Help & advice for Elandskloof Trout farm

[zonker]

Morning fellow members.

I am doing a 6 day trip to Elandskloof trout farm and in desperate need of information on the fly fishing there and what flies are needed.

Thanks

[gkieser]

Hi Zonker? Are you talking about the Elandkloof dam down here in the cape?

[zonker]

Sorry, forgot to mention that it is the trout farm just before Dullstroom.

[Chris Shelton]

Geez, don't worry Grant, I just got the same fright!

[dizzy]

Morning fellow members.

I am doing a 6 day trip to Elandskloof trout farm and in desperate need of information on the fly fishing there and what flies are needed.

Thanks

All I can tell is that they have plenty of dams, fishing is tough and watch out for the otters, they are as big as rotweilers

[jock0]

I have found two different bits of information that i saved from way back when... If the the original authors want me to remove it just say so. The authors should be aorund here anyway

Post one:
Fished Elandskloof for the first time this weekend just past. Fished three of the 10 dams and caught in two of them (the one in front of the camp site and the one in front of Matuka Cottage). We mainly caught stockies as the dams were well stocked for the long weekend a week ago but few were caught due to difficult weather conditions.

A few weeks back TJB and crew landed 2 fish over 2kg there, so there are larger fish around. We mainly caught on the usual damsel imitations and in the evening there was a good mayfly hatch, cream in about size 16-18 which provide us with some good top water action. There are plenty kuper in the water so maybe a baitfish imitation may lead to larger fish

I hear some of the larger dams before you get the campsite are very good but not sure which, maybe someone else has suggestions?



Post two:
Take a tube !

As you're driving down from the homestead, you see a BIG dam on left with two cottages (when last I was there) That damn fishes well along the dam wall and on the mountained/reeded side of it (ie : If you're standing AT the cottages, your left)

The small dam on your left hand side as you turn onto the road leading to the bigger dam also has fish ... though very few and I have had a nice trophy fish once or twice there, stalking is key and it's usually sorrounded by high grass.

I never fish the dam by the recreation area, it's brim stocked and sickening really. If hunting stockies is your thing, go there, though the fish are used to flies raining down on them all the time.

Facing directly away from the dam at the recreation area there is a small hill right in front of you with the camp site to your left. Up to there is a small dam with very rocky bottom and crystal clear water. There were bigass fish in there, though again, stalking and staying low out of sight (ie: not getting even on top of the dam wall before you make your casts) is key. There is a small corner on the right hand side of that dam where a fence goes into the water. Landed a 3Kg plus monster there once.

From the dam at recreation area with the dam to your right and the camp site to your rear, you will have three dams straight ahead of you ... fishing these from the dam wall works, especially the first one, aim for the spillover tube poking out of the water and work around the dead trees. The top two dams are also very productive if you work around the reed beds/structure and because the water is so clear, I have rarely ever caught anything if it wasn't in/around structure of some sort, weed and subsurface grassbeds included and of yes, less people tend to wander up that far so I allways liked that.

All three these dams have produced for me with Olive/Brown/Chartreuse Buggers, Damsels & Stripleaches with a little bit of flash in the tail. Fishing static buzzers if it is a windy day also works and if the wind blows at Elandskloof (which it usually does ... it's draped down a decending valley) you're going to have a tough time. If it's misty ... get your ass on the water, it helps with the stalking/remaining unseen.

Oh yeah, get yourself some Flashback Nymps in sizes 14/16 or 12 if you really can't get anything else. Both work, the Flashback (Black body, Blue flash) or the Flashgun (Grey body, Blue flash)

Watch the water around the grass and you will see lots of minnows and small trout come from them, especially in the big dams. Do a cast to them and see how they spook even with a rasonably delicate presentation. this is the same for the big boys and you will really have to effort long leaders, small flies and delicate presentation to get into something tasty.

Don't bother with the other dams, they aren't stocked all that often and are hard to fish.

That's about all I can remember, have fun, good luck, post a report with pics !

[zonker]

Thank you for the response...the info is brilliant and I am sure it will help.