December 2009 Middle Vaal Report

I do not have a lot to report other than the fish are eating and we are at the mercy of summer rains for good water conditions. Flows have been manageable with a few spikes and the resultant drop in water clarity. In the absence of major frontal systems, like the one we had 2 weeks ago, you will experience Highveld thunderstorms on most afternoons. Not much you can do about that but hunker down and make sure you do not become lightning fodder. Most of these are over within 30 minutes affording you excellent fishing for the rest of the afternoon.
As the daytime and water temperatures increase go look for the fish in the shade. Overhanging trees and undercut banks should be worked thoroughly – do not take no for an answer. At times you have to go in tight against the bank and do a few drifts in the good spots. You will be amazed how a fish will only take after the 4th or 5th drift.

Me? I’m of to Sterkfontein dam to satisfy my insatiable lust for dry fly fishing. If you are on the roads this festive season travel safely.



Blessed Christmas to you and your family. Happy New Year.

Carl & Keith

November Middle Vaal Report

Road trips I love them (at least till we get to the water)

Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Some you can some you can’t. I discovered this on my previous fishing trip, to Sterkfontein dam. Not the middle Vaal I know but fishing for smallmouth none the less. On the Friday we arrived we had to fish on foot – with very strong winds we were forced to fish the accessible sheltered areas. The first spot produced my first largemouth in this dam on a small Zak nymph. It gave me a lovely fight and certainly got our tails up.

A fruitless 30 minutes followed and I moved to higher ground, which revealed very little in terms of fish, we moved on. Another shore access spot was completely blown out, with no fish showing!?!

One last trick up our sleeves; we had a choice of rocky shoreline and open bay with sandy/muddy bottom. The bay was wind swept but a small ridge gave enough protection to make a cast. My mates headed to the rocky shoreline, as this was completely protected, and the in the Manual of Sterkies chapter 4 states this is one of the spots.


The Zak did duty again, the high sun afforded enough visibility in the choppy conditions for me to spot 2 fish following but refusing the fly. I immediately switched to a hopper as the water was shallow about 1-1.5m. A short cast into the wind was all I required, the hopper drifted for 2metres before a big mouth engulfed the fly. WOW! She left the shallow flats like a Tokyo bullet train, trying with all her guile to rid her of the 5X tippet holding her back. I landed and released her taking a few minutes to savour the moment – and decide on continuing fishing or go call my friends – I’m such a good person.

The area they were fishing, a top spot in high summer, was void of fish.

They joined me in the bay and Jaco promptly got his first smallie in Sterkies.


The following 2 hours I experienced some of the most amazing fly fishing for smallies I’ve had in my life. The fish were big and fat, they engulfed the hopper (no missed takes) and they all ran like a bat towards deeper water.

Kobus did not have permission from the wife to go, he wasn’t there.

The one lesson I got ingrained again was to find the fish – the usual spots or some completely new place. At Sterkfontein the clear water makes this easy – if the weather co-operate. The Vaal in summer can become so predictable that our cerebral development in the fly fishing lobe takes a serious knock.

This is further aggravated by fishing the same venue! There are various methods to identify the holding places of the fish on the Vaal.



· Find a bit of high ground and use it to spot the fish flashing as they feed. Even in discoloured water the tell tale flashes are visible.
· Pause to survey the river at water level, you may just notice a tail doing the “overhere” wave. This accounted for my first largemouth, a fish of 4.5kg.
· In the pools and glides, keep an eye open for dark torpedo shapes just sub-surface or the dorsal-tail fins of feeding yellows.
· If you see nothing give the fly in water technique a go, but take a break every so often to check for activity.

Only the clever survive, the stupid catch nothing.

The longer term weather predictions are for this year to be an El Nino year, which translates into low rainfall, especially early season. To date this holds true and has afforded us fairly constant flows over October. The only spike due to a canoe race held over the last weekend.
Good luck tread lightly and avoid the spawning fish!

