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Why do people bait fish?...

BIimy! The risks people take for so little reward.
My young nephew was working on a chimp sanctuary, Chimfunshi or something similar I think. He took his kayak and was happily paddling on the Zambezi on a regular basis. I kept telling him about the crocs but it did not sink in. One day he was out with a couple of mates, he heard a bang and looked round, the kayak was upside down ,his mate was gone, never to return.
 
Reward is it's own virtue though and relative to the environment. I spent a good proportion of my early adulthood in the veld on developing preserves and reserves. Entertainment is slim. No radio other than shortwave, no tv, no amenities and no roads either, and before the internet era. Fun and pleasure is taken where it can. One such example was tubing down the Komati River. There is a Ox-bow section East of Elukwetini that followed a course of rapids. It was great fun after a day in the field to get into a 4x4 tube with a six pack in your lap and ride the course doing a mad paddle at the end reach before the hippo pool. The old bull beachmaster was the grumpiest old B****** you could hope to meet.
The fishing there was superb though. Vundu, Bream, Bass, Tilapia and occasional Tigerfish. It was too easy in many respects.

https://imgur.com/YP1YkLp

https://imgur.com/W3yOinx

Home for 5 years

https://imgur.com/FzGUTtR

Risks are what you take for pleasure. The Komati in flood arfter Vygeboom Dam dumped it's spillway. It;s my weekend off and I am determined to get to the nearest city for wine women and song. The raft of course eventually flipped and we lost one. Got a right bollocking for that too. Life moves on.

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When we lived in Ndola we used to visit a reservoir on some land owned by 2 South African brothers. They were hairy giants both and I was in total awe of them. They saved enough to buy a tract of bush, dam the stream and invest in the seeds of a herd. After that they were pretty much broke so they lived under canvas. Waiting for the herd to grow. I was quite jealous after I saw the camp. Made our bungalow look quite boring. Once when we were on our way to fish the car got well and truly bogged down, right up to the axles. We were busy trying to dig it out and shove branches under the tyres with no success when one of the brothers turned up. Dad had a chat and he nodded and smiled at us then stepped up and lifted the whole back of the car up out of the mud and shifted it sideways onto more solid ground. My jaw was just about on the ground. It was Standard Vanguard Estate which was built like a tank. Probably about the only one in Africa.
The reservoir was full of tigers. Spent some very happy days there. When we got home with a bootfull of tigers and the odd catfish we could supply the whole street. Good days.
 
Aren't hippos meant to be dangerous???
 
Certainly are but I don't remember seeing any there. Most important thing with hippos was not to get between them and the water. This was a reservoir fed by a small stream so I'm not sure how they would get there in the first place. There were a lot of dangerous beasties back then but we survived by by exercising good judgement due caution.
 
Hippos can become extremely aggressive and territorial. They kill more people than any other animal in Africa. However the rules are very simple. Give them a wide berth, stay off their beach and river pools and they will leave you alone, they are not predatory per se. Their mood worsens as the rivers dry and/ or they are calving.
 
Fishyrob said:
Lure fishing has become pretty established this last decade, with evermore people spending more and more time with latex and metal pursuing an ever wider target list of species...

Personally, I lure fish because squid makes your hands stink. Although not as much as mackerel makes your hands stink. And latex and metal when left in your car in hot sun, don't make you vomit when you open the door and breathe in deeply. I also more and more enjoy the challenge of tricking fish in all conditions, and from my own observations, still feel the pursuit of fish with artificial is in its relevant infancy, seeing how many fish actually say no. And I do like a challenge...

How did you fall into loving latex, and do you too find it absorbing more and more of your rod hours?
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Simple really Bait fishing keeps you young and friendly but Luring makes you get old and Crotchety like Darkside Admins!
 
Fishyrob said:
Lure fishing has become pretty established this last decade, with evermore people spending more and more time with latex and metal pursuing an ever wider target list of species...

Personally, I lure fish because squid makes your hands stink. Although not as much as mackerel makes your hands stink. And latex and metal when left in your car in hot sun, don't make you vomit when you open the door and breathe in deeply. I also more and more enjoy the challenge of tricking fish in all conditions, and from my own observations, still feel the pursuit of fish with artificial is in its relevant infancy, seeing how many fish actually say no. And I do like a challenge...

How did you fall into loving latex, and do you too find it absorbing more and more of your rod hours?
Click to expand...
Since retiring, I've become totally hooked on lure fishing: the light tackle, the minimum kit to carry, the excitement of the takes, the fun of trying new lures, no messing about with smelly bait and gut-hooked fish.
I still fish bait for gilts and plaice in summer and cod and whiting in winter and enjoy both in their own way, but lure fishing now is what I most want to do.
If I catch a nice bass now on bait I just wish it had been on a lure!
 
I bait fish because whilst i am lure fishing it gives me more of a chance to catch a bass or flattie (where i fish) if i have a rod or two in the water at the same time.
I will target fish with bait only at different marks at times.
 
i enjoy both and use what's required for the conditions and species at the time ... I'm weird because using heavy tackle off rocks is actually easier for me to do than lure fishing due to 2 left wrist breaks I find repeated casting and reeling in painful lol but can easily fish couple bait rods casting every 15 mins or so without it playing up at all haha so that puts me off luring more than I would . .
although lure fishing a local low water mark on a summer dusk is probably my favourite way of fishing
 
Fishyrob said:
A big challenge from the shore, but I think not completely impossible on the south coast, a cod on a lure. Just saying like :) :) We are getting them afloat just now, and I have had plenty within casting range in recent years.
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They catch cod on lures regularly at Eyemouth and St Abbs throughout the summer months when the sea is calm. They tend to be the really orangey coloured kelp living rock cod from what I've seen.

I myself mainly do bait fishing and have got really into chasing shore caught tope the last year or so but I do lure fish for pollack off the same marks but I never go exclusively for that reason. It's just something I do while there. I do try to catch fresh bait using various feathers, sabiki and metal lures as well though. Not got into bass luring but have tried chucking a lure out on occasions for them but again while bait fishing.
 
me i got out of bait fishing
because i became bored
knew i couldnt beat my pb bass of 15.8
so when graham hill asked if id like to go lure fishing with him
had to go
been hooked ever since
 
JLD said:
They are pretty cunning. If they see you they will swim upstream and then float down with the current snatch you of the bank and drag you under. You won't even see them 'til it's too late. This particular bloke was a tourist from Yorkshire and he just would not listen. Stood with his feet actually in the water. He went under with hardly a splash and that was it. We used to pick a streach of vertical bank, a few feet will do, and then we were safe. Only had to worry about the other stuff which might appear after that.
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That brings to mind the expression that goes something like "You can always tell a yorkshireman but you can rarely tell him much"
 
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