Fall might be in the air in Canada but it's still winter where Dave Chong is calling home this week.

Chong, of Aurora, Ont., is a member of the Canadian team competing at the '25 world black bass championship that begins Thursday at South Africa's Arabie Dam. Instead of getting ready for a fall bite, Chong and his teammates must focus on finding pre-spawn fish given it's still winter in South Africa (until Sept. 22).

"When largemouths are spawning, they can be really finicky," Chong said. "Pre-spawn fish are what you're looking for as they carry much more weight and they're also actively feeding because once they get into the spawn, they don't feed as much.

"The problem when fish get on their spawning beds is you can see how big they are but you can kill a lot of time trying to catch fi

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