The Blue Kurper That Shocked Us All - Industrial Tilapia Fishing!
The Blue Kurper, well known as the Mozambique Tilapia, has always been close to the top of my list as a target freshwater fish species, but up until this day in March 2012, I had not caught a "size" fish. Well my luck was about to change.
Doing some research on a new fishing venue, I met
up with my good friend Gavin to do some angling at
Marwan Fishing Dam, in Kempton Park. This dam is a quarry in the
middle of an industrial area. The rain was pouring down and it was very
cold. We started off targeting Carp and Barbel. We had no action for a
few hours, so we decided to move to the deep point at the dam wall.
Minutes after my first Carp rod settled, it ran. It was a beautiful
juvenile Common Carp, the same thing happened on the second rod
about a minute later.
With
both my rods out the water I re-baited. I had a double hook trace with
2x size 8 Owner Carp Hooks, and 7lb leader. The next thing I know, my
reel goes screaming off! I strike, and immediately I feel it is a good
fish. Thinking about what size this Carp could possibly be, I hear Gavin
shouting in excitement, "it's a Blue, it's a Blue!". I then saw it, and
yes it was a big Blue Kurper. Then the adrenaline started pumping... I
played the fish as carefully as possible, and when Gavin netted the Blue
Kurper, I let out a huge shout of joy. What a beautiful fish, I was
speechless. With all the excitement I did not bother weighing it,
instead took a few photograph's and released it as quickly as possible.
Who would of thought? A fish like this could occur in a dam surrounded
by factories! Definitely not me...
