A reply to Korrie on the Umzimkulu
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Korrie
Andre will tell you about the Umzinkulu around Underberg, a couple of years ago.
It was so low, you could not buy a fish over 15cm. after the first rains, the fish appaered from "NOWHERE" and the rivers where back to normal.
My family has a stretch of upper Umzimkulu from the Umzimouti (Umzimude) confluence downwards...the most beautiful stretch of water imagineable but over the last few years I've fished blanks which is hard to fathom...I knew these waters when I was a kid and there were far too many trout in them...my uncle told us not to return any...after 30 mins minutes you had your quota...no c.a.r. in those days...range between 8" to 15" with an ocasional 2 pounder in deeper undercut banks. Nowadays the river is flowing quite beautifully after the drought but very few fish caught...tried to probe info from UHTFC but it seems zero is happening...all fish are to be returned...like Rhodes...hit with devastating drought but Natal trout don't recover like Eastern Cape...needs a phantom stocker but such things are not politically correct...I suspect it's being done in some stretches but stocking rivers is an offence...anyway very few will do this and besides the quality of fish from hatcheries are not likely to take off in rivers...an inherant deficiency...in the old days the late Bob Crass used to use ova...a imported or mixed resilient strain that created stronger fish...interesting as I fished the upper Pholela the other day in the nature resort...river looking magnificent but no signs of trout.