Vaal River Update

[Scooterza]

So decided not to listen to good advice and went fishing anyway!

My friend and I regularly do a drift down the river, usually between Schoemansdrift and Elgro.

Usually this takes the better part of 2 days with all the stopping to fish etc. We like the flow to be around 30 cumecs. At that level the water is deep enough to not scrape on every rock but also wadeable.

Well on Saturday it was running at 265cumecs! We put in at Schoemansdrift around 11am and raced down the river. Even with a 1.5 hour stop for lunch at Schoemans Hof, we reached Elgro at about 3pm. This was due to the fast flow and not really being able to stop and fish. Our usual fishing spots were under 2m of water! Obviously it sucked not to be able to fish but it was fun being pushed downriver at a fast walking pace.

We did manage to get a few 2 to 3kg barbel on conventional tackle so it wasn't a total bust on the fishing front.

We finished off at the Scandinavia Hotel by lunch on day 2. It wasn't good from a fishing point of view but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.

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[dollar]

thank you Ernst, removing nets is a health risk, so much appreciated and all your other efforts to keep the vaal beautifull

[dollar]

hey hey hey, fishable flow but dirty for sure
http://www.reservoir.co.za/flow/flow...-10Mar2017.pdf
maybe next weekend

[GenerraalGeelvis]

any update on the viz? want to go next Tuesday on the holiday down to schoemans

[dollar]

fished arendnes on saturday the 18th with Icthusiast, viz was about 10/13cm, temp roughly from 18/19 degrees (measure by touch, forgot the damn tool at home) and guessed the flow about 25 to 27 cubes, fishing was very slow with only a few fish to show between the two of us, Icthusiast landed a nice 9 pounder barble, a first ever for him and obviously a pb (welldone mate, she reved you a little), including a couple of small yellows, pb about a pound (to be improved soon). insect life was non-existant, no rises.
a lovely day out under the african sun since the last rains subsided and flows dropped.

[icthusiast]

dollar was the perfect host / tutor / guide! A fantastic introduction to fishing Africa.

The biggest problem of the day was my inability to hold onto decent fish. Dropped five that started off feeling like snags and then turned into steam trains boring upstream. Of course, as it was my first time, I have no reference points to say what they might have been or how good they were.

I guess that means I need some more practice! :-)

[dollar]

thanks for your kind words Icthusiast but it wasnt an effort from my side as it was from your side, i think coming from a world of dry flying to nymphing all day is a major change, nymphing is very technical.
hope to see you soon, safe travels.

[dollar]

how is the Parys weather at the moment?

[dollar]

sunday at about 5 , started with my chores, dog poop, lawn and swepted outside tiled areas. with a second cup of coffee and positioned myself at the tying station about 8:45. plan was to tie a few klinks on some newly bought, interesting hook from frontiers the day before. Ruben confirmed the tiemco tmc212y (odd size #17) was a good hook for klinks and set off by constructing the post first on the levelled shank, nice as i admired it's new angled position. when finished whipping with the first fly i was quickly onto the second klink. funny was, at about mid 10'ish was i making my way into the last pool at strydom's. water clarity was about 40cm, surface temp 23 degrees and flows on the higher to late 20's. with no visual rises i removed the dry fly rig (damn, so wanted to land a fish with the new klink) to a nymph. quickly caught 4 fish in the first pool and knew it was gonna be a good day. worked my self quickly to the free state side. plenty yellows up to 4 pounds, a couple of barbels (orca whale in colour) and one too many muddies made their way to my landing net. surprisingly only saw three other flyers on the water.
there was no hatch to speak of except for the occasional adult caddis and butterfly zooming past, i decided to venture in between the islands with the klink. saw lots of carp in the shallow slow water with plenty of muddies about. kept my eyes peeled for the tell tale signs for any yellow rising and after about an hours search that not so nice feeling of "it's not gonna happen" set in, i made my thru the islands (without a single cast) i came out upstream of the islands, amongst the patches of reeds when my first rise, "well spotted" i said, blood pumping and two casts later, fish on. man was i happy to land that one. caught and landed seven more when i a received a call from my better half, "hey, we have family coming to visit, please get us pizza i didnt take out any meat".
hoping to visit the vaal on tuesday, for obvious reasons, before i head off to coast for the Easter break with some trolling off the kayak.

[Dave B]

Did a mtb race just outside Parys this weekend. The water looked much clearer than a couple of weeks back when I fished the area. I think I did the wrong sport this weekend.