Forelwater Belfast South Arica

I recently visited one of the best trout waters in South Africa - Forelwater. Afrikaans for "Trout Water". We fished a 12 ha dam and other smaller dams. We focused on the big dam and landed a total of 28 fish over the week-end. The smallest being 2 kg and the largest 3,1 kg. It was my dads first time at this venue and he caught some beautiful fish. The preferred flies were large brown dragonfly nymphs, blood worms and olive buzzers. 

Early Season Yellowfish

This year’s yellow fish season opened with a bang. We fished slow glides and got broken up a couple of times by big smallmouth yellowfish. The biggest I caught was 3.9 kg – currently my personal best.

Winter Muddies

During the winter in Gauteng, South Africa, the Vaal river temperature drops to between 6°C and 11°C. During this period the smallmouth yellowfish and most other fish species resident in the river, moves into deeper glides and pools. By deeper I mean between 2 and 3 meter deep. We target these fish with #18 mayfly nymphs and blood worm (midge larvae) imitations, fished slowly under an indicator. Long leaders and 6X tippet setup (longer than 18 foot) are used to get these flies into the feeding zone which is normally close to the bottom. Although we predominantly fish for smallmouth yellowfish in this fashion we sometimes catch monster mudfish weighing more than 3 kg.

Highland Lodge

I recently visited Highland Lodge located in the Stormberg close to Dordrecht in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

This trout water is known for its naturally grown huge fish. Fingerlings are mostly stocked resulting in clever big fish. The area should not be fished by the fainthearted as a person will experience all four seasons in one day.

  
Casting a 5 weight rod in gale force wind from a float tube or pontoon boat being tossed around as if you are on the sea can be challenging, but the rewards are so sweat – big hard fighting fish. The surroundings and bird live at Highland Lodge is out of this world.

 

We fished a variety flies but most fish were taken on dragon fly and blood worm patterns. The one specific dragon fly pattern, the papa roach did extremely well. We fished the roach on a floating line with a long leader extremely slowly on the bottom – basically only taking up slack in the line. In the deeper sections of the dams we utilized an intermediate line. The mumbo #5 and atomic worms did well in terms of blood worm patterns. We also caught fish on small #16 and #18 flashback mayfly nymphs. This we only started fishing on the afternoon of the last day, but should have fished these from the beginning due to its success.
The biggest fish I landed was a magnificent “Blue” rainbow trout of close to 8 lbs.


Most of the other fish were between 4 and 6 lbs.

 

Sharing the water with great friends added to the experience. 

 

 

 Spot the small flashback mayfly nymph solidly lodged.

 

Sterkfontein Yellows

By the time the years labour ended, I had already carefully mapped my December holiday break to enable me a couple of days on the Vaal River. Well, the first attempt nearly ended in tragedy. While I was fishing a part of the Vaal River just below the dam wall, within the first ten minutes of entering the water, the dam’s gates were opened and the flow increased from 25 mᶾ/s to 250 mᶾ/s in minutes. We just in time made our way to high ground.

 

 

The increased water flow dislodged debris as well as all types of water creatures including brown water snakes which I am not particularly fond of although totally harmless.

That was the end of my carefully mapped Vaal River schedule.

But then an opportunity presented itself to visit Sterkfontein dam and to make up for all the yellow fish fishing I have missed during December.

 

The clarity of the water and feeding patterns of the yellow fish in this dam allows for extremely good dry fly fishing. These yellows would patrol the banks of the dam and eat most things blown into the drink.

During previous sessions on the dam the fish would accept various dry flies such as F-Flies, CDC Emergers, Stimulators and Beetles. This session they accepted any beetle pattern as long as it was purple.   

 

 

 

The weather was true to its reputation and we had all four seasons in one day, every day except one.

 

We were even caught off guard and trapped against the shore to avoid the risk of being electrocuted, only to be punished by a hail downpour. All part of the experience!

 

 

The fishing was great and some good specimens were caught.

 

 

These yellows were feeding aggressively and did not sip the fly of the top but took it with gusto as long as the angler was hiding out of sight.

 

Hope to return soon! 



When Vultures Flee

The diversity of South Africa as fly fishing location is astounding. As the proverb goes “too many fishing waters, too little time”. Now and then the opportunity present itself to fish one of those bucket list venues. With news of a new South African rainbow trout record being set, we eagerly grabbed the opportunity to visit Mount Arthur situated in the Underberg, Kwazulu Natal. The fishing to be had, my favourite, large still waters fished from float tubes or pontoon boats.

 

It was mid-winter and apparently a prime time to visit this venue - when there is fishing to be done who is scared of a little cold.

 

The first two days we fished the three dams at the venue and had mixed success. Nothing spectacular were caught in terms of size, biggest rainbow touching 4lbs.

 

While fishing a dam called Pots it suddenly became overcast and heavy mist started rolling in. While on the water we noticed vultures flying in the mist away from the mountains. We should have listened to this hidden warning. That evening it started raining and the next morning we were snowed in. This resulted in our stay being extended by a couple of days, with the snow not having any effect on the activity of the trout.

 

 

 

The stuff memories are made of!

 

 

 

A Big Fish Day

Once in a while we catch a bigger than average fish and I must admit it adds to the excitement of fly fishing. I experienced such a day a couple of weeks ago on the Vaal River. It was early season, with every species of fish in the Vaal River spawning expect my quarry, smallmouth yellow fish. Not to disturb the fish fraternity in their mating rituals in the rapids, I fished a glide of half a meter deep.

I fished green rock worm patterns (Caddis Larvae) followed by a black fly pattern or black hot head nymphs, New Zealand style under an indicator.

It soon became clear that the fish liked my presentation and shortly after I started fishing I hooked into what felt like a Bulldog. This tug of war ended in me landing a 3 kg mudfish.

Second cast after landing the Mudfish I hooked into another extremely strong fish. It ran down stream, causing me to follow in a comedy of movement, navigating my way over slippery rocks and what not in the river. I managed to turn the fish and saw its large orange lips with the green rock worm solidly stuck in the upper lip. Cyprinus Carpio paid me a visit. It took a while to land the fish. It was a fat short common carp.

 

Rest of the morning saw me hooking and releasing a dozen or so smaller mudfish and even a couple of small yellow fish.

Midday I returned to the same glide I started fishing that morning and I was immediately into another big fish, yes another common carp. The only difference was that this fish was twice the size of the earlier fish. I eventually managed to land the fish and it weighed 6 kg.

Just to place the cherry on the cake, half an hour later I hooked into a large moggel weighing 2,7 kg.

Three personal bests set in one day – What a day!!