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