Essential Vaalie guide

[BenzoV]

Assuming a 9ish weight rod and a reel, what would your recommendation be for the average Joe going on a family holiday in December to the SA coast and may get a morning or two of fishing in.
This guy is not going to be hunting GTs in the surf at Kosi bay, stalking grunters in a secluded estuary, or be on a boat at Cape Point looking for yellow tail. Most probably he will find a rocky bay next to a popular beach and try for some kind of panfish or cast for pompano before the crowds arrive with cooler boxes and umbrellas. Pretty boring stuff, more to sooth the conscience than anything else.

Please recommend:

1 line. Floating, intermediate or sinking?
1 leader/tippet thickness (I'm assuming a level leader will do).
3 flies with basic leader length and technique. (a fly includes colour and 1 size, e.g 1/0 clouser in chartr & white)
1 tide or time to go fishing

P.S I know that searching the forum and spending the afternoon sifting through threads will yield the answers to all the questions posed, but I thought this might be a nice way to summarise the topic and given the time of year, it seems appropriate.
If this summary already exists elsewhere and you know the location, please feel free to post a link instead.

[BenzoV]

Found this great read for the once a year Vaalie, http://www.fosaf.co.za/guide-onshore-saltwater.php

[Andre]

I would probably go with a 7 or 8 wt, and not really a 9wt. A rod length level leader of 15 to 20 pounds, tied directly to the fly, no tippet section necessary. Fleas, flippers, small poppers, salty buggers, and smallish deceivers and clousers, and baitfish petterns.. I would also try a few prawn or shrimp imitations.
As far as line goes, sinker and intermediate is probably best, bit if you have a floater as well, that will be good.

[dollar]

Andre spot on, i too prefer the 8 weight. i use a tappered leader on my intermediate line (30,20 then a 10 pound), and on the sinking line a short lenght (1,5m) level leader of either 10 or 15 pound line. i also sometimes add an single granny knot just above the fly for when i get stuck on the rocks

[BenzoV]

By 9ish weight I meant anything between 8 & 10 weight, actually anything 6 weight and up counts. In fact, whatever the heaviest rod is this average Joe guy has in his closet.

So the rules are:
1 type of line
1 leader
3 flies (be exact, pattern, colour and size)
1 time and/or tide


No explanations, ifs or buts. Just list'em and leav'em

[Circus]

Sinking line
tapered leader to 10lb (you're not catching GT's, more like 1-2kg fish)
size 4 baitfish brushfly - bleeding grey head, while belly, bleeding grey back, stick-on eyes. Nice for fishing the rocks - first light
size 2 pink crazy charlie. Nice for estuaries, better closer to high tide.
size 4 crab pattern.

[firephish]

Intermediate (#9)
10ft of 7kg Maxima
flippers (Size 2 white & yellow)
Salty bugger/clouser (Size 2 white)
Prawn imitation (Size 2 Olive or Orange) ... I use this one: http://www.flytalk.co.za/forum/showt...tex-Shrimp-SBS
flexible fiend (Size 2 luminous Green & Pink)

If you fish the flexible fiend under and indicator vaal style in the rough gullies you will pick up lots of small fish .. good fun

ok, so thats 5 flies and i elaborated a bit ...

[Andre]

I wouldn't bother with a tapered leader. A level leader is more than adequate. You not going to need any form of delicate presentation anyway.

[BenzoV]

I use this one: http://www.flytalk.co.za/forum/showt...tex-Shrimp-SBS
.

Cool fly. One can only speculate, but I wonder if fish take it for a baby squid sometimes.

[Ko7Ad]

Line: DI5 or 7
Leader: Length Ratio 2:1:1 of 30lb:20lb:10Lb.
Fly 1: #1 Chartreuse over White Clouser Minnow (Bucktail) fished fast along rips. If you only had one fly for the salt this is it. What a Woolly Bugger is for a Troots, is what a Clouser is in the salt.
Fly 2: #1 Olive over White Clouser Minnow (SF)
Fly 3: #4 White Crazy Charlie fished in the foam and gullies. Get fly just below white water.
Tide/Time: Low light times, early mornings or afternoon. Tides depend on location and species so difficult to specify imo.