Carl & Keith
http://yellowsonfly.blogspot.com/

October 2009 Middle Vaal Report

Every now and again a really good story comes in via e-mail this one I think is worthwhile posting:

Steve and his buddies were hanging out and planning an upcoming fishing trip. Unfortunately, he had to tell them that he couldn't go this time because his wife wouldn't let him. After a lot of teasing and name calling, Steve headed home frustrated.
The following week when Steve's buddies arrived at the lake to set up camp, they were shocked to see Steve. He was already sitting at the campground with a cold beer, swag rolled out, fishing rod in hand, and a camp fire glowing. "How did you talk your missus into letting you go Steve?"
"I didn't have to," Steve replied. Yesterday, when I left work, I went home and slumped down in my chair with a beer to drown my sorrows because I couldn't go fishing. Then the ol' lady snuck up behind me and covered my eyes and said, 'Surprise'."
"When I peeled her hands back, she was standing there in a beautiful see through negligee and she said, ' Carry me into the bedroom, tie me to the bed and you can do whatever you want'.....
So, here I am!"

Anyway I had one of those moments the last weekend in September. Not the see through nightie moment, no I got to go fishing as the family were holidaying in Balito. Man I missed the Vaal – not fishing for the last 5 months - driving there through thick mist really got me searching the memory banks for info on what to do when I get there. But it is like riding bike once you’re on everything just comes back to you.
I read my old reports – I do – there is some good advice stored in there. But every year or season is different, nature just has some things that does not run linear. I still vividly remember 24 September in 2001 fishing a farm called Carryblaire for the first time. I met Chris the owner’s son at a wine tasting and cracked an invite to a then private venue. It was a red letter day we seriously klapped the yellows, in those days I still counted and tallied something like 50 and they were big fat wintered fish. [Nowadays I would call it a day before I get so many in a small area.] The big green rock worms were on every rock you turned over . I have never had a day like that again on all subsequent 24 Septembers.

We arrived at the venue with no other fisherman in sight. Okay a good start and the weather looked promising clear skies with a moderate breeze. The obligatory fish were rising in the pool while we strung up our rods and got the boats ready. Off we went heading upstream stopping at the tail-out of the first big pool. There is a nice high ridge affording a eagle’s eye view of the pool below – which revealed very little apart from some splashy rises. A splashy rise does indicate fish but if you are one-up with a CDC emerger it’s a futile exercise. So I suggested the rapids to my novice fishing buddy while I held just below him in the eye of the pool.


I kept an eye on him and it seems as though his casting was good enough but he had too much distance on his casts. Clearly he’s done some saltwater fishing. My position did not deliver any results so I decided to move through the rapids to a glide. As I got closer I noticed rises along the current line. Perfect head and tail rises clearly indicating surface feeding yellows – bingo! I got a good cast in, the fly landing right in the feeding lane, but it drifted past untouched. Second cast was a better presentation and I added a big upstream mend. A good fish appeared, took a natural and then sip-swallow-ziiiinggg I had my first fish on since 27 April. Damn it felt great.

Unfortunately the moderate wind picked up after that one fish, the hatch petered out and the fish disappeared from the surface. The rest of the day was spent unsuccessfully searching for rising fish and fishing the rapids. I got one brute from a deeper hole in the rapid that gave a good account of her self.

My fishing companion was still fishless at this stage, having tried for the rising fish and then reverting to the rapids again. I noticed that with his long casts he was not in control of his flies and proceeded to show him to fish closer to him. The visibility was around 80cm so there was no reason to fish 15-20m ahead. I had no strike indicator and had to really work the line to stay in touch with the flies. On the second cast a male fish obliged to show that what I suggested makes sense! Heck I love it when they make it look simple. I then lost something unknown, maybe a muddy or a catfish. The fly that produced all these fish was a tan coloured caddis larva.

In the area I fished I could clearly see the muddies spawning along the margins in the shallowest of water. The big pools had massive carp getting amorous. I have also read reports of yellows spawning. PLEASE DO NOT FISH OR WADE AMONGST THESE SPAWNING FISH. Yellows don’t all spawn at the exact same moment, if you hold back and fish the deeper channels and glides away from the riffles you will get feeding fish.


