B Nationals

[firephish]

sounds like the guys are having a tough time, would be interesting to have a view on how many fish were excluded due to the 30cm rule & muddy policy?

Retarding these to rules i would say:

The middle vaal between the barrage and parys seems to have a very high density of yellows between 20-30cm at the moment. It seems pretty strange to exclude this slot size because if you are fishing the faster water this is mainly what you will be catching.

the muddy one i can understand, but not for the foul hooking reason. if your flies are spaced adequately you should not foul hook many ... or at leas i don't seem to foul hook many. I would say it makes sense to exclude muddies because they tend to shoal densely in a particular location, if you happen to be allocated one of these spots you could easily cleanup with 20 fish in an hour while someone on a different beat would struggle. ie beat allocation becomes more important that fishing skill.

My 2 cents

[MR.GT]

the muddy one i can understand, but not for the foul hooking reason. if your flies are spaced adequately you should not foul hook many ... or at leas i don't seem to foul hook many. I would say it makes sense to exclude muddies because they tend to shoal densely in a particular location, if you happen to be allocated one of these spots you could easily cleanup with 20 fish in an hour while someone on a different beat would struggle. ie beat allocation becomes more important that fishing skill.My 2 cents

Then how about adding a slot limit of for example 5 muddies, culling allowed and lowering the "weight" points carry per muddy. (i.e. a muddy only gets you half the points a SM would give).

[GGY]

sounds like the guys are having a tough time, would be interesting to have a view on how many fish were excluded due to the 30cm rule & muddy policy?

Lots due to the muddy rule - I know of guys who caught ~10 muddies while not trying to catch muddies in their sessions.

The middle vaal between the barrage and parys seems to have a very high density of yellows between 20-30cm at the moment. It seems pretty strange to exclude this slot size because if you are fishing the faster water this is mainly what you will be catching.

The 30cm rule I cannot really comment, but from my recent fishing, I would say that the vast majority of fish caught recently have been 30cm+.

the muddy one i can understand, but not for the foul hooking reason. if your flies are spaced adequately you should not foul hook many ... or at leas i don't seem to foul hook many. I would say it makes sense to exclude muddies because they tend to shoal densely in a particular location, if you happen to be allocated one of these spots you could easily cleanup with 20 fish in an hour while someone on a different beat would struggle. ie beat allocation becomes more important that fishing skill.

Since the anglers are fishing in a "scrum" format, where you can fish any water within the venue boundaries, as long as you stay 15m from another anglers, there is no possibility of having the "sweet spot" that other anglers cannot fish. (Any angler can move into the spot while the previous angler is measuring a fish).

Then how about adding a slot limit of for example 5 muddies, culling allowed and lowering the "weight" points carry per muddy. (i.e. a muddy only gets you half the points a SM would give).

Too complicated from a scoring perspective. Legal fish should be legal fish. Simple.

[GGY]

UPDATE - I did not receive the full sessions 3 & 4 results and things will change after this final session ends in a few minutes, so I will only post final results when I have them.

I do know that yesterday was much like the first day, and maybe marginally better overall.

Some venues produced no legal fish to all anglers in the session (6 out of 6 blanks) and others produced just 1 or 2 fish in a session. Some were better where 4 out of 6 anglers at least managed to get lucky and catch a legal fish.

[smallstreams.co.za]

I think we also need to be honest and say that this has been a really cold period for this stage of the year. Usually this time of the year would be quite good for fishing (across the country), and I'm sure that catches would have been fine if the weather and water was good. Sadly yellows are a bit finicky around colder water ;-)

[Andre]

I remember in past years, in the Nationals on the Vaal, some of the top guys were getting 30 fish a session. Seems it just isn't playing along at the moment.

[GGY]

I think we also need to be honest and say that this has been a really cold period for this stage of the year. Usually this time of the year would be quite good for fishing (across the country), and I'm sure that catches would have been fine if the weather and water was good. Sadly yellows are a bit finicky around colder water ;-)

Early results for the 5th and final session indicate that it is as bad or worse than morning sessions for the first and second days, with few legal fish coming out. Venues report 6 out of 6 blanks for the session.

I remember in past years, in the Nationals on the Vaal, some of the top guys were getting 30 fish a session. Seems it just isn't playing along at the moment.

Agreed. In the past all species counted on the Vaal for Nationals. Majority of the catch was made up of SM, since these are the predominant fish in the faster water in the warmer months & water conditions.
I have personally done 36 fish (most or maybe all were SM) in a 3 hour session in A Nationals on the Vaal in the past. I think the most in a 3 hour flyfishing competition session has been Jacques Marais' 42 fish in 3 hours. All were SM and only one was under 60cm.

With the season effectively delayed due to the colder water conditions, the yellows are staying out of the way of the mudfish in the shallows. Apart from death, the other rules in life are not absolute and (should) depend upon the situation/conditions.

:-(

[dlampert]

Then how about adding a slot limit of for example 5 muddies, culling allowed and lowering the "weight" points carry per muddy. (i.e. a muddy only gets you half the points a SM would give).

Am I the only person who has a problem with the idea of culling an indigenous species occurring in its natural range because we find them a nuisance when fly fishing?

[PieterS]

I like catching them, way stronger fight than a Yellow and normally hook them in the mouth, probably foul hooked two in my life

[GGY]

Am I the only person who has a problem with the idea of culling an indigenous species occurring in its natural range because we find them a nuisance when fly fishing?

I missed the "culling" reference.
I also am offended.