its largie time...

[chrisvd]

I agree... I've got a trip booked for Wag 'n Bietjie on the 7th august and it's bit worrying when you see no fish coming out.. The floods must have claimed loads of fish..

I'm sure the fish stock is way less on the Vaal, but this winter had really funny weather aswell. This weekend for example we had a group of hunters and the camp in winter next to the Orange is normally very cold. Most of the guys were still in t shirts by the time they went to bed. It was really warm and this during the coldest part of the year. Sunday a front moved in and we had Ice rain and normal rain and terible wind etc. etc. etc. Fishing was very bad.

The whole winter so far had very funny weather, extreme cold followed by sunshine and then rain... I think the funny weather also have a big impact on fish activity. Up here the winter days should be windless and sunny, but we had very litle of them this season. Thus the constantly changing weather imo also had a very big influence on the poor winter fishing. That said the Orange is looking very clear at present and the fishing should be great if the weather setles.

[Korrie]

Chris
The warm weather that you had over the weekend is created by a high pressure system, which turns anti clockwise.
This brings air from the north, where it is warmer. feeding it down to the coast.
This sometimes creates such warm conditions, that you have berg wind conditions at the coast, as the air heats up with adiabatic temp gradient, as it drops down to sea level.
The temp at the coast can sometimes be as much as 10 degrees higher than inland.

[chrisvd]

Chris
The warm weather that you had over the weekend is created by a high pressure system, which turns anti clockwise.
This brings air from the north, where it is warmer. feeding it down to the coast.
This sometimes creates such warm conditions, that you have berg wind conditions at the coast, as the air heats up with adiabatic temp gradient, as it drops down to sea level.
The temp at the coast can sometimes be as much as 10 degrees higher than inland.

Nou kry ek sulke terugblitse van aries klas op skool.

Korrie from what I can remember from school you are probably right with the explanation, but high presure systems in our area in winter normaly has clear skies and coldish evenings, but warm days. This weekend we had cloudy warm days and very warm evenings. The warm evenings are probably due to the cloud cover as the clouds will keep more of the earths absorbed heat in. It is a far cry from the norm in this area in July. I just feel that the weather is very funny this winter. I have never seen mosquitos, miggies and flies in the Northern cape in July and the velt is full of them at present! The weather paterns is turned uopside down and the efect is clear on the fauna and flora. It must have an effect on the fish too.

[Korrie]

Chris
I am really racking my brains, but there could be a couple of factors.
the moist air, from the approaching cold front could have mixed with the strong high pressure warm air.
Normally a cold front will move the "high pressue weather away" but if the high pressure is strong enough, it can divert the cold front.
you could have had this buffer zone, between the hot and cold air, with condensation taking place.
But as mentioned, all my rumblings could be a load a of nonsense as well.
With the weather there is so many factors influencing it.
As for the muggies and mozzies, that could be from a wet summer, with lots of water in the veld, a bit of warm weather and they hatch.

[chrisvd]

Korrie

You might be correct with the buffer zone between the two systems. I'm no expert on the weather, but I do know that this is not what we normaly have in this region.

[Ryan]

Will after all the weather discussions...there are still no largie reports. I have no doubt that weather patterns play a massive role, but the fact that the water flow and water levels increased to such an extenmt is bound to have a major impact on the fish. We are all aware of the huge number of fish kills, and that cannot be ignored. The Vaal is a big river with plenty of fish, but numbers have certainly declined. I have no doubt that in time the fishing will pick up again, but for now, between the weather and the floods, I believe these have had a serious influence on the fishing...many chaps have been out trying, and all of their reports show little success..

[Korrie]

The flow in the Vaal, is currently, double the "normal" winter flow.
Maybe this is also having an effect on the catch rate.
With river having twice the amount of water, there are much more places for the fish to roam. Different holding spots etc, which makes catching them much more difficult. Maybe that is another reason why the LM catch rate is down for the winter. Another reason could be that with the soccer, less people are fishing, watching the soccer. Less hours on the water, means less fish being caught.

[Ryan]

True! The faster flow for winter will certainly have an effect.

[Glans]

Just to come back to the barometric pressure.
If a fish move say 10cm(estimate, maybe less depending on water level above the fish) up or down he has compensate for the barometric pressure felt from the air movement. The pressure on the fish due to water weight pressure is far greater than the air pressure on the water.
The argument been that the ratio is very small contributed from the air. Just by normal feeding in the water column the fish has change from a hot to a cold days pressure system.
I think wind and temperature in the water has a far greater influence on fish feeding habits.

Jannie

[troutmaster]

I should be tying and getting new line on the reels for next week but found myself typing 'largemouth yellowfish' in the google images search... GIVE IT A TRY!

Check this out:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...26tbs%3Disch:1

and

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...26tbs%3Disch:1

and

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...26tbs%3Disch:1