bassasin

Bitten by a smallie, never - stabbed by a treble hook while trying to lip land one, often :'(

Beautiful fish, congrats!

Hi Matthys, I know George well, I've worked there in the past. I haven't done much fishing there but I have caught bluegill in the Garden Route dam just outside town, I've heard that there are some nice bass there as well. I'm sure that you'll get loads of enjoyment with your new tackle, I've been fishing since I was 7 years old and am still addicted.

Very nice fish, I would never have thought that Switzerland would be a place for bass, I will definitely be taking my bass tackle along next time I'm in that part of the world. I have friends in St Jean D'Aulps, France, about an hours drive from Geneva who I visit quite often, how far are you from there?

Just found this site which has some info about Mteri, it also has contact details for a guide service: http://www.bigbass.0catch.com/id5B2.htm. Just want to point out that I have no association with that venue, nor with the magazine mentioned in my previous post.

Hi T-rig and thanks for the welcome. I don't live in Zimbabwe myself and haven't visited for a long time either, though I was born there, many years back We do get regular report backs in the local fishing press though from people who do go there, mostly they visit the south of the country, Lake Mteri in particular, which seems to be producing some good bass in the 4 to 5 kg range (9 - 11 lbs). The attraction of this particular lake is that it's not far (relatively speaking) from the South African border and with conservative driving it's possible to get there and back on a tank of fuel, a commodity that is very scarce in Zimbabwe at present. Regarding a guide, I recall reading something in a great little magazine that comes out of that country each month called African Fisherman (www.africanfisherman.com). I don't have that issue at hand but I'm sure that if you contact the publishers they'll be only too happy to help. I've attached a pic of a 2.73 kg (around 6lb) fish caught 2 weeks ago at one of our local venues, Clanwilliam, which is about a 3 hour drive from Cape Town.

Hiya all, this is my first post on the forum, I'm also from South Africa (Cape Town). Down in this part of the country we are fortunate to have some of the best Smallmouth fishing, in both lakes (Clanwilliam) and rivers (Breede), on the downside, Florida strain largemouths have never done well down here, northerns are the dominant strain, probably due to the fact that it tends to be cooler than the rest of the country, our northern countrymen (and women) are better off in that respect. Having said that we do have some great largemouth lakes in the Cape, producing 8 - 10 lb fish, for trophy largemouths though the northern areas of the country are the way to go, Zimbabwe also has some great fish, just saw a pic of an 18lb specimen that came out of that country a couple of years back.