Another successful Fish River mission

[krokenosterfant]

Seeing as the upcoming weekend was to be my last free weekend for a loooong time, I decided to go see what the Great Fish River looks like in winter and whether the yellow fishing would be better than my last trip there in march. So me and my fishing companion, Phil, for the trip hurridly tried to get our 5wt rods in working shape (a bass in my farm dam decided he liked my rod 8ft long and not 9ft) and to refill the dusty flyboxes which contained all the little googas we were able to find in Grahamstown.

My first time I did proper fly fishing for yellows on my mate's farm, saw me adding 8 small yellows into the log book. But the trip soon afterwards saw me cursing myself for not bringing along the baitcaster and some worms. So I was interested to see what the apparently cleaner winter Fish River would hold. When we crossed the bridge over the river to my friend's farm, our hearts skipped quite a few beats... the river was actually green and not the usual "too wet to plow" colour! Straight away we knew it was going to be a good day.

The huge krantz below which we were fishing was awefully chilly at 9 in the morning, and not all the mist had burn't off yet. So we decided to throw a worm or two, just to see what was lurking in the green water around the rapids... and to give the sun a chance to pop over the Krantz, as we had no waders!

Everything started off slow, only 2 yellows fell for my well presented earth worm in the first hour and phil was still trying to convert a soft tap into a fish. Even though the fish seemed to be lazy I decided it was time to do some proper fishing, so out came my newly shortened 5wt. My rig was fairly simple, 10ft leader (12lb, 8lb and 4X tippet) with a Olive Mustard caddis as a dropper and a small purple G.R.H.E as point. Phil decided to join me as well and the only difference for his rig was that his anchor fly was a grey Czech Nymph with a chartreuse hotspot. Finally Phil started getting more takes, except he failed to actually stay connected to the fish. Well time rolled on and we were both fishless on fly. We fished a beautiful run with a sand island in the middle of it, we fished reedlines, we fished submerged tree and even in the shallow rapids.

We then saw some fish rise in the above calm pool, so off we went... but after another hour we were still just thrashing water for no return. Phil had already given up and was getting his stuff on the bank ready to move to the next spot. I started making my way out of the waist deep water and had a last cast toward a couple of rocks below the water right near the place where Phil got out. Phil had already swung a worm out just over my head, his excuse was that he was keen to see whether the yellows would come and feed in the disturb bottom trailing behind me. I was trying to watch my indicator and tune Phil at the same time for just missing my head with a ball sinker. When sumthing happened, I can't remeber what exactly, but instinct took over and before I knew it my line was zipping across the water. Well after a rather long heavy struggle, the fish on the end of my line had already taken the form of a barbel, mudfish, carp and even a flippen stingray by the way it was fighting. But once it was swimming around my legs I saw it was a beast of a Fish River Yellow. After some failed attempts to land it, I finally got a grip just behind the pectorial fins. Wow what a feeling. I quickly gave Phil the camera which was in my vest, but being phil he took forever and I kept on having to place the fish back in the water... and on one of these dunking he got life again and jumped out my hand and the size 10 caddis got a firm hook set in my hand. Well Phil got one photo of me juggling my prize Yellow on fly though, but I'm still bleak about it.

We caught several more yellows on fly that day, all of a decent size and all on the anchor fly. The only flies that worked on this trip where a #10 Olive Mustard Caddis, #12 Grey Czech Nymph with chartreuse hotspot and a #12Chartreuse Caddis. Well my first trip it was Sparkle Caddis as anchor and either San Jaun worms or beaded olive Flashback as point which did all the catching.

Now it's exam, but rest assured... when I get time I will go back to those runs below that towering Krantz, I have a big yellow to recatch so that I can get my photo

[poppernel]

Seeing as the upcoming weekend was to be my last free weekend for a loooong time, I decided to go see what the Great Fish River looks like in winter and whether the yellow fishing would be better than my last trip there in march. So me and my fishing companion, Phil, for the trip hurridly tried to get our 5wt rods in working shape (a bass in my farm dam decided he liked my rod 8ft long and not 9ft) and to refill the dusty flyboxes which contained all the little googas we were able to find in Grahamstown.

My first time I did proper fly fishing for yellows on my mate's farm, saw me adding 8 small yellows into the log book. But the trip soon afterwards saw me cursing myself for not bringing along the baitcaster and some worms. So I was interested to see what the apparently cleaner winter Fish River would hold. When we crossed the bridge over the river to my friend's farm, our hearts skipped quite a few beats... the river was actually green and not the usual "too wet to plow" colour! Straight away we knew it was going to be a good day.

The huge krantz below which we were fishing was awefully chilly at 9 in the morning, and not all the mist had burn't off yet. So we decided to throw a worm or two, just to see what was lurking in the green water around the rapids... and to give the sun a chance to pop over the Krantz, as we had no waders!

