Been a long time...(This is a novel, but I hope you enjoy it)

Well, like I said in the subject line it has been quite a while since I have
posted here.

Now That its summer down South in South Africa, I thought I would post about
a few of my latest fishing trips in my beautiful sunny land. Maybe this
would cheer up a couple of you guys who have packed the bassing equipment
away for your winter.

Lets start with my first competition of the season.
It is called the "Micro Light Tournament."

The Micro Light Tournament is a very unique tournament that is the most
enjoyable tournament of the whole year. The rules are as follows:

1) Each boat has only 2 anglers per boat and they fish as a team.
2) Each angler may have one and only one rod and reel on the boat at all
times. Spare rods are all to remain in the motor vehicle in case the rod on
the boat breaks.
3) Only 0.25mm or less line diameter is permitted and is measured every
morning on every contestants reels as well as spare spools. NO braid was
permitted.
4) The competition is run over 2 days.
5) ALL terminal tackle for BOTH team members, including extra spools of
line, scents and anything else must fit into a container of 12x8x5 inches
that must be able to be closed, without the lid popping off when turned
upside down!
6) Only 2 fish per team/boat are to be wighed in at the daily weigh-in.
7) No dead fish are permitted.

As you can guess this makes for a very unique and enjoyable competition. To
make it even more interesting they have settled on a resivoir that is famous
for its 2 kilogram plus smallmouth bass. It was early spring and the fish
were near the end of the spawn and on a post spawn pattern.

The first hurdle my boat partner had to overcome was trimming down our
terminal tackle to that tiny box that was supplied to us by the organisers.
Needless to say we spent a great deal of time discussing tacktics, fishing
conditions and the like to decide what we will pack into that tiny tub.

I must say that after much discussion it was amazing to see how much we
could cram into that tub. The first time we tried to turn it upside down it
popped open before it was even on its side, so back to removeing a few more
things we went.

In the end we had decided on a few sinko baits, tubes, 4" ringworms and
lizards, reble deep wee R crankbaits, worm hooks, sinkers, tothpicks and
spinnerbaits (2) and finally an extra spool of extra 6lb excalibur line.

We did the "Tub Tip Test" and, yes, it stayed closed when upside down.

After this we all went to go and get our starting positions and have a few
beers and dinner.

After a final check of our two rods we hit the sack.

In the morning we were all ready and rearing to go at the captains meeting.

As our line, tubs, safety equipment, livewells and number of rods were
checked the officials pushed us off one by one.

Now my partner has a new bass boat that he recently aquired. It is a 14 foot
6 inch hull fitted with an 85hp Yamaha engine. Now I had been a little
nervous about this the evening before and asked him if he had run this boat
at full speed yet. To my dismay he said this is the first time he will be
running the rig with this motor. Hmmmmmm. Tentatively I asked him if he knew
that the rig was not slightly, but grossely overpowered.

"Never!" he said with a cheerfull grin on his face and a beer in his hand,
"We want speed, speed and more speed on this rig bud!"

Ummm, OK then. I sent a short message to my mom saying that I loved her very
much using my cellular phone.

Our turn to launch arrived. We were checked and then pushed off. I started
to desperately look for a handle to hold onto. Needless to say there is no
passanger console and no handle to hold onto. Vivian (my boat partner)
looked over at me as we exited the no wake zone, smiled and did what I had
feared he would. He buried the throttle on that motor. That little 14 foot
boat leapt out of the water like a panniced little froggie beeing hunted
down by a huge 10 pound momma bass. I must have dug my non existant nails 6
inches into the fibreglass of the rod locker in front of me! I was not
impressed but was too desperately trying to hold on to say anything. I have
to admit, once the boat had settled, was trimmed right and running on smooth
water, it was actually quite thrilling to be speeding, no, F_L_Y_I_N_G off
to our first spot.

Once there I grabbed my rod which had a 1/2 oz pumpkin rat-l-trap tied on
and started fan casting for the aggressive early morning fish. Vivian had a
spinnerbait (white) tied on. Water clarilty was quite clear, 2-3 feet
visibility. After 20 minutes of running the bank and having not even a
toutch we decided to try onother spot further on up the lake.

