BASS

The largemouth bass is common throughout South Africa. It has its origin from the USA and was introduce here in the early nineteen hundreds. Since then bass was introduce into most of South Africa’s dams including varies farm and private dams. The sport of bass fishing is a multi million rand industry in South Africa and competitions were big prize money is at stake are held monthly. Here in the Eastern Cape the biggest and most well known competition is probably The Amatola Bass Classic held at Wriggleswade dam near Stutterheim. Bass in excess of 5kg have been caught during this competition. The East Cape has dozens of farm and private dams full of bass. The main problem with these dams  is access. Please always make sure that you get permission from the owner of the dam before fishing there and always leave the facilities as you have found them.

Largemouth bass start spawning from around September when the winter waters warm up. Bass don’t all spawn at the same time and spawning season can go on for sometime. Spawning season can be a great time to target bigger bass as they move to the shallows. Big female bass can often be seen lying against the bank and are almost always accompanied by a male. If approach carefully with the right technique they can be caught. Make sure to always release the bass as closes as possible to were you caught them so they can go straight back to there nests. Always handle spawning bass extra careful.

Bass are generally caught with lures, but can also be targeted successfully with live bait, worms and frogs. In bass fishing there is a saying that when you are fishing with plastics and you think you are fishing to slow, fish slower. Although this is not always the case this saying has help me caught bass more often then not. When bass fishing always look for structure above the water or submerged. Structure includes reeds, grass, trees, rock, jetty’s, dam walls, lily pads, rocky points etc. Always vary your technique and try something new or different when the fish are of the bite. Bass fishing is a great sport and can be enjoyed by everyone.Largemouth Bass

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  1. Our family moved back to PE about a year ago after being in Durban for 15 years. I was involved with competitive Bass Fishing in Natal for 10 years but sold my boat before we moved. Desperately looking for venues where we could enjoy some Bass fishing from the bank in and around PE. Travelling is not really an issue.

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