Good luck tread lightly.
Carl & Keith

September 2009 Middle Vaal Report

Christoff Badenhorst with one solid beauty

Looking back on August and looking forward to spring the conditions for fishing is not perfect but the fish don’t mind – they have to continue eating. The Vaal did not clear up this winter as expected – there are multiple causes and we have experienced this in the past. Very frustrating considering this is the only time the Vaal offers the opportunity to sight fish. But don’t despair, the season is changing and soon we will be in full summer mode.
The first part of the season will bring its own challenges, most notably the curse of the Vaal (spirogyra). The long strands of algae that chokes up the rapids and prevents the nymph fisherman from effectively fishing the shallow areas. It is a growing (excuse the pun) problem exacerbated by the pollution. I have touched on some solutions of how to fish in this water, in previous reports. Best is to approach this with a dry dropper set-up and forget about nymphing until the river gets a good flush to clear the algae.

Although the temperatures are rising don’t neglect the deeper waters below the rapids. At times the bigger fish congregate here (especially during a hatch) and this will give you a shot with dries. Even in low visibility the fish can be sighted if they are holding close to the surface.



On the largemouth front the low visibility did not prevent the guys from having a bumper season. The reports are all from the Middle Vaal and there are plenty of double figure fish in them. It just illustrates that if you spend enough time in the right water with the right techniques you will catch fish – even if conditions are not ideal. If you did put in some face time on the water and remain unsuccessful consider going out with one of the expert guides or sign up for one of the clinics. It can be a bit crowded but you will have the opportunity to mix with some of the notable experts.

Barend Esterhuizen put to work the knowledge gained from fishing with a guide.

Good luck with the spring season.

July 2009 Middle Vaal Report

My working life is hectic at the moment not sure if it is a good thing what with this Global meltdown but it does keep me out of the Vaal. Which is a great pity because the fishing is awesome – based on reports I’m getting from friends. There are still some tough days when the weather does its winter thing and goes nasty but this last weekend (18 July) was windless and perfect.

Riaan reported in during the Bulls WP match clearly a contented man – he was fishing in the Vaal Hackle area. The pods of fish were just lying close to the surface looked almost like they were sunning themselves. But of course not, they were eagerly awaiting their next meal. The hatch started and looked like blackfly or very small buzzers interspersed with some mayfly. A number 16 Adams seemed a respectable imitation and produced a 7.5lb beauty amongst several other good fat winter fish.

On the largemouth front the fishing is also good. Gary Botha newly married and with a baby on the way also does not get on the river often enough, yeah wait till the kid is there! But he scraped up some credits for a day’s largemouth fishing. One fish of 6kg and another of 4kg certainly a makes for a satisfactory day.

Make the time to get onto the river for the smallmouth or largemouth action.

Cheers until next month.
Carl & Keith

June 2009 Middle Vaal Report

I’m going to keep this month’s report short, by excluding the weather section, as it seems we will never get it right again – we got 70mm of rain in June! I spent a few days in Namibia in the Kalahari where the Vaal and everything work related was very far from my mind. It is an absolutely amazing country with wonderful people.
The news from the Vaal is that the fishing is in top nick. The hatches, mostly mayflies, occur daily and bring the fish to the surface in a feeding frenzy. The feeding frenzy was yesterday, courtesy of a call I got from Riaan who fished the Vaal Hackle area. He was ecstatic and justly so the Vaal in good form in the winter is one of the best fishing destinations (Sterkfontein being “closed” in winter mode) available to fly fisherman in this area. The yellows in the Vaal are on average bigger than Sterkies;-) If you get the weather right you will be cruising the river in temperatures around 20C. And of course as a rule we don’t have any cloud cover so the days are sunny and pleasant. Compared to fishing destinations in the Northern hemisphere and some further south from us this is good summer weather. Dress warm in layers and make sure you have a dry box to store all the clothes until you need it when the sun dips.

