Fly Talk/On-the-fly Groenkloof Trip

[fish]

Apologies for the late report back on our trip to Groenkloof.

Our trip took us to Groenkloof farm, situated 40km upstream from Kimberley on the Vaal River. Apart from excellent fishing, what really impressed me about this magical stretch of water is that one can only see a windmill in the far distance when standing on the koppie above the camp, that is it – you are really away from it all.

Base Camp for the next 3 days of solid fishing.

Our party consisted of Mike Barley and John Dearn from Hermanus, Kevin Reid and Marc Piotrowski from Cape Town, myself and Ettienne Erasmus who runs the On-the-Fly camp and owns the concession to fish this 14km of private water. After a 1000km trip from Cape Town we arrived late afternoon at the camp and obviously headed straight down to a section downstream from camp. I helped Kevin and Marc both who never fished for yellow on fly before, it wasn’t long before Kevin landed his first yellow.

Kevin fighting a yellow

The next morning we all headed to a set of broken water down stream from camp. Here Ettienne, a very accomplished yellow fly fisher, demonstrated mono nymphing and also gave some background on the insects we aim to imitate and showed us what they look like. All were soon into some fish with the majority of the fish sitting in the deeper sections. The variety and vast amount of water available makes one want to move every 5 minutes.

Now where will I go and fish.....



Right here



Mike and Yellow

[fish]

After a brilliant seafood cajun pot we all retired rather early, just to be met by sub zero temperatures the next morning.

A chilly minus 1 degree boot

On the second day we headed to a piece of water further downstream. Here we had pocket water, glides, pools and runs and the fish were eating eagerly. I switched to swinging flies across and down which proved to be very effective, this technique was used in the area where the faster water slows down at the midway point downstream of a stretch of deeper water. A tungsten jig Bugger took up the point position with a Hare’s Ear soft hackle 50cm. above on a short dropper. Most fish fell to this soft hackle with the Bugger also taking its share of bigger fish. Other flies that produced the goods were black Brassies, PTNs, Prince nymphs, green and mustard caddises and flashback nymphs.

John with his first Yellow



Marc and Yellow



Grant and Yellow



This yellow and numerous others fell to the swinging technique

Kevin releasing a Yellow

[fish]

Friday night we had a brilliant steak braai washed down with some of the Capes best red wines, yes I did say wines, which explained the bowling ball rolling around in my head the next morning – Eina! Grant and I headed upstream, the aim to target Largemouth yellows. Grant has been guided on more than one occasion with the sole aim to land a largemouth and couldn’t do so up till our trip. The river winds through deep bedrock on this section, prime largie water. We arrived at our spot around 10 and after 30 minutes Grant had his fish, followed by another. I also took two largies, landing 4 largemouths in three hours of fishing just says something about the potential of this fishery.

Grant and Largie taken in the hole behind him, the main river is on my side

Some nice Largie water

This Largie burnt my stripping finger on the take.



Kevin and Yellow

[fish]

We landed in the region of 250 fish for the three days. It was such a great three days of fishing and hospitality that both Kevin and Marc decided to stay one more day due to a sudden vehicle breakdown.

Some more pics.

The camp



Ettienne and John



More Groenkloof Water

Mike and big Yellow

A Pisceteer



Steak Braai



John, Mike and Ettienne

[Korrie]

awesome water.

Lovely trip.

[pieterkriel]

Looks like a magical place.

[etsteph]

From my side I would like to thank,Phillip,Grant,Mike,John,Kevin and Mark for a wonderfull season opening trip. With an unexpected cold spell on the second night, I had nightmares of the fishing turning bad.

But, the guys did not let this change what they came for, and the fish and personal best weights kept coming to the net! This is the kind of trips that makes it all woth it - an at the end we did not just catch fish, we all made new friens. Thank you again gentleman!

Regards
Etienne

[Gerhard]

Wow this was an awesome report.

Are you guys planning trips for 2011?

[ArkEyes]

Extremely short notice but we are trying to arrange a trip here between the 6th and 10th of Jan. Etienne will be available if we can get at least another two guys to join. Post or PM if you are interested.

Cheers
Paul

[fish]

Hi Guys,

We off to Groenkloof again from the 13th - 18th of September. The cost is R 3500.00 including accommodation and food. There is two spots open. Send me a PM if you want to join us.

Cheers,

Philip