Are the Vaal river yellows getting educated

[Glans]

I remember when I started fishing a few years back that when you find a school of yellows in a run you could catch plenty before they spook if they spook. Lately I am lucky if I catch three fish from the same run. I am sure this will be venue driven and some venues this would be applicable and others that is not pressurised. What are your experience?
Jannie

[Scythe]

We've spoken about this a lot before, especially in conjunction with competitive angling and catching the same SM on the same fly during one 3 hour session.

Specifically for SmallMouth in the Middle Vaal from the Vaal dam to Bloemhof and even below that, there are simply less of them than in the good old days.

The end.

[Herman Jooste]

We've spoken about this a lot before, especially in conjunction with competitive angling and catching the same SM on the same fly during one 3 hour session.

Specifically for SmallMouth in the Middle Vaal from the Vaal dam to Bloemhof and even below that, there are simply less of them than in the good old days.
The end.

I have to agree with Bertu.

The reason why has been debated endlessly on this forum.

[Glans]

Less fish is one thing but cleaver fish that spook is what I am after.

[Scythe]

Fish spook as a function of being aware of your presence, with the flows and viz such as they have been this season, it should be the same as every other year.

There's less fish.

[dlampert]

I can't speak for the Vaal but on heavily pressured C&R trout waters in the WC, the fish are definitely more "educated" and harder to fool than trout in less fished streams. Besides fish numbers decreasing, I presume it would be the same for the Vaal. We normally combat this with better presentation, more natural colours in flies and smaller fly sizes.

[Glans]

OK I could agree, who is counting or has taken stock lately of fish no on the Vaal compared to a few years back? If I look at the invertebra under rocks the river is still healthy or rather state there is still lots of food for fish to live on, comparing to the polluted Blesbok river where you struggle to see any invertebra and if you find, they are very small.

[Glans]

Darryl I agree, I predict that in a century to come we will all be better fishermen.We will be forced to improve your skills; improve presentation improve our selection of fly, improve our stealth, otherwise we will not catch a yellow. If there is still fish to catch and we are still releasing, the fish will be as cleaver as you can get.

[Scythe]

AFAIK, there are no efforts wrt population census on the SM in that section of the Vaal, but I may be wrong.

Having said that, anybody who has fished the Vaal extensively for longer than 5 years will tell you, there are less SmallMouth around now than a few years ago.

It is glaringly obvious.

[redhumpy]

I find fishing for Large Scale Yellows towards Thabazimbi is easier as the location is more remote. The yellows there haven't received their textbooks yet.