written it off my list because I have taken the time and effort to fish it thoroughly.
We recently fished a comp at a previously unknown dam near Villiersdorp. Did the farmer who owns this land one day decide to share his piece of magic with the bass fraternity? Not a chance....a fellow KBT competitor that stays in the area went out in search of unfished waters and has since shared this piece of heaven with his fellow bassers. If he didn’t go, we wouldn’t know!
I recently received some photos of a few buddies on a late night topwater mission at a VERY private, popular and seemingly unfishable waterfront shopping complex. I almost cried when I saw those pictures. How did they know? They put in the time and made the effort.
I have come across three separate venues I fish quite often these days between competitions. These are venues I doubt many people know about or would bother to find or fish. I google mapped, phoned, asked the locals and approached these spots with a positive attitude. I broke out of my usual, comfortable shell and pushed a little harder and further in search of
something new and exciting. The work paid off and I hope to take my kids and grandkids to these venues someday in the distant future.
The pessimist in me often fights back with rather dire realities like ‘what if there are no fish?’ I would love to say the fishing is not the most important thing, but I would be lying. So over my last few missions I have come up with some full proof strategies to ensure success at new venues. My number one tool is to always research and check for any other dams or rivers in the region I am visiting. I will often spend the first day fishing two or three pieces of water trying to determine which spot is better. This has paid off on many occasions!
Article & Images by Rory Heidmann
Bass Digest/June, 2014