SKZN angler Mike Stubbs popped these cool shots in the mail a while back… Thanks Mike!
This very nicely framed and taken photograph of young Ty, features a lovely little Garrick, taken before school, on a needle nose plug.
The South Coast rules!
He was fishing with an 11ft Assassin Spin,a 4000 Ecoda, 30lb JDB and a 50lb Casting leader.
Nice before work guys!
Well she did it again. The Frenzy won the day today with her first ever large mouth bass. Check out the Magisto video in the previous Casa Mkisa Bass post.
She caught it on a Mydo Luck Shot #1 with a pearl white plastic minnow from McArthy.
The cute little fish falls about 4.5kgs short of the mark. Which in these waters is 5kgs!
Next stop Zimbabwe! And off to chase those Kariba tigers with the Mydo SS Spoon range. Stay tuned!
The Frenzy was determined to get the shot. A pin tailed wider, cheeky as ever, perched on a mooring pole a scant few metres away. As usual I was interfering with advice trying to get the silhouette shot against the broody grey Chimoio sky. She inadvertently listened and got a great picture. Next thing all hell broke loose. She was crouched down right next to an irate crocodile who took great exception to our blabbering and fuss. Luckily it was a baby, barely a metre, and this all went down right next to a sign warning of crocodiles!
Welcome to Casa Msika.
Chimoio. Central Mozambique.
We had just come back from our first attempt at what is unbelievably a 5kg or bigger, large mouth bass.
First attempt.
And the best thing about it, was that we had no idea where we were. We were actually having a fine time celebrating Murray Dawson’s 63rd birthday with bird blogger Paul Cook. They are old mates and this visit worked in perfectly with our medium term travel plans of crossing Africa. And so the three of us slowly realised that we were at Msika, part of the famous bass fishing hole, Lake Chicamba.
Casa Mesika is on the way to Zimbabwe from Chimoio. It is a classic fishing and holiday resort on the edge of the water. The huge hydro electrically inspired dam was created in 1954 and powers the entire area and beyond. But more importantly. It’s full of huge large mouth bass. Huge. They have a Casa Msika 5kg Bass club!!! Check the pics!!!
And so, after some true ex pat style celebration, which lasted well into the evening, we awoke to this amazing spectacle. The Frenzy hustled a canoe in no time and after some frantic tackle work, we headed down to the waters edge. Actually a great slipway that a few years ago was well underwater. The water level of the lake has been dropped whilst the power guys maintain some turbines. They will return the water level to it’s normal state when they are done working. But for now the bass must be more concentrated.
Well that was my thinking as I rigged a few sticks with Mydo Luck Shots, one with a Mydo SS Tarpon Flappa spoon, and one with a Mydo Buck Shot, especially for big bass. This lure swims amazingly life like, it looks and acts just like a baby bass or tilapia – the prevailing food stuff in the area. Change the fly to target different species.
But as of this article, it hasn’t happened yet. The locals slate the high all round air and water temperature as the problem. Traditionally these big fish feed better in the real cold. But that is not an excuse, we are out there again shortly…
RIP Murray Dawson. Murray passed away the day after his 63rd birthday, peacefully at Msika. He will be buried in Chimoio today 3pm.
Ian and Keegan Logie sent in these pics of two notable catches. One soon to be identified and the other the first twin spot snapper in the Umzimkulu.
The twin spot snapper are common further north and into the tropics. Nice catch and release.
The second fish I was sure was a razor belly, until I noticed the rooster fish like dorsal. Any guesses anyone?
Thanks Ian and Keegan for the news… Anglers keen to fish these waters can email me on umzimkulu@gmail.com
Kob is a mainline buzzword here in Jeffrey’s Bay. Everyone wants one. And I can relate to the regiments of retirees enjoying the bountiful waters this place has been blessed with. On any afternoon, down at Kabeljauws, there are anglers standing proud, fishing all sorts of rigs and baits, waiting for a delicious kob for dinner…
It was a Sunday version of one of these days, the sun was out, light onshore, bathers, surfers…and us…
We pulled up to an empty Kabeljauws carpark mid afternoon. But soon vehicles, some out of mad max and adorned with rods and reels of huge proportions, rolled in and surrounded us. Massive coffee grinders everywhere.
