Fishing on a student budget

WORDS: Stefan Hennop | PHOTOS: Author & Riaan Riekert Spring is around the corner and opportunities for catching something bigger before the ‘big fish’ season is over has turned into something that resembles a thorn in my side. This part will be a little different from our usual article series and tells a story of one of my previous big fish escapades. So to start from the beginning: July proved to be a terribly busy time for myself – minimal fishing time and more time spent working at a job, the start of the second semester at university and preparation for the upcoming Feeder U/25 World Championships. This was until I got an unexpected call from a certain man … a certain 'Alleman' who invited me to go on a fishing weekend with his family, an opportunity I could not pass. When I say an 'opportunity', I mean my girlfriend already arranged everything and I had no choice but to go … but we had an absolute blast on this trip. But the most important question is, how was the fishing? The venue for this session was as always, a new venue for me and information was not readily available apart from the few capture pictures floating around on the internet. The venue in question is the Ohana Fishermen Cabins resort located on the river that feeds Rietspruit Dam near Kriel in Mpumalanga. The river itself, where we were fishing, is not very wide with a maximum width of 47 metres in front of my spot. There were loads of water grass and reeds on the far bank which are always great hiding holes for big fish. My setup for this session. Luckily, mister Alleman had his rubber duck handy on this session and I used this resource to my advantage. My plan was to find holes made by fish between the water grass and place my rigs perfectly to the last millimetre in those holes. The water was also clear which made presentation and position of the rigs particularly important, because in this clear water any mistake would be obvious to the fish. After setting all our traps around 16:30 in the afternoon, it was not long before mister Alleman was away with the first fish of the trip. After his first fish was on the bank, his second rod also sprung into life and mister Alleman had two fish within 20 minutes, while my rods lay motionless. After those two fish were released, we sat around a warm fire while watching the sun disappear below the horizon. At this time we decided to spend our time in conversation and a good traditional Alleman braai. By then my rods were in the water for approximately five hours and in the midst of our supper I heard the distinct sound of my alarm screaming behind our braai area and I ran to my rod before the fish could snag itself in the water grass around the spot. I was finally onto my first fish of the trip despite being in the middle of the freezing wind and almost falling into the water due to the ground being very slippery, but after an intense 10-minute fight the fish went over the net cord into the net! My first fish at this new venue and what a character it is! This fish turned out to be my only fish for the session, which was a bit of a bummer, but at least I still had my hands full helping and learning from mister Alleman and spending time with his family and with my girlfriend. And with loads of banter and ‘happenings’ – such as myself and mister Alleman falling into the water due to the slippery moss-covered rocks and our neighbour’s boat that decided to sail by itself and had to be rescued by mister Alleman, we certainly had loads of fun. Riaan Alleman to the neighbours' rescue! For me this is what ‘going fishing’ is all about, not always the technical aspects or the need to perform well and be the best angler, but moments like these that we experienced on this trip, moments of escape from the fast-moving world we find ourselves in every day. Spending time with great friends and loved ones! Next time: It is Springtime students! And that means it is again time for something completely different!

Fishing on a student budget

STILL IN SEARCH OF A BIG CARP ...

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R399.00 per year

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