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Another visit to the Natal Midlands, another new fishing venue discovered. This time we made it to Spioenkop Dam.

We’ve been meaning to go there for some time but we could never find any accommodation nearby that also has access to the dam. But then we found Dalmore Guest Farm by chance, and the trip was booked immediately.

Fishing

Dalmore does have access to the dam but to get there you drive over a rocky hill. This was actually an added bonus as you get a panoramic view of most of the dam from the top which was quite spectacular. 

It also gave us the opportunity to check out any potential bass hotspots and we did notice that there was a hidden narrow cove in the corner which looked promising.

Arriving at the fishing spot we realised that fishing wasn’t going to be that easy. The area around Spioenkop Dam had been receiving lots of rain before our arrival. This is always a good thing for many reasons but fishing isn’t one of them. So much water flowed into the dam from overflowing rivers that it turned the water into a sort of caramel, ginger beer color which wasn’t ideal for bass fishing.

Nevertheless, we got the boat rigged up and off we went. 

As predicted though we got zero bites all along the coast, it was dead. We figured the bass were uncomfortable in the dirty water and therefore not feeding. We also thought they would probably be looking for someplace safe where they could hide in structure until the water cleared a bit. So the hidden cove became our target and we decided to make our way there.

And this is where things turned around. In the farthest reaches of this narrow area the bass were schooling. Once we found them fishing became a lot easier and we started catching them at will.

Martin with a nice bass

Another bass for Martin

Almost as big as the fluke

Nice bass for me

Lovely little bass

Fishing fun

Now this is a nice bass

Dark flukes worked the best by far, especially junebug. When the water is very dirty it’s always a good idea to use darker lures, or very light ones (like white). Natural colors like watermelon red etc. don’t do as well. But just to contradict that statement we also caught a few on pumpkin seed craws.

We eventually had to leave this area and as predicted all the way back we didn’t get a single bite. They were all huddled in that one spot. Please watch the video below to see exactly where this was in context of the whole dam.

Dalmore Guest Farm itself also has two dams on the property that you can fish at. The first (and larger) one is swarming with barbel and kurper, and the second one has bass, barbel and kurper in it. 

We tried the second one and caught a few nice ones in the short amount of time we had.

Accommodation

We had a great stay at Dalmore Guest Farm. The unit we stayed in was perfect and the surroundings beautiful. Here’s a quick look around.

View of the chalet we stayed in

Main bedroom

Main bathroom

Lounge area

Beds in the loft

Open plan kitchen

They also offer meals if you’re not into the self-catering thing. And they have a cozy bar (based on a honour system) where we spent our evenings (of course) and met a bunch of awesome new people 🙂

Summary

So we’ve seen yet another beautiful dam in that area, they are very blessed down there. The water wasn’t very favourable but we had a great time catching lots of bass once we found them. And Dalmore itself was perfect, we’ll definitely stay there again when we return to Spioenkop Dam.