feb trip to zim bass and monster bream

[Zim man]

During the month of feb, I disappeared from the Australasia to go see my folks (contrary to facebook rumours I was not deported) , primary mission was to introduce my 3.5 month old to his grandparents who had been hanging to see him. Secondary plan was to catch up on much needed sleep. None of this is of interest to AFO’ers so I will go to the tertiary plan which was to do some fishing.

Having accomplished the primary goal and rapidly realising that the secondary mission would never succeed, plans were made to go out fishing.

In the three weeks I had there I managed to make it out 4 times, the first session was good, went out for 4-5 hours got 10 bass on GPS 3/8 spinnerbaits and Napjaru’s. Second session was to a large dam, armor shads and the GPS 1/2oz were the go there and I ended up with around 12 chunky sized bass. I also got a few on the loco perritos.

3rd session was also at the same dam, but for a club competition ( I used to be vice chairman of that club). My old man and brother fished as a team and I was the guest. They managed to get 4th place (all on the GPS 1/2oz spinnerbaits) one of my best mates got a beast of a fish at 11 pounds. I picked up about 13 fish that day mainly on the spinnerbaits with a few others on soft plastics.

My last session was at a friends farm dam, the main owner passed away since my last visit and the farm is now run by his son. We got there at 4.45am, and it was awe-inspiring. I had caught a lift with my brother and we met my dad out there. The fishing was insane with fish mostly coming on soft plastic frogs worked on the surface and then dropped into any weed holes. I chilled at the back of the boat and soaked in the atmosphere.

There were fish eagles calling and the Guinea fowls were going off. It was awesome. By 7 o’clock when we dropped my brother off at the ramp so he could go to work , he had about 13 bass and one big Nile Bream (nilo’s) of about 6.5 pounds. (all caught on the frog)

Once he had gone I hopped to the front deck and tied on a small hardbody. I had been catching bass all morning but wanted to see if the monster bream in the dam would take a small hardbodies more readily. I got a lot of smaller bass and Robbie (another predatory species)

and then I hooked a beast of a fish, after an awesome fight I had a massive Nilo on board. 40 minutes later and after a few small bass I had another 2 massive nilos on board. All three smashed my previous PB of 5.5 pounds. The three bream weighed 7, 7.1 and 7.5 pounds. That’s the kind of bag I would love to weigh in at an ABT event. That last day was one of my best fishing sessions in ages and we had to come off with the fish biting as there were lots of people to say bye to .

Here are a couple more pics of the trip and at the end are two videos, one long one showing a boat ride to our spot plus some fish catching and the other of the magical morning. Most pics and videos were done with my iphone.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9fCntIUERA

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgGlE4ASOsg

thanks for reading

rob

[Bagless]

Awesome report, where abouts do you call home? Those Nilos, guessing their Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) look impressive.

Love this pic,
/>http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/2016/nilo7.jpg

fish looks great with it's fins puffed out, bristling and angry

Thanks for sharing.

[Bagless]

Just worked it out, Zimbabwe.. durr The large mouth Bass threw me off the scent... but just seen they've been well established over there.

[aussie123]

What an awesome trip Rob and some beautiful pics too.

I think we need a wanderers week over there.

[Surfingant]

Hellllll yeeaaahhhh!!!! Those tilapia look mean.

[rosstralia46]

Bloody awesome report some absolutely massive fish rspecially their tillies awesome stuff once again

[rayke1938]

Some farm dam. Massive fish.

Cheers

Ray

[Do$tylz]

That's awesome rob. Always very jealous of those fish each time you come back and report.

[ryanyoung]

Awesome report Rob. I remember one of your first reports with the tigerfish? Those buggers with the huge teeth?

I really want to catch a bass Ha ha ha!!!

Cheers,

Ryan.

[Jords]

Thats awesome man, some awesome photos! Love quality iPhone photos - my favourite photo I've ever taken was on an iPhone 4

[Manni79]

great report Rob, they are some nice fish caught!! the nile bream look prehistoric !!!!

[Manni79]

[attachment=47470]mike2.jpg[/attachment]

P.S I didn't realise Henry went on the trip with you :dry:

[Keen-as-fisho]

Awesome pics Rob and I want a ride on that boat :whistle:

[Carter]

Thanks for that, great report with something different