This sopt was bound to give up a bassy or two. A gravel bottom changed
rapidly to a rocky bar. With the trap on and in 10-15 feet of water I
quickly picked up two samllies off the back of the boat on a fast retrieve.
They had shunned the spinnerbait but had absolutely jumped all over that
trap of mine. Needless to say Vivian quickly turned that tiny tub right out
looking for another trap to tie onto his rig. The first fish was a healthy
fat 1,4 kilograms, and the second a good 0,8 kilograms. Not a bad start off
the back of the boat I thought. I had landed a limit in less than 5 casts.

With two traps covering the same water and me on the back of the boat, I
decided that my chances of getting more fish had just gone seroiusly
downhill. This would not do! Besides, the sun was moving higher into the
morning sky, there was not a ripple on the water either, I thought that the
fish would be moving deeper for the day.

I decided that the trap would come off and on would go a little rebel deep
wee R crankbait, and instead of fishing towards the shore I would cast in
the deeper water behind the boat and on the side opposite to the shore.
moving along the bank did not yield any more fish so we decided to hit our
first spot again.

I left the rebel on and decided to cast towards the shore again, seeing that
I did not pick anything up on the other spot. This strategy resulted in a
few small fish being boated so poor Vivian decided to tie on a similar
crank. I decided that the larger fish must really be deep now and not too
hungry. This prompted a change in my thinking. A suspending Norman crankbait
in chartreuse would probably do the trick. On it went and I cast it out
behind the boat as far as I could in 18' of water.

I did not crank it in. I just ripped it down, waited till the boat drifted
and took up the slack line and ripped it again. Pretty soon I felt that
spongey feeling and set the hook on a decent smallie of 1,15 kilograms.
Excellent! We could cull the small fish. At about this time Vivian tied on
another Rebel Deep Wee R crank and started to pick up a few fish on a
rip-pause-rip retrieve.

At about 13:00 the bite just stopped. Nothing worked. We switched to senkos
and got nothing for the rest of the day.

At the weigh-in we thought that we would definately be at the bottom of the
log, but were surprised to hear that the day was dificult for all
contestants. A good number of boats were skunked. We placed 18th of 60 for
the day and were pleasantly surprised. Largest fish for the day was a
smallie of 2,2 kilograms.

I could see that Vivian was a little dissapointed in his performance for the
day because I had outfished him by more than 3 fish to one off the back of
the boat and both keepers were caught by myself.

I decided that being a team event I would let him make use of the crankbaits
I had used in the day.

The following day, using the baits that I had given to him to use, he
completely outfished me. He managed to land 5 fish to my one. We had decided
to stick with our spots we had fished the day before because the going was
so tough. After blast-off we headed for our first spot and saw 3 boats
camped on it! Oh well, off to our second spot where I had a fish on a 4"
green pumpkin senko but he threw me on the jump. The fish had lockjaw today.
We fished deeper and deeper but nothing worked.

We decided that we would move to out first spot and wait for a gap and jump
in.

When we got there we waited and sure enough, after 1/2 hour of mojoing 20'
of water one boat packed it in and headed out. Quick as a flash we jumped in
the spot, had a quick lunch to let it rest for 10 minutes and proceeded to
fish it with the cranks of the previous day. Before long we had boated 6
fish. One of 1,12kg (caught by Vivian) and another of 0,78 kg, my only fish
of the day.

Once again on the way to weighin, we were convinced we had not done well.
When we beached the boat we saw a lot of long faces and instantly knew that
it was another tough day.

To end it all we improved our position to 12th for the tournament. Largest
fish for the comp. was a fine smallie of 2,4 kg.

All in all a tough but enjoyable one and I will most certainly be there for
the next one! Maybe we can win it next year.

PS: Vivian has subsequently purchased a new prop for the boat to get even
more speed out of that rig. I think I will ban him from putting it on until
he has put in seatbelts and a grab rail!

I must be said that using 6lb line certainly has your heart in your mouth
every time you have a good fish on. It certainly makes this the most
exciting, all-be-it stressfull competitions that I will fish in this year.

Conlan
South Africa.