Savage & Bossie go to Roodeplaat Dam
Date: Friday and Saturday, 9 & 10th of March.
Time: Arrived at 16:00 on Friday, left on Saturday 15:00.
Accessability: Good enough to drive with family car.
Time: Arrived at 16:00 on Friday, left on Saturday 15:00.
Accessability: Good enough to drive with family car.
Weather: Mild on Friday (27 degrees Celsius) warm on Saturday (30 degrees Celsius).
Scattered clouds on Friday and Saturday. Little rain early in the week. Wind blew slightly in east and west directions, both days.
Water condition: Clear in patches. Few green 'clouds' scattered just under water surface, due to plant residue.
Water temperature: Will remember to add next time.
"Here we go Bossie." "This is it Savage!"
Our first trip to Roodeplaat dam. Yes it was a spur of the moment thing. We knew that we wanted to go fishing but we had to decide between Rietvlei and Roodeplaat. Guess which one won?
We arrived at Roodeplaat at about 16:00 on Friday afternoon. We took the route to the southern part of the dam, towards the Angling Grounds. As it was our first time we were astonished at how close the dam was in relation to Pretoria. Location wise it is a great choice for any angler in the Gauteng area. Upon arriving we decided to ask the 'locals' for some inside information. The locals being the guard at the gate. He promptly told us that the best fishing spot was certainly on the left of the big Blue-gum tree. We found the tree, and went to the left, where we found... lots of anglers. Apparently a lot of people spoke to the guard at the gate.
"What is it with that tree anyway?"
We decided to get more info, and stopped to ask two friendly looking chaps that were busy packing up. I asked them if they had been lucky to catch anything and heard the following, "One BIG one and two smaller ones," was the reply. Three fish was not what we had in mind, even if one was a BIG one. So I pushed for more information. "Yes the left side of the Blue-gum is the best spot for fishing, but just for carp."
hmmmmm.
We wanted to catch as much as possible of as many species as possible. So to my next question he replied, "The best place for kurper and the like is by that bakkie." He was pointing in the direction of the Blue-gum. What is it with that tree anyway... Actually he pointed just to the right of the blue-gum. Off we went. We positioned ourselves as close as possible to the people already sitting in the 'best' spot and set up camp.
Lesson learned?
Try and find out before hand were the best places are at the venue that you want to fish. This will save a lot of time. We wasted probably 45 minutes of time gathering information about were to fish. Time that we could have spent fishing.
"Kap hom boet!"
It was a beautiful day and we had our gear ready in about a hour after we arrived. Now it was time to put on some worms and wait. My brother started on the 'bomme' for carp but in the meanwhile we angled for kurper. Luckily we did not have to wait long for the first bite and pretty soon we caught our first tiny little Barbel. He took little red worms that we had bought at Rietvlei earlier. We loaded up again. By now the bait for the carp was ready and we loaded our brand new rods with that as well. My brother flavoured his Rietvlei-strop with strawberry and to mine I added a bit of Almond. It was starting to get late. I had a promising bite and promptly landed a pan sized (my guess 1kg) carp. I loaded up again (almond) and went of to check on the fire we started for supper. Next moment my brother shouted that I had a bite. We both saw that I would not make it in time. "Kap hom boet!" I shouted. He did, and landed the biggest carp of the weekend. It weighed in at 2,5 kg. Deffinately not big by carp standards, but big enough by ours. After that the bites kept coming but mostly on worms. The barbel liked our worms. Our last fish that night came just before the moon made its appearance. It was a carp and we caught it on a worm. That was strange, was the thought going through my mind, just before we went to bed at about 02:00. I wasn't used to carp going for worms.
The next morning we started fishing again and caught a few barbel. Again on worms and again the size of these creatures were quite small. We also started to land a few carp. This time they all took worms. I loaded my carp rod with worms and it worked. unfortunately all the fish that we caught was undersized, ranging in between 1kg to about 500 grams. The rest of the afternoon went past and at about 15:00 we decided to call it a day.
A fun weekend.
Carp
We used Almond, Strawberry, Rum, Brandy and Banana flavours for our carp bait. Only the Almond and Strawberry seemed to work. Almond being the best of the lot.
Kurper
For kurper we used worms, peas and brownbread-pap. Nothing worked
Barbel
We didn't plan on cathing any barbel but ended up catching about 5 (1kg and less).
Bass
We tried for bass but was unsuccesfull.
Angling Grounds
Contact Gideon at 072 638 8529 or 072 638 8530 Gates open at 06:00 and close again at 18:00. http://www.dinokengtouristguide.co.za/Product_Holders/A_E/Angling%20Grounds%20Roodeplaat/Angling_Grounds_Roodeplaat.html
If you have any tips for us, please let us know.
Thanx Savage
Scattered clouds on Friday and Saturday. Little rain early in the week. Wind blew slightly in east and west directions, both days.
