Another personal best thanks to magic baits!!

Donaldson dam – Bottom lake                                                                                                                               

3-6 December 2015

Swim 12

On Thursday the 3^rd of december we arrived at Donaldson dam around 7:30 am. When we got there, we had to first spend time cleaning the swim up as there was papers laying around. We went out on the rubber duck to look at the fish activity and water depth. Once we were out we realised that there was a lot of fish around the 80 metre mark. We then went back and fetched some of the particle mix which I had prepared. In the particle mix i added tiger nuts, maize, maple peas, hemp seed and wheat seed. The cooking instructions can be found on the magic baits website. When we got there the dam was relatively empty, there was hardly any people. It only really started filling up by the Friday night. On Thursday around 1;30 I decided to finally go I and drop my lines. That might around 9pm a heavy storm hit us. There was heavy wind, a lot of rain and thunder and lightning. The wind was so bad that it blew my pod stand over. I checked my rods and reels and made sure everything was fine.

About half an hour after that my friends right alarm started screaming. Once we got to the rod I noticed that my one rod was gone. It was pulled into the water. For a moment there I was a rod less. My friend reeled and reeled and eventually on the other end of the line was my rod. I got my rod back and started reeling it in. I reeled it about 60 m and then decided to put my drag on and get to shelter because of the heavy rain and lightning. It ran for about 10 minutes longer before it stopped raining. I then got out and decided now is the time to land the fish. Once we landed it the first thing we done was put it into the weigh sling and weighed it. This was my new personal best. It weighed in at 11.45 kilograms. This was a great achievement for me because I have broken my personal best several times using magic baits.

That was the only fish that I managed to land for that weekend. On my hooklink I used the 18mm inferno boilie and an inferno popup (microwave the boilie for one minute moving it around every 15 seconds). I put the boilie on first then the popup, this ensures that the boilie is critically balanced and all it does is lift the boilie off the ground. I made sure that my hooklinks were 30cm or longer. The silt in the water was bad due to the storm the past few days and it was difficult to drop fed because of the ducks. They started eating at one point and they shifted down in a line where we had fed. Eventually we got another tactic to feed. We took thee popcorn feed and mixed it in with the particles, we made balls then we went out on the boat and dropped it straight down. In doing this it didn’t give the particles any time to stay visible at the top of the water.

Donaldson dam is a venue with nice fish.  Fishcare is a must at a venue like Donaldson dam. On this trip it was my first time using my new bait boat which I branded using magic baits stickers and I must say, it was very nice to have people coming over to have a look at it and ask me is that the bait range I fish with. 80 metres infront of stand 12 there is a 2 metre drop and it is hard bottom, the perfect place to drop your lines. On Saturday night we ran into a problem there. Just at the top of our swim is the caravan park and OK had their year end function there. There was continuos music and t was blaring. There was screaming and eventually we phoned wiseman and they came to us and told us that they would be out by 7:30 pm. We were satisfied with that. 9pm came and they were still carrying on and making noise and it is very inappropriate for any angler trying to have a peaceful time. The next morning we get to he gate and hear when we were leaving that it is open 24 hours.

Thank you very much but Donaldson dam wont be seeing much of me anymore,  buffelspoort, dooringdraai and hartebeespoort get ready because something magic is on the way! I would just like to thank Michael cato and Zelda cato for giving me the great opportunity of using magic baits, it is a real blessing. The flatline range from magic baits is by far the best specimen baits range that I have ever fished with.

If anyone is going to fish at Donaldson dam anytime soon remember to take some inferno boilies with, they really work in that dam, just microwave some so you can have your own magic pop ups! The grass in the dam is very little around this time of the year.

By- Antonio Rex