Unfortunately the angling industry in SA is – “by my judgment” – not in a very good condition. Although there are a couple of initiatives to get more youth involved the sheer cost involved is actually scaring a lot of folks away.
I have been angling since I was four and must admit that I have enjoyed it tremendously over the years. Not being a water-rich country we are limited to only a couple of places to actually fish and these are usually too far for a day trip. The ones that are closer by are mismanaged and run down. Thus the average angler only gets a chance to fish once a month – that is unless he has a very forgiving wife who can stand being a water widow more that once a month. Saying that I must also admit that a lot of women are involved with fishing round here and it is seen as a great family break.
One of the biggest problems facing SA angling at this stage is the catch and release ethic recently introduced. There is no closed season or any bag limits and the governing resources are stretched to the limit as it is so I don’t think it will become a law any time soon. I still go on weekend outings and see many an angler catching fish and taking bag loads home. Most private owned dams – to small to be called lakes and definately cant be classified as a gravel pit – are closed to the public because of this problem as well as anglers that are careless.
Another problem facing us is the sheer cost of equipment, not the cheap run of the mill eastern products that last one season but the real McCoy as they say. Company’s that import products from manufacturers such as Relum and Fox – to name but two – are faced with the enormous dilemma of an exchange rate of 11 to 1 – probably worse by the time you read this. Thus anything that is seen as essentials for anglers in Europe are seen as luxury’s here. Under these items are unhooking mats, weigh slings, most of the braids, flavours dips and terminal tackle. Real nice to have such as bivvies, rod pods, buzzer bars and the new alarms; they are really for the select few that can literally spend thousands on equipment.
My brother-in-law owns an engineering firm so we are trying to develop a more cost-effective alternative to the costly rod pods from Europe. I’ll keep you updated on that because we have a few unique ideas. Due to the cost of ready-made rigs we are tying our own. The problem with this is that we don’t get enough time to fish to actually see the results of our efforts so it might work and it might not.
Boilies are the newest stuff to hit the market round here. We have one excellent manufacturer of Boilies called “Boilies for Africa”. I must admit that being conditioned that local products are a cheap alternative I was surprised by the quality of this product and would rate it among the finest in the world.
When I first bough a couple of boilies – after I have read an article about them in a local magazine – I tried using them as hook bait the same way I used corn or paste. Needless to say, seven broken boilies and four misshapen hooks later I gave up. The article never mentioned anything about the so-called hair rig.
After that trip I started browsing the Internet. Hmm, was I surprised to see how far behind we actually were in respect to carp angling. Seeing that this is our main freshwater angling species with cats coming in a close second I really would have thought that these methods would have been launched here sooner seeing that it has been in use for longer than what I am on this earth.
I hit my local angling shop with a force that even would have shamed Hurricane Andrew only to have the salesman looking at me as if I said I was a visitor from Mars and am looking for his leader. So a new challenge emerged and a couple of searches on the internet for local sites pertaining to boilies and calling about a hundred angling shops in South Africa produced a net result of three local shops having equipment catering for boilie fishing and specimen angling.
Once again I was on the road with my wife’s comment about the signs of obsessive behaviours still ringing in my ear. Nothing was going to stop me from learning this brand new method of angling. Nothing, that was, until I was actually in the shop. Yep, there I was like a kid in a candy store. I didn’t know where to look and where to touch. Wow! The names rolled off the tongue like honey; it was the fisherman’s answer to paradise.
And then my eyes hit the price tags. Yep that stopped me dead in my tracks; the king’s castle came tumbling down. Could this be for real? Must be a joke I thought, just to be reminded by the store clerk that this stuff is especially imported from England. Yep, he told me about the amount spend on research and development and the cost involved in testing the products but I knew if I really wanted to be a divorced angler it would only take a small bag of the products on display in front of me. That’s when it hit me, why not tie your own? Well that was easier said than done and what do I know about the presentations of bait and all that fancy stuff I keep reading about on the Internet. Well I had Boilies and I knew they must be on a hook to catch a fish but how to get them there. Superglue?
That was my first thought but I knew that wasn’t right so I did some testing with tying a hair rig. Using mono I made a hair using the knotless-knot to my normal Mustad hook and then tied to a normal swivel (no barrel or any fancy thing that would have cost me R18.00 a pop). This I tied to the mainline with a method feeder (luckily this is an old way of angling round here – we just used to have the hook inside before we got hit with method feeders). Now we don’t have narrow rivers round here, or rather not where I fish. The average length of 300 meters is the place to fish and that would have you a third way into the river itself.
