Rietvlei Dam winter session

With the third leg of the wild Africa Carp Classic at Rietvlei coming up in the first week of September I decided to put in a weekend practice session accompanied by my son William and fiancé' Chanel.

On Friday afternoon we collected my son from school and headed straight to Rietvlei dam. We arrived at the dam just after 3 pm, set up camp in rather windy and cold conditions. I chose a less popular swim which has been known to be difficult to fish but is usually in the draw for the competition therefore I felt it would be a good idea to get in some practice and look for features at this particular part of the dam.

We decided to fish two rods each as we did not want to put too much pressure on the swim. After an hour of feature finding we set up our rods and equipment. I had received a bait hamper sponsored by Magic Baits for my previous article a few days before our planned session and decided to use no other product but the Flatline inferno boilies, Pellets, Paint, Hemp and yellow maize. On each rig we mounted a bulk size 14 inferno boilie topped off with a 14mm Inferno hookbait boilie to keep the baits a few mm off the bottom due to the areas we placed our lines. I dipped the hookbaits in the Inferno paint and let them dry for 30 minutes.

All the lines were placed accurately with the use of my Kamo 360 bait boat by 7pm. With each rod a mixture of crushed / whole bulk inferno boilies, Inferno pellets, cooked hemp and maize were placed on top of each rig. We then had a bite to eat and decided to head off to bed as the weather conditions were far from pleasant.

The first night went by without any action. I was up before sunrise and decided to re-bait and place the lines back at their same target areas. At around 8 am one of my reels took off with the welcome sound of the single tone of my alarm. We were on with the first Carp for the session. I quickly stepped into my waders, picked up the rod and held the spool to set the hook. The fish stripped line off the spool at a rapid rate. I could feel the fish was not a monster but put up a strong fight. After a ten minute battle a healthy 7 kg common graced our unhooking mat.

We prepared a hearty breakfast and braved the early morning cold weather. At around 10am my fiancé's rod took off with a convincing run. She picked up the rod, set the hook and played the fish directly into the landing net. The second common for the session weighed 5.5 kg. We landed another two commons for the day, not bad considering we were fishing under extreme conditions.

At around 5 pm we re-baited and placed our lines at their same locations. We cooked up a warm meal, chatted for a while and retired to the warmth of the caravan. The wind had picked up and it was freezing cold. I assumed there would be no action on the last evening as the conditions were terrible. I was wrong, at 9 pm the alarm receiver in the caravan beeped away, I had a take on the line placed in deeper water 200 meters from the bank. I slipped into my waders, picked up the rod and set the hook. I could feel this was one of the bigger fish of the session. I played the fish patiently and struggled to keep it higher up near the surface, I always ensure the lead drops off at this venue due to snags and risk of injury to the fish. The bigger carp always head for structure to free themselves. Luckily on this occasion the fish was played safely into the landing net within 15 minutes and then placed safely onto our unhooking mat. Another stunning common which tipped the scale at 10.5kg, well worth the effort in the cold conditions. Shortly after midnight I was awoken by the alarm receiver. The same rod with a good take again! After a short fight I banked a 7kg common. I was well pleased with the session so far which had exceeded our expectations due to the bad weather conditions. My son William landed two more Carp before sunrise, both around 6kg.

At first light on Sunday morning we decided not to re-bait and place the lines as the icy gale force winds would play havoc with the bait boat. After a hot cup of coffee and a hearty breakfast we decided to start packing up. As we were busy pulling in our lines one of my son's rods had the last say. His reel took off with a solid one toner. He picked up the rod, set the hook and shortly afterwards a 5.8kg carp lay on his unhooking mat. A fitting end to a challenging winter session.

I am now sold on the Magic Baits Specimem range. This was my second trip to Rietvlei dam under difficult conditions and was successful on both occasions. I firmly believe that without quality baits the results would not have been the same. The Magic Baits Specimem range has proven to be a high quality product and has delivered some good results under challenging conditions. I am looking forward to my next session in the springtime. It is going to be interesting to see what the new Magic Baits range delivers.

Written by: Lance Roos