Carpfishing South African Style

Carp fishing is an almost worldwide sport, & one thing is for sure ,those with a passion for the sport find it very challenging & put in a lot of effort to achieve outstanding results. Different countries have evolved slightly different fishing styles. Here is some interesting writing from Roger from S.A, describing the way carp fishing is utilised for sport in South Africa. - - - - Carpsava

South African Angling an Insight by roger;-

Angling in south Africa can be broken up into categories such as Rock and surf, Light tackle boat, Bass Fishing, Fly fishing (salt and freshwater), Freshwater fishing. The last category is what I will discuss.

Freshwater Angling

Angling is a multi-million Rand industry today, what with rods and reels, baits and dips right down to 4x4 motor vehicles, tents and caravans. Just about every South African has fished somewhere at some time. The freshwater angling scene can basically be broken down into two categories, social and organized angling.

SOCIAL ANGLING

The social angler's range from dad taking son for a weekend trip to experienced anglers not interested in belonging to a club or organization. Most just have two rods and enjoy a day at the river or dam, fishing, braai, sun bathing and swimming. If a fish is caught its just a bonus. These anglers are usually not interested in the latest and best. There are some that take the fishing trip serious and will have good equipment and catch a lot of fish, but it is still a social thing for them, if fish are not biting or the weather is not just right they will not fish. Most are surprisingly knowageable about the type of fish they fish for.

ORGANIZED ANGLING

This is where anglers compete with each other, the sport goes from club to international level. These anglers are serious about their equipment, baits and where they fish. Most of these anglers grow up fishing for a club, they learn to compete from an early age, do not get me wrong some do fall by the way side and others join clubs all the time. Most clubs will hold a competition on a monthly basis, each fish landed will be weighed in at the end of the session and points allocated, building up to a year end total and a club champion, with different trophies for heaviest bag heaviest specie fish most fish and so on.

All the provinces of South Africa have angling teams, What would normally be the case is all the clubs in the province will hold league fish ins, resulting in a champion club for the year, from this top anglers will be identified, these anglers irrespective of club will be invited to the provincial trials some fish for three week ends and others over a weekend here each province has its preference to pick its best team for the year.

Teams at club level and provincial level consist of 12 anglers, 1 reserve, 1 captain, 1 manager, making a total of 15 team members; this is for senior men. Women at club level are 4 anglers, reserve, captain and manager; the same goes for juniors.

The manager, captain and reserve assist anglers during the session with baits landing fish, information and sometimes motivation when the going gets hard.

They will also see to it that all fish are weighed in and they will take up any complaints or grudges lodged with the officials on duty. Actually this is a thankless job as it can be frustrating; when the fish are not coming out, or the anglers does not have the dip you want to use in his or her box. The rigs are not to your liking and so on. You end up walking kilometer's on the day, but it is just as rewarding in other ways, even more so if your team wins.

Here is a pic of the 'Transposable' center pin reels used for distance fishing in S.A. Looks like a normal center pin, but the spool can be 'plugged in' at 90 degrees. The reel then casts like any fixed spool would do. The lower spindle takes the spool for casting ('L' shaped, centre left in pic)

Above shows reel in casting mode, with such a big spool delivering line, it is important for the rods to have the big 30-50mm butt rings. This allows minimal friction from restricting the 'cone ' whilst casting.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A LEAGUE ANGLER.

The day or night before baits are prepared, in the week a team talk will have been held and bait tactics will be discussed, things such as rigs, hooks, baits, dips, distance from bank that the fish feed, what zone each pair will fish as the specific peg will only be drawn on the day by the captain. Any rule changes and times are given to the anglers.

The Day of the competition will start by getting up at 04:30, the car has usually been packed the night before, the rods are put on the rod holders and then it's a drive to the dam anything from 20 km to 250 km from home.

At the dam or sometimes river captains meeting will be held, the agenda will more than likely go something like this

Morning greetings

Prayers

Teams present

Introduction of officials on duty and pick appeal officials

Layout of water

Adhoc rules

Team order to pull for pegs

Pull pegs

Anglers take up positions on pegs.

The start of the competition will be by hooter or flare, mostly hooter. Then the fishing starts imagine you were a fish and suddenly at 07:00, 200 mielie boms in all shapes sizes and colours suddenly hit the water above you, man what a sight and a sound as just about everybody tries to cast in as the hooter goes, it cannot be described in words, really you have to experience it.

The scene is a hive of activity for the first few hours, captains are filling in team lists, and checking nets are correctly marked, what each angler is in the right place as he has it on the team list.

The anglers are catching fish hopefully, then things seem to quiet down and the competition goes on until the first hooter on hearing this all the anglers not busy with a fish will stand back from their rods, so that the officials can see who is busy with a fish, when a second hooter and the anglers carry their nets to the weigh in point and leave the net there. Here the fish are weighed and the score sheets worked out.

Everybody waits then anxiously for the day's results, then it's home time.

Rogers bait & rod stand set-up, looks like they take plenty of dips with them !

Fishing in general

Most South Africans keep their bait and rigs a closely guarded secret, if you are lucky, they will give you some but hardly ever will they tell you how it was made. I think because of the isolation we have developed our methods and it is only now that via the internet that we are finding out how differently we fish as compared to other countries.

Here we use dips or flavors to attract fish; the actual baits are kept simple. Capsules are sometimes used to keep a flavor in the area for longer periods. The dips we use can be divided up into three categories,

1) Fruit flavors

2) Custom made

3) Aromas

Fruit flavors such as apricot, peach, almond, banana's and strawberry

Custom made have names like F.x, Turf toffee, vaaldam special, klipdrift.

Aromas are geranium oil, t.c.p, certain home remedies

The main hook bait used is called mielie pap (paste bait) and is easily made,

3 cups maize meal

1 cup flour

Half cup sugar

Method

Boil 3 cups water add dry ingredients stir in well and remove heat put lid on and leave to get cold, when cold knead well.

Mielie bom

Take 2 kgs cracked corn add sugar soak for a few hours cook in microwave on high for 20 mins and you have ground feed.

Rods and reels

Most anglers use a 15 or 16 ft hollow glass fibre rod, the more serious anglers use graphite rods from 12 ft to 15 ft usually they have the butt extended for a better and more powerful cast.

Summary

In my own opion I think as far as dips and flavors go the south African angler has the edge on the rest of the angling countries from what I have leant on the inter net.

Things like the use of capsules for getting the flavor out there have been on the market here for ten years. The use of dry feed for mielie boms I don't think is in use anywhere but in S.A .

Our rods are quite unique as far as length eyes and the butts are concerned; also the distance we cast will astound most anglers.

In summery we did not do too badly for ourselves in isolation, our methods catch fish even if unauthordox - - - - Roger.

Thankyou Roger for taking the time to explain about S.A fishing .

Interestingly enough, I have seen some of what roger is talking about in action, the corn paste (meile pap) works surprisingly well & stays on the bomb & hook exceptionally too. 12-15 ft rods are widely used in England for surfcasting, they are obviously capable of casting to 200 yds or more. The reels are definately unique though ! there is a web site where you can buy a similar reel(Grizzly) & veiw a demonstration of this type of reel in action. They sell at well under $100 U.S. well worth looking at if your bank account has a hole in it! or you simply cannot justify spending $150/reel or more, - - - Tite lines, Carpsava

Roger with a nice 7 kilo fully scaled mirror, part of a trio of fish from the Vaal dam.

mailto Roger :brace@lantic.net