Vanderkloof Dam Outflow

[Pershond]

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Best fish we got. Not on fly unfortunately.

[tombosis]

Nice fish! Did you get a lot of smaller fish? What sort of weather did you have?

[Pershond]

Plenty 500g to 2kg fish around, only got 2 fish over 3kg. Weather was horrendous on Thursday and Friday. The whole town told us that it was the worst October weather they've ever had. So ja. We'll just have to go again.

That dam fishes much harder than it looks and sounds I must say. Even in perfect conditions you will do well to get 3+ decent fish a day.

[tombosis]

VDK does not give up her secrets easily! It seems spring time weather is quite unsettled in that part of the world, we were warned not to even consider August due to the wind.

[Scythe]

That dam fishes much harder than it looks and sounds I must say. Even in perfect conditions you will do well to get 3+ decent fish a day.

Depends on how you fish and where, our average is between 10 and 15 3Kg - 3.5Kg LM per day, we rarely hook into SM. The 5Kg and over aren't suicidal by any stretch of the imagination, you have to work hard for them, one of them per day is a good day.

[Korrie]

VDK does not give up her secrets easily! It seems spring time weather is quite unsettled in that part of the world, we were warned not to even consider August due to the wind.

The August winds are notorious.

[Jacques O Dell]

As Pershond said, the weather was hectic!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v...type=2&theater

[Circus]

So for a report back on the trip to Vanderkloof this past weekend:

I left JHB on Wednesday evening and collected the boat from its service in Benoni at 18h00, which meant a late start. Towing the boat in the dark it took about 6.5 hours to get to the dam, where I stayed at Pride Rock lodge – what awesome people. On the drive I managed to see an aardwolf, a first for me, which was very cool.

Thursday I was up fairly early and had the boat in the water by 07h30, but the repair folks had not fixed the boat properly – after much grumpiness, many phone calls, a new battery, new sparkplugs, new fuse, skinned knuckles and a sunburn, we got the boat running on one cylinder by around 14h30. By this stage Fred had arrived to enjoy the repair work.

We fished close to the launch that afternoon – some rocky islands about 2km away and then explored some islands, inlets and cliffs a few km further away. Visibility was about 80cm. We caught plenty smallmouth yellows that afternoon both sight-fishing for them on small nymphs and while chasing largies on zonkers and woolly buggers. The cliffs yielded far fewer fish than the rocky banks, but Fred did manage to land a bus smallie tight to a cliff. The banks are amazing, with awesome cliffs and rock formations. We also managed to see quite a bit of wildlife on the Southern bank in the reserve.

We were on the water by 08h00 on the Friday after waiting for the petrol station to open. That day we explored a little further afield, although with the boat only running on 1 cylinder, we had a max speed of about 15km/h. At least the electric motor worked properly, so once in an area, we could fish drifts very effectively. While Fred targeted largies exclusively, I just couldn’t resist sight-fishing to naïve smallies feeding in the bubble line. These fish had clearly never seen a fly before and would actively turn to find a dry fly or nymph as it landed.

With no largies by 11h30, we were starting to wonder, so I went across to the dark side and pulled out the bass gear. Later I was very glad that I had de-barbed the lipless crankbait as I got a hook buried deep in my thumb. After moving around a bit and searching different depths etc, I hooked into a largie that crunched the lure and gave me a great fight. My first largie ever (admittedly not on fly) looked to be around 12lbs! I caught a further two largies on the crankbait in the next hour, which gave us some indication of where to fish and then switched to fly.

After switching flies a bit (lighter-coloured flies worked better), Fred then caught a couple of largies on fly, the biggest of which was about 12lbs. Now things were cooking! I cast out around 10m off the bank in 5m deep water and let my grey zonker sink to about 2m. About a third of the way into my retrieve I got hit by a train and I was powerless to prevent the line disappearing. Nothing has ever hit me so hard on the fly before and I instantly understood how people can become obsessed with largies on fly! After a great fight, I landed a largie of about 15lbs – what an amazing experience of my first one on the fly. A great thing was that one of the largies weighed only 400g, which shows they are breeding.

By the end of the day, Fred had caught 3 largies, while I had two on fly, plus a few more on the crankbait. In between we caught a bunch of smallies and even a big barbell. It was a truly epic day.

Saturday was a complete washout as the wind was howling and the rain arrived around 09h00, so we laughed it off and went home.

It was an amazing experience and I cannot wait to return. Note that while the smallies are easy, largies were much harder work to get.

Largie1.jpgLargie2.jpgSmallie 1.jpgSmallie 2.jpg

[Circus]

The novice’s guide to Vanderkloof:
Some practical advice on fishing Vanderkloof dam – note that I have done this once so I am no expert, but I struggled to find clear information on the place so hopefully this will help others going for the first time.

Distance from JHB: about 630km. Route: JHB - Bloem – Petrusburg - Koffiefontein – Vanderkloof.

Accommodation: There are a variety of places, but we stayed at Pride Rock Lodge where the management were very friendly and helpful, especially with arranging fishing in the river.

Town amenities: There is a super-market, restaurant/kroeg, petrol station and a Midas. The petrol station is open from 07h00 (roughly) to 18h00, so remember to get fuel the night before if you want to be out early.

Don’t even bother if you do not have a boat – this is the only way to access the dam. First prize is a bass boat with a flat deck, petrol motor and an electric trolling motor. If this is not available, just be aware that you will need to go about 10km (and as much as 25km) to the better fishing areas and that fishing a drift allows you to cover much more water than being dropped on the shore and walking. Plus casting from steep rocky banks is very hard work.

Before going onto the water, you need to check in with the police station, which is opposite the Midas and open 24 hours. You need your COF and skippers licence. You launch at the boat club, where the fee for non-members is R50/day. The slipway is concrete and easy, plus there is a jetty.

While the wind does get up, the shape of the dam means that you don’t get the insane waves of Sterkies, so smaller boats are feasible here. Do your prep with Google Earth and print some pictures, it does make life easier.

The smallies behave like Sterkies in that they patrol the banks, hang in bubble/scum lines etc, while the largies appear to hang out a bit further offshore. If there are no smallies around in an area, then the chances of catching largies seem lower. If you want detailed ideas of where to fish, PM me.

Remember that largemouth yellowfish are endangered, so treat the fish with care and respect.

The river looks great below the wall, but be sure to check the DWAF website beforehand to find the water release pattern as at >300 cumecs, it is unfishable. The pattern in October 2014 was low flows from 13h00 to 18h00, but this can vary. You need to arrange permission to fish the river, but this can be likely be obtained from your accommodation.

[Gerrit Viljoen]

Nice read and fish thanx for posting!