Fishing Report - 11/12/13 January 2013

Venue - Vaal River (Ooesthuizens Farm )
Location - Vaal River, just below the barrage 
Date - 11/12/13 January 2013
Fisherman - Bertus plus other family members & I
Overhead Conditions - Rain, cloudy, very little sun +/- 26 degrees 
Water Conditions - 22 degrees, visibility 30 cm

We set off from Pretoria on the Friday afternoon around 4. 
Heavy rain had fallen all morning and we were questioning whether this was even worth bothering with. 
We didn't have a choice, some of the guys had already arrived that morning and set up camp. 
After spending the customary hour in traffic south of Joburg, we were finally making our way. The destination is only 1.5hours from Pretoria, so its not as if we had a long journey ahead of us. 

Arrived in the pouring rain!!

Luckily enough, the guys who'd arrived that morning had already setup camp, gazebo up and fire burning. 
We quickly unpacked the rods/tackle etc. We wouldn't start fly fishing till the morning but we baited the carp and barbel rods for the night shift. 
Mielies on, the carp lines were in, frog on for the barbel. This isn't really what i came here for but it will keep me occupied while we weren't wading in the water.  
First evening was spent around the fire, had a couple of bites on the the carp rod but nothing really worth getting excited about. 
Around 10 pm, a barbel swallowed my frog and the first battle had started. After playing the fish for some time i managed to land a +/- 6kg barbel. Good start to the weekend! Hopefully this was a sign of things to come. 

Arose the Saturday morning to grey skies but thankfully the rain had stopped. The weather forecast had predicted intermittent shows for the whole weekend. I was hoping they were wrong!

Fly rods rigged, Bertus and i were both using a combination of Caddis (green & mustard) as our control fly and the yellow fish brassie as our point fly (If you read my post from the 16 December) you will see this fly brought me a lot of joy a Vaal streams.

The venue doesn't provide a huge amount of opportunities for fly fisherman. Basically, one band of rocks stretching the length of the river. Within those rocks is where we would be fishing, plenty of small pools and swirling water. 

We hit the water around 7, fishing round the first set of rocks, the water was flowing a little faster here. The wading is very tough, big rocks! If you aren't using a wading stick you will seriously struggle which Bertus later found out! 

Despite the rain the water looked good. I knew we'd hook into something! We slowly made our way into the water, plenty of rises further into the river but nothing near us. 
Flicking out my flies into a nice piece of water, things just felt right for yellows! 3rd cast, bang i was in. whatever it was took my flies and was off down river, i knew it was something of decent size but it was close to the bottom so i didn't get a glimpse . My foot slipped on a rock, i stumbled, a lapse in concentration and i accidently let the line go slack. Damn he was off, i looked at Bertus and we both knew we were going to have some fun in the water. 

I stayed in the same spot for some time, landed a few small yellows! All taking the yellow fish brassie. I was already planning my trip to the fishing shop in the week to buy the relevant materials to make my own version. 

Bertus, his first time fly fishing had never felt what it was like to catch a fish on a fly/rod. He was fishing with a single mustard caddis, no strike indicator. Flicking his fly up stream and letting it slowly drift down along on the bottom. His first fish was one to remember! Not knowing he'd hooked him until the line went tight and a hefty bend in the rod. A good few runs later, the battle was over, Bertus successfully landed his first fish on fly tackle, a +/- 2kg carp. From the way the fish fought, to landing the fish, i could see Bertus really enjoyed the experience. 

Throughout the day we both managed to land quit a few more small yellows (95% caught on the number 14 yellow fish brassie), all giving a good account of themselves. All very healthy and proving that the years spawning was a successful one! 

This venue is primarily a carp destination with the deep sections of the river. But the small opportunity it offers the fly angler, i'm convinced this venue has hardly any fly rod pressure. For this reason, i will definitely be back. 

Keep it real....................with feathers and steal!  

French Leader Setup

French Nymphing is now becoming the latest craze hitting the Vaal and many other rivers and small streams. 
I personally haven't tried it yet but i will be giving it a go this weekend when we visit Arendsnes with the Jacaranda Fly Fishing Club. 

A full report will be posted next week. 

Until then, happy wading!