Are there less trout???

[gazzarowan]

Trust me i know its my skill level,thats why i could never help with collecting data about the catch rates on the streams...........strange but people assume the question is asked because an individual i.e me is catching very few fish,i am just interested in finding out from the older!! guys has the fishing slowed in recent years..............and yes the flies will help

haha nah...was just pulling ur leg. the question is a valid one.

but i also think it might be due to weather? maybe the temperatures have increased slightly year on year for the past few years which has made the water slightly hotter on average and the bigger fish have moved into cooler waters more difficult to access as a flyfisherman.
poaching definitely would have an impact on the bigger fish as well...

possibly that the flies have been constant for many years and the fish gradually grow to ignore them as a food source. maybe new patterns need to be tested as well...

my 2 pennies worth as a "Vaal Natalian"

[Gerrit Viljoen]

Nic we also have a "brown" issue in the Vaal river hey so don't feel bad.

[FCLoretz]

found this article from the Gink and Gasoline website, http://www.ginkandgasoline.com/fly-f...r-and-cuisine/ i found it helpful and interesting. As he refers to my type of fishing in the 2nd paragraph.

[Jon Rob]

Just because I have a view doesn't make me "an older guy".

But I think that are definitely fewer large fish than say 10 years ago. I think this had more to do with catch and release being introduced 12 or 15 years ago, just about when I was starting to fish the streams. The change could just be the natural rebalancing, which will play with the population curve a bit.

Unless my memry has warped those days for me, there was a definite purple patch in the following years, about '99, 00 and '01, when you would expect to catch 5 or 6 decent fish (30cm plus) out of your 20 in any given day. There were still poachers tho. I remember having a "chat" with 3 guys with spear fishing gear and a sackfull of fish in the wier pool on SB3 about then.

I also think that the fish are wiser. There is more fishing pressure and the large fish are perhaps a little more skittish? Just because we dont catch them, we cant assume that they are not there. There is no question that fishing was easier for a beginner a few years back. When I take out guys now, they do well to get a small fish or two on their fist outing. There were times that even pretty clumsy fishermen could land 6 or 7 without too much stress.Certainly, I used to catch more fish on average, as a beginer than I do now. Except for the Holsloot, which I struggled with back then as very bassy (although could have just been a season or two), but now have no problems. But this could be a question of stocking as I know that the Worcester club and CPS have both stocked this stream at times.

Another interesting discussion is how the populations change long term. If you read the old magazines and catch reports, places like the wit els used to be epic and outfish all the other streams. I think the witte also used to fish better?

I'm also convinced that the Elanspad has improved relative to the Smalblaar in the last 10 years. Again relative fishing pressure?

[markdej]

On the weekend we were staying at a place with a fishing log book for guests.
The log book dates back to march 1947. If I look at the entries there the best fish caught was in 1953 (18.5") in the following years though the size of fish declined the numbers increased. This trend held true up untill the late 70's where the average fish started to improve in size (from 10" to 12") finally culinating in a new record in 1985 (20") during this period the average fish rose to 14" with far fewer fish seeming to come out. But by 92 the average fish was back down to 10" and they were comming out thick and fast. This seemed to be a fairly evident trend, with it varying between quantity and quality quite dramatically every 7-10 years or so. Perhaps this observation isnt applicable in all situations, but it does seem to illustrate that there is atleast some degree of a quality/quantity cycle.

[Ryan]

Interesting Mark. I was also about to reference this specific log book. I wasn't about to address what you have, but I noticed that there were browns caught in earlier years. My understanding at the moment is that browns have not been caught for a number of years. I'd be interested to know why they have disappeared.

[gazzarowan]

Interesting Mark. I was also about to reference this specific log book. I wasn't about to address what you have, but I noticed that there were browns caught in earlier years. My understanding at the moment is that browns have not been caught for a number of years. I'd be interested to know why they have disappeared.

really? haha