There’s something special about fishing a small dam. You look across the water and think, How big could the fish in here really be?
Well, Hymany answered that question pretty quickly.
Tucked away in Johannesburg, South Africa, this little dam doesn’t exactly look like the kind of place you’d expect to produce serious catfish. But sometimes the smallest waters hold the biggest surprises — and on this session, we managed to get into catfish pushing the 9kg mark.
Not monsters by South African catfish standards, but when they’re coming out of a dam this small, they certainly feel like monsters.
Finding the Fish
One of the biggest factors in our success was location.
Rather than simply sending baits into the middle of the dam, we concentrated our efforts close to the reeds.
Reed lines provide exactly the kind of environment catfish love. They offer cover, shade and plenty of natural food. Small fish, insects, snails and other creatures gather around this vegetation, and the catfish are never too far behind.
The trick was getting our rigs close enough to the reeds to intercept feeding fish without putting them so deep into the vegetation that landing one became impossible.
That’s where the bait boat became extremely useful.
Instead of trying to cast accurately into tight areas, we could load the rig and feed into the boat and quietly drop everything exactly where we wanted it.
When you’re targeting a specific feature, that accuracy can make a huge difference.
Maize — Keeping Things Simple
For feed, we kept things straightforward: maize.
You don’t always need complicated feed mixes and expensive ingredients to attract fish.
Maize creates an inexpensive feeding area that can keep fish rooting around your spot. We used the bait boat to deliver the maize around our hookbait, creating a concentrated patch of food right alongside the reeds.
Once the catfish started moving through the area, our hookbait gave them something slightly different to investigate.
And that’s where things got interesting.
Garlic Snail Wafters
Our hookbait of choice was garlic snail wafters.
Garlic has been one of those flavours that anglers have used successfully for years, and after sessions like this, it’s easy to understand why.
Catfish rely heavily on their sense of smell and taste when searching for food, particularly when visibility isn’t great. A strong-smelling bait can therefore help a fish locate your offering.
The snail profile already gives the bait a natural food association, while the garlic adds an extremely distinctive scent.
We also added garlic dip to increase the attraction around the hookbait.
And the catfish absolutely responded to it.
Just How Effective Is Garlic for Catfish?
Based on this session, very.
Garlic isn’t magic, and no flavour will catch fish that simply aren’t in your area. Location will always be one of the biggest factors in fishing.
But once you’re fishing where the catfish are moving, a strong garlic bait can give them another reason to investigate.
Catfish have highly developed chemical senses that help them locate food, so heavily scented baits make a lot of sense when targeting them.
Our combination was simple:
Maize around the spot, garlic snail wafters on the rig, garlic dip for additional attraction, and everything positioned accurately near the reeds with the bait boat.
Nothing overly complicated.
But it worked.
Then the Rod Went
There’s always that moment when a quiet session suddenly changes.
One second you’re staring across a tiny Johannesburg dam wondering what’s actually swimming around beneath the surface.
The next, the rod is away.
And when a catfish approaching 9kg decides it wants to get back into the reeds, you quickly forget how small the dam is.
The fish had plenty of power, and fishing close to structure meant there wasn’t much room for error. Keeping steady pressure and getting the fish away from the reeds was the priority.
Eventually, it came over the net.
A thick, healthy Johannesburg catfish — from a dam you’d probably never expect to hold fish like that.
And it wasn’t the only action.
Small Water, Big Surprises
That’s probably the biggest lesson from Hymany.
Never underestimate a small dam.
Anglers naturally look at huge dams and rivers when thinking about big catfish, but smaller waters can hold some surprisingly good fish. They’re also incredibly interesting to figure out because features become even more important.
A small reed bed might represent a huge percentage of the available cover in the entire dam.
Find that cover.
Find the natural food.
Put some feed down.
Then give the fish something they can easily locate.
For us, that meant reeds, maize and a serious amount of garlic.
The bait boat allowed us to put everything exactly where it needed to be, the maize helped establish the feeding area, and those garlic snail wafters did the rest.
A 9kg catfish from a tiny Johannesburg dam?
I’d call that a homerun.
Until the next session at Hymany.
By Jackson Wuttunee