Brucifire had conjured up some squid baits for us from somewhere, which hardly compared to what offerings some of these guys were sneaking out. Cracker Shrimps. Octopus. Red bait…
Our first casts found a shoal of smallies just before the surf zone and soon we were hauling in blacktail and small silver bream things. Our 10ft rod soon had a silver bream out the back and Charl proceeded to haul out smallies, puffers included, and chuck them back, while I settled in. By now, we had camps either side of us. The couple to our south had a trolley-like magody that expanded out into a professional fully fledged bait station with rod holders and all!
There was a young romance going on to our right as a young guy was teaching his girl to surf just behind the mid-break in the deeper channel. And to our left were a huddle of bathers, basically 10 metres up the beach from us. There was the mid break we were fishing over, a deep channel and white water fading in from the outside sets.
Ideal for…you know what…
Bang I felt something and as looked at where my bait might be just before the breakers, a wave lifted and through the wave I saw it. Shark! As it lined up and hit my bait again! The bathers were 10 metres away! I forced fed him a bit and struck, and there I was, standing on the beach, into a decent sized shark, right down from where I been surfing all day!
By decent I mean over a metre and as soon as I had him close, I just pulled and luckily the shark let go and I got my hook back and all. The smallies had gone quiet now so without a live bait, I grabbed my beautiful new spinning stick with 20lb braid and let fly with a karanteen type rig to try snag another livie. The squid bait was proving to be the flavour of the day and all of a sudden I got a heavy bite and was vas. But this fish gave some resistance. It dogged around the waves while it worked out that it was hooked, and then just screamed off out to sea and up the point towards the surfing couple. I stopped it after a few minutes, being loaded with new braid, but soon had my doubts and the pressure increased to more than what my little hooks could take. The fish would stop and let me turn it’s head a bit, fee what I was doing, and just say no. Adamantly NO. And he would peel off 10 or even 20 more metres, until sadly, my audience was disappointed when the tip went slack and the hook came back straight as an arrow.
Wow, we were having fun!
Then the smallies came back so we got a few blacktail, in case we couldn’t find a kob somewhere, for dinner. We had promised Noma and Kurt of JBay SurfView fish for dinner!. Obviously I got one live bait out back as soon as I could, a slightly smaller fish, and no sh$%^t, three minutes later I was into another really large fish.
My little 10ft Assassin and 30SH were buckling under the strain as this much bigger shark gave me the gears. But I have no time for sharks really and Charl point blank refused to go and get the fish out for photos, so when it was close I just pulled and once again, got my hook and trace back (amazing leader material that old style Maxima green).
We had fished out everybody around us and with our little pile of blacktail headed back to Chelsea and Bruce waiting patiently for fish dinner, in the carpark. Bruce didn’t scoff at the small fish, but there were a few chirps.
So we headed back to town to shop, Charl and I left Bruce and Chelsea car guarding, and went in. When we came out, there was a crowd around the car as Bruce was showing off our Mydo Luck Shots to a local angler he knows – to startling results. I told the guy, Morne, a well know hot shot angler in these parts, that he could have a few lures. His face lit up and he opened the back of his bakkie and presented us with a freshly caught kob he had nailed on paddle tail at a secret spot of his, just before!
We got home to a standing ovation, cooked the fresh and delicious fish as follows:
Firstly, we had to remove the head and tail to fit in the baking dish, after it was cleaned and scaled.
Then we made a concoction up of all sorts available in the kitchen that afternoon. Grated garlic. Lemon juice. Finely chopped onions and green peppers. A little soya sauce. Some sweet chill sauce.
Incisions across the breadth of the fish were then filled with this concoction, both sides until it was dripping and then wrapped in a single layer of foil and the rest of the juice poure all over it.
Into the oven at a nice 200 or so, and leave it be!
30 minutes in and we turn the fish (bigger fish, longer cooking time), and give it another 20 or so.
Serve!
The meat falls off the bone in chunks formed by the deep cuts across the fish.
PS the next day, this same fish, mixed with finely chopped onions and mayonnaise had us biting our fingers off!