Water condition: Clear in patches. Few green 'clouds' scattered just under water surface, due to plant residue.
Water temperature: Will remember to add next time.
"Here we go Bossie." "This is it Savage!"
Our first trip to Roodeplaat dam. Yes it was a spur of the moment thing. We knew that we wanted to go fishing but we had to decide between Rietvlei and Roodeplaat. Guess which one won?
We arrived at Roodeplaat at about 16:00 on Friday afternoon. We took the route to the southern part of the dam, towards the Angling Grounds. As it was our first time we were astonished at how close the dam was in relation to Pretoria. Location wise it is a great choice for any angler in the Gauteng area. Upon arriving we decided to ask the 'locals' for some inside information. The locals being the guard at the gate. He promptly told us that the best fishing spot was certainly on the left of the big Blue-gum tree. We found the tree, and went to the left, where we found... lots of anglers. Apparently a lot of people spoke to the guard at the gate.
"What is it with that tree anyway?"
We decided to get more info, and stopped to ask two friendly looking chaps that were busy packing up. I asked them if they had been lucky to catch anything and heard the following, "One BIG one and two smaller ones," was the reply. Three fish was not what we had in mind, even if one was a BIG one. So I pushed for more information. "Yes the left side of the Blue-gum is the best spot for fishing, but just for carp."
hmmmmm.
We wanted to catch as much as possible of as many species as possible. So to my next question he replied, "The best place for kurper and the like is by that bakkie." He was pointing in the direction of the Blue-gum. What is it with that tree anyway... Actually he pointed just to the right of the blue-gum. Off we went. We positioned ourselves as close as possible to the people already sitting in the 'best' spot and set up camp.
Lesson learned?
Try and find out before hand were the best places are at the venue that you want to fish. This will save a lot of time. We wasted probably 45 minutes of time gathering information about were to fish. Time that we could have spent fishing.
"Kap hom boet!"
It was a beautiful day and we had our gear ready in about a hour after we arrived. Now it was time to put on some worms and wait. My brother started on the 'bomme' for carp but in the meanwhile we angled for kurper. Luckily we did not have to wait long for the first bite and pretty soon we caught our first tiny little Barbel. He took little red worms that we had bought at Rietvlei earlier. We loaded up again. By now the bait for the carp was ready and we loaded our brand new rods with that as well. My brother flavoured his Rietvlei-strop with strawberry and to mine I added a bit of Almond. It was starting to get late. I had a promising bite and promptly landed a pan sized (my guess 1kg) carp. I loaded up again (almond) and went of to check on the fire we started for supper. Next moment my brother shouted that I had a bite. We both saw that I would not make it in time. "Kap hom boet!" I shouted. He did, and landed the biggest carp of the weekend. It weighed in at 2,5 kg. Deffinately not big by carp standards, but big enough by ours. After that the bites kept coming but mostly on worms. The barbel liked our worms. Our last fish that night came just before the moon made its appearance. It was a carp and we caught it on a worm. That was strange, was the thought going through my mind, just before we went to bed at about 02:00. I wasn't used to carp going for worms.
The next morning we started fishing again and caught a few barbel. Again on worms and again the size of these creatures were quite small. We also started to land a few carp. This time they all took worms. I loaded my carp rod with worms and it worked. unfortunately all the fish that we caught was undersized, ranging in between 1kg to about 500 grams. The rest of the afternoon went past and at about 15:00 we decided to call it a day.
A fun weekend.
Carp
We used Almond, Strawberry, Rum, Brandy and Banana flavours for our carp bait. Only the Almond and Strawberry seemed to work. Almond being the best of the lot.
Kurper
For kurper we used worms, peas and brownbread-pap. Nothing worked
Barbel
We didn't plan on cathing any barbel but ended up catching about 5 (1kg and less).
Bass
We tried for bass but was unsuccesfull.
Angling Grounds
Contact Gideon at 072 638 8529 or 072 638 8530 Gates open at 06:00 and close again at 18:00. http://www.dinokengtouristguide.co.za/Product_Holders/A_E/Angling%20Grounds%20Roodeplaat/Angling_Grounds_Roodeplaat.html
If you have any tips for us, please let us know.
Thanx Savage
3 comments:
Just a note on "Angling Grounds":
The place was clean and easy to get to. The roads are in good condition and accessible with any type of vehicle. No electricity though and I personally wouldn’t drink the water, so remember to take plenty of water and your own toilet paper. Their web space on www.dinokengtouristguide.co.za says there is a shop, but that closed a while ago. Take all your own bait and tackle (pap en wurms).
Talking about kurper, if you are a fly fisherman the best fly to use on a bright day is an orange wooly bugger, works a treat in the lowveld.
Thanx Robbie. I've got a pink one an olive one and several of the all time favorite, black ones. I'll try to get my hands on an orange one.
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