Barbel Fishing anyone?

[Kevin James]

G'day fellas,

I have to do the husbandly duties and accompany my wife back to South Africa in August for a wedding.

I have ulterior motives however and am trying to tee up some dates now if possible with like minded individuals that are able to do some barbel fishing with me. I am specifically looking for some good fish, as I would like to fish with IGFA rules in mind. We used to knock over some awesome ones at Hartebeespoort Dam in the day prior to them being accepted for IGFA species, but I am sure a lot of the things have changed quite dramatically with regards to safety, access and the like at the dam.

I am planning on visiting Kruger for about a week at the beginning of August, so I guess the dates would be from about mid to late August give or take. Hopefully the water is starting to warm up a bit by this stage.
I will be based in the Randburg / Sandton area mostly.

Is there anyone out there that perhaps can take a day or two's leave and have a lash or put me in contact with someone who doesn't mind some company on the water. I have being tying flies, so have gear ready to go.
My main issues are basically safety as I don't know the places anymore, and obviously current rules and regulations if any.

Tomorrow I leave for India and South East Asia for just over a month but I will check in from time to time on the forum site if there are PM's etc.

If anyone needs to contact me, feel free to drop me an E-mail at:
flyflinger@bigpond.com
I will be checking this when travelling.

Cheers guys in advance.

Couple of blokes I need to catch up with for a beer at any rate, so perhaps we can hatch a plan from there to somewhere.

Kevin James

[core fly]

If you could come to Bloem we can put you into plenty in our waters.It is a bit far however to drive joburg/bloem for a day.

[Scythe]

Howzit Dogtooth,

Save yourself the trip to Bloem, no need to go that far for cats, what you CAN do is to speak to TJB (on this forum) he is a catfish expert and holds more than one IGFA record for cats (AFAIK)

Either way he is a very pleasant guy and if not fishing with you, will be able to put you in touch with someone who can sort you out.

ps : I'd give Harties a skip and aim for the Vaal dam instead, Harties is disgusting, I don't want to even be next to that water let alone get any of it on my fly gear.

[core fly]

I think especially if you want a record of sorts.They grow much bigger in the dams and rivers up there.
I just watch the new dvd from Catfish joe on catching these fish with bait below Augrabies falls on the Orange.he has footage of a 42.5kg and a few other huge specimens on film.He is undoubtedly the master of bait angling for them.