What's your biggest SM Yellowfish

[Herman Jooste]

Some very blurry pics on the original thread here: http://www.flytalk.co.za/forum/showthread.php?t=4754

Hey, that pic was taken with a cheapie mik 'n druk at maximum zoom from quite a distance away.

Still one of the biggest SM I have seen come out from that venue.

[Herman Jooste]

4.3 kg on nymph ( near Bothaville _

4.0 kg 9n dry ( GVP )

[schloshd1]

There are a few seriously good fish on this thread. Here are 2 of my bigger fish, I did not weigh them but guessed between 2.5 and 3 kg

[nicholas]

only having fished for yellows twice, i have caught some nice fish, my biggest was in the Richtersveld and was at least 3kg alas no picture, i had broken away from the main group and was fishing a nice run and was floating a line under a large tree that hung right across the run,and bang all hell broke loose,was one of the fights of my life,in fact i nearly bloody drowned trying to land it... Here is a pic of one of the average size catches from the trip.

There is a better pic in my Album.

[GrahamS]

Jeez manne! Julle is almal tipiese vissermanne. My grootste gele se oe was so groot soos pierings!

Do you okes know that a Kilogram (kg) and Pound (lb) is not the same thing... Most of these fish on here definately do not look their weight!

My profile pic's Yellow only pulled the scale to 2.2kg! This was on an accurate scale. In the 'net scale' it was over 3kg...

One thing with yellows is that fish length means very little in terms of weight. I've seen fish of similar length weighing nearly double their counterparts.

[GrahamS]

Hey, that pic was taken with a cheapie mik 'n druk at maximum zoom from quite a distance away.

Still one of the biggest SM I have seen come out from that venue.

Blurry pics are still better than nothing. And that's what I would have had if you weren't there that day Oom

[redhumpy]

What is pretty clear from this thread is that a fish between 3kg and 4kg is an exceptional specimen and will probably be most fly fishermen's life best.

Fish ranging between 4kg - 4.5kg are few and far between and most fly fishermen will probably never see one, let alone catch one.

Smallmouth over 4.5kg are mind blowing and a once in a lifetime fish for dedicated anglers. I say dedicated anglers because the chances of landing a 4.5kg fish by luck is highly unlikely as it takes some serious skill to land any fish above 3.5kg.

There is no need to argue or debate "the size of the fish on the photograph" - well done to those who have landed fish over 4.5kg - the greatest feeling in the world is seeing the fish surface after a 10 - 15 minute fight and realising it is a "fish of a lifetime". I clearly remember my first sight of my personal best surfacing for the first time. The thoughts going through your head: Are my knots going to hold, will the leader hold, what if it comes off in the rapids, should I give it more time before landing - and then finally landing it. You only stop shaking 5 minutes after releasing it. That's what fishing is all about....

[Gerrit Viljoen]

You are right Mario, fish in the 4-5kg category are few and far between but I have caught some.Here are some more pearlers in that range and a 3.8kg which was just a very pretty fish and made a pretty pic.

4.2kg (same fish)







4.2kg



4.2kg



4.0kg



3.8kg

[redhumpy]

Awesome fish. Few people spend as much time as you on the river. Well done.

I started fishing for yellows on the Vaal 14 years ago!
Since 1997, and many many fishing trips, I only ever once caught a smallmouth in the 4.5kg range and only two other fish around 4kg. That makes it a total of three fish in the 4kg category in roughly 100 trips to the river!!!!
I think maybe I should move out of the rapids

We need to look after our big fish and make sure that our children can maybe land the same fish we did.

[Stones]

Since we are sharing pics, I thought I would contribute.

These arn't my biggest, lost those pics somwhere but have the negatives.

These were'nt scaled but estimated from 2.5 - 3.5. You also don't see many yellows in this condition any more