If you don’t see fish or surface activity, take it slowly and move around the whole pool or pools searching for them. It is critical to find the feeding pods, blind fishing should be your last resort. If you have to start off blind with a nymph don’t stop scanning the water and moving position, the hatch will happen and the fish will come to the surface somewhere in the pool. Unless the weather turns foul with huge frontal systems, but I’m not making any predictions on weather.

Cheers until next month, enjoy the dry fly fishing.

Carl & Keith

May Middle Vaal Report

“By 2035 SA will need 65-billion cubic kilometres of water and our current national stock stands at 33-billion. Our problem is that we are managing our water resources so badly, and are putting pressure on available fresh water,”. Dr Anthony Turton
*Source: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A994604
Alarmist some might say but after the Energy crisis of early 2008 I would prefer to err on the side of panic. It is a fact that we, those in Gauteng in close proximity to the Middle Vaal have been blessed with average to above average rainfall in the last 3 seasons. A fact lost on us City slickers used to bottled water and water on tap. We complain about the rising cost and dropping quality of our potable water, but until recently it wasn’t frowned upon for Rand Water to provide strategic water supplies to a mining company. Water was that cheap.
It may also be that we are protected from a severe water shortage experienced by the rest of our arid country because we have large upstream strategic reserves. Unfortunately it will be difficult to avoid the massive influx of refugees fleeing a desolate country side.
We really need to switch on and approach this challenge as a national threat. Do your bit to conserve water – bath with a friend, join an action campaign, make sure the company you work for don’t pollute and get your parents to switch on it’s your future.

Approach and technique

The plethora of April public holidays gave me enough free minutes and I eventually got onto the river. The mornings are crisp with a thick layer of mist drifting off the relatively warm river water. Winter in all her glory is here. There is no need to be on the water at first light, it is certainly a lot more pleasurable to reset the alarm and crawl deeper under the duvet. Unless if you’re into photography, that is the time to get out and experience the light fantastic.
The hatches will only start around 10 am, with sufficient numbers to get the fish onto the surface and feeding. My first day out started at 2 pm and the fish were already locked into a thick hatch of Mayfly. The clarity was around 50 cm but the yellows were able to pick size 16 naturals off with a few obliging to take a well presented dry. When I feel confident I switch flies after every fish, experimenting with different patterns. The naturals (nymphal shucks) were dun to almost black in the water. The flies producing were the f-fly, loopwing emerger, dark klinkhammers and even a CDC ant in size 16-18. The fish refused bigger patterns I used as an indicator.

The next morning the action was slow but it was great to be on the river for the first time with my son. He thoroughly enjoyed it and I was astonished that he persisted and did not head back to his PSP at the lodge. He even paddled me around the pool while I stood up spotting fish.

Again as mentioned in previous reports, first thing is to find the fish. Move around until you see the activity or spot the dark shapes just below the surface. You cannot fish blind in those large pools of the Vaal. On that morning I found the fish in a large pool, just where the water was smoothing out from the turmoil of the rapids. The hatches were sporadic so I reverted to the double burger with extra fries approach. A big hopper cast about 1 metre upstream of the fish was enough to entice my first fish of the morning. Once the hatch started they ignored the large fly again. I switched to small #16 offerings and had some great fun with decent size fish up to 5 pounds.
Insect Activity
The flies are small and sometimes it takes a lot of guts to stick such a small fly out there especially if you are used to lobbing #10 caddis boms in summer.
Believe me it does work. If you tie your own flies and battle to get the mayflies picture perfect don’t despair! I watched and collected a lot of the naturals and they were a sorry bunch.The cripples and emergers are scraggly bits none of the pure lines of the duns floating on the surface. The fish didn’t mind in fact they were the easy pickings.

This little fellow joined me, but mom was close by and she was a monster

Cheers until next month, enjoy the dry fly fishing.

Carl & Keith
http://yellowsonfly.blogspot.com/