So on a baitboat the makeshift parcel was placed and being seny to its destination. Now the boilie was secured with small piece of match to the hair and I had no idea about how far away from the hook bend the boilie should be or what the hooklength should be. This was my first try and I was as excited as a small kid awaiting the arrival of the Ice cream man on a hot summer’s afternoon.
I have only tied one boilie to each hook as this, I thought, was the norm. Sitting back and playing with different methods for tying these new toys I was suddenly taken aback by my centerpin starting to whine and complain that something was pulling its line off. I was frozen for a few seconds like a deer caught in a car’s headlights. Not that I ever heard a reel run before but seeing that this actually works after most of my fellow anglers thought I was crazy – where did you ever see that you can catch a fish without having the hook inside of the bait?
Well I was so excited that there was no playing about and I wound so fast the carp looked like a skier being dragged behind a boat. My first attempt landed me a nice common of around 10lbs. Not the biggest fish I have ever caught but definitely one of the most thrilling. The carp was neatly hooked in the corner of the mouth. That day I landed two smaller carp round 8lbs but the surprise of the day was a catfish of 25lbs. Never being one for going out to catch cats I never knew they could put up such a fight. Well needless to say not only was I hooked on this method but my fellow anglers are showing quite an interest as well.
Finding out that I was the only one using Boilies at the local club and after reading how suspicious carp are of new food sources I would jot this day down as one of my most successful. Even if I had caught more and bigger in the past it was never as thrilling. It has been eight months since that day and I have certainly studied up a lot on this method. There are so many factors that I never knew about such as how to utilize groundbait and the different rigs and what methods and flavours would work best in what situation. The list is endless and I do believe that it would never be defined as a given but as long as I am able I will learn and one thing that I have learned is that there are many people out there with advice and even more who are in need of it. So if you have something to share you must because you were once in the same shoes. If you don’t share your knowledge you cant expect the sport to grow.
In essence, the point I want to make is that these methods were never used before, or rarely anyhow. Specimen angling is new, boilies are new, most equipment used by European anglers are new and not to mention rigs such a bolt, in-line, safety and heaven forbid, the helicopter rig. Carp is seen as given with the Yellow fish the natural predator and possibly the most valued fish that can be caught in SA waters. Unfortunately due to no one actually giving a rats ass – sorry for the choice of words but this a quite a sore point with me – about the condition of our fish, most big carp and yellows were wiped out or driven to places that are so secluded that I don’t ever think they will return to normal levels.
Farmers are fed up with the nuisances that anglers have become and don’t allow fishing at all on their grounds. Local dams are mismanaged and no one has an Idea about stock levels or the actual condition of waters. So we have a challenge ahead of us – how do we rectify many years of damage? I guess a closed season will help but that will mean a big loss of income for clubs and some farmers that still allow fishing on their properties. I do not have an answer and it seems that conscientious anglers outnumber a hundred to one those that just don’t give a dime. I guess it comes down to personal contact, trying to convince your fellow angler not to keep fish in the net for five days until he leaves and then only decide which fish to keep.
To make things worse netting has been approved for the first time in our rivers. This is, of course, only for people who are dependant on fish as a food source. Needless to say there is no control thereof and people are killing off our resources faster than ever.
I think I’d better stop else I will keep you busy reading for a long time. There are still many things I wish to write about. I am going on a five day trip in three weeks time and have a lot of testing to do with some new bait that I seen in a shop recently. These are Hutchie products so any advice would be appreciated. At this stage I do not know what to purchase and I know it doesn’t help asking the shopkeeper, after all he is a businessman and wont comment much on any on the products. I am looking to test the Scopex range and am looking for something to target catfish. I also will be trying out some particles, as this is also new round here. We only used corn and maize in the past. Well, time to test peanuts, hemp and others.
I am planning a reference website for next year about Fishing in South Africa. This will be more in the line of conditions and bait information. There are a couple of local tour operators that arrange fishing trips for overseas visitors and will put that up as well. Not affiliated with me though so it wont be a marketing ploy. I just feel that a lot of people can enjoy a trip to Africa and try their hand at some tiger fishing or some real big carp fishing at Klaserie dam. With the current exchange rate it can also be a bargain. I Would like get Matt and Jan’s take on our waters. I don’t think we will ever have big carp as in Europe but what we can offer is totally virgin waters where you really don’t know what to expect. Anything can happen and that is exactly the way I like it. I don’t want to know what the biggest fish is and I certainly don’t want to know its name. As long as I know there are fish I know I can expect anything.
So, until my next chapter……..
Regards
Leon Foreman
4 Sederstreet
Dal Fouche
Springs1559
South Africa
+27 83 3089781