Everything started off slow, only 2 yellows fell for my well presented earth worm in the first hour and phil was still trying to convert a soft tap into a fish. Even though the fish seemed to be lazy I decided it was time to do some proper fishing, so out came my newly shortened 5wt. My rig was fairly simple, 10ft leader (12lb, 8lb and 4X tippet) with a Olive Mustard caddis as a dropper and a small purple G.R.H.E as point. Phil decided to join me as well and the only difference for his rig was that his anchor fly was a grey Czech Nymph with a chartreuse hotspot. Finally Phil started getting more takes, except he failed to actually stay connected to the fish. Well time rolled on and we were both fishless on fly. We fished a beautiful run with a sand island in the middle of it, we fished reedlines, we fished submerged tree and even in the shallow rapids.

We then saw some fish rise in the above calm pool, so off we went... but after another hour we were still just thrashing water for no return. Phil had already given up and was getting his stuff on the bank ready to move to the next spot. I started making my way out of the waist deep water and had a last cast toward a couple of rocks below the water right near the place where Phil got out. Phil had already swung a worm out just over my head, his excuse was that he was keen to see whether the yellows would come and feed in the disturb bottom trailing behind me. I was trying to watch my indicator and tune Phil at the same time for just missing my head with a ball sinker. When sumthing happened, I can't remeber what exactly, but instinct took over and before I knew it my line was zipping across the water. Well after a rather long heavy struggle, the fish on the end of my line had already taken the form of a barbel, mudfish, carp and even a flippen stingray by the way it was fighting. But once it was swimming around my legs I saw it was a beast of a Fish River Yellow. After some failed attempts to land it, I finally got a grip just behind the pectorial fins. Wow what a feeling. I quickly gave Phil the camera which was in my vest, but being phil he took forever and I kept on having to place the fish back in the water... and on one of these dunking he got life again and jumped out my hand and the size 10 caddis got a firm hook set in my hand. Well Phil got one photo of me juggling my prize Yellow on fly though, but I'm still bleak about it.

We caught several more yellows on fly that day, all of a decent size and all on the anchor fly. The only flies that worked on this trip where a #10 Olive Mustard Caddis, #12 Grey Czech Nymph with chartreuse hotspot and a #12Chartreuse Caddis. Well my first trip it was Sparkle Caddis as anchor and either San Jaun worms or beaded olive Flashback as point which did all the catching.

Now it's exam, but rest assured... when I get time I will go back to those runs below that towering Krantz, I have a big yellow to recatch so that I can get my photo

Well done.After exams go and get that yellow, and dont forget to post a pic or 2.

Dave

[clarias]

I see you're back again!
Congrats with the yellows. Are you fishing the stretch around Bedford?

I was speaking to one of our lecturers at Ichthy, and he's always had success in the shallowest rapids (in summer though) on big black flies simply hauled upstream. Reckons the yellows can hardly see a thing in the dirty water, and don't mind chowing big black flies.
Everytime I go to the fish I get too distracted by the huge barbel to give the yellows much notice, but then I also go to the wrong place for yellows. Will give the Carlisle Bridge area a go sometime...

Did you ever get any of those upper- Zambezi Largescales?

[krokenosterfant]

Will do poppernel, I would post some now, but just got to figure out how!!! haha. Clarias my mates farm is between Carlisle and Kwandwe... 10km of totally awesome river. I caught quite a big barbel there in Feb on a 5wt (same day I caught my first ever yellows on fly), wow what a battle that was is the rapids, in the end my mate had to wade downstream and land it for me... about 50m away from me!!! I still believe that those yellows will take flies even in dirty conditions, they must have adapted to the situations. Might just call for a change in tactics. Still keen to drift a black dragonfly nymph or damsel downstream and slowly twitch it back. I tied some damsels with sequin beads infront of the eyes, so they will push water nicely. Also keen to tie some deceivers with sequins for barbel. My next mission is to do a 20km drift down the river, through my mates farm into the next door farm (my friend's brother's farm) and obviously fish along the way!

No haven't been back to Zambia yet to try for those Upper-Zambezi Yellows... from december on I will be going up on a regular basis

[Herman Jooste]

Nice report back Krock...... ( the handle is too long, hope you are not offended by my short hand )
I have found in the Vaal that at 10cm viz the fish will still "find your fly".

Good fishing for the rest of the year and hope to see some pics

[clarias]

Of course they still find food, its just a matter of how easily they pick it up visually.

If this helps: We collected aquatic insects for our collections in the rapids at Great Fish River Nature Reserve. We found the following: blackfly larvae, two caddisfly families (one orange, the other green), two dragonfly families (one very big green one that clings to the rocks), 4 mayfly families and two beetle families with larvae. These were all taken from under boulders in the FASTEST sections of the rapids, the slower riffles had very little in them. All these insects cling pretty tightly to the bottom of the rocks, so I don't know how the yellows actually access them. Whether they just hang around waiting for one to get dislodged and wash away, or whether they suck them out from under the rocks is the question...

Let me know if you come across any mudfish or anything else interesting like rock catfish or largemouths.
Cheers

[Korrie]

Clarias
A while ago, on the Vaal, in fairly clear water I managed to observe about a dozen SM yellows working a fast flowing side channel.. My vantage point was about 2,5m directly above them. I watched them for about 3 hours. It was facinating to see how the "pack" operated.
The fish were all about the same size, 3 to 4 pounds.
The specific piece of water was about 10 meters long and had rocks and tree trunks, with some of the tree trunks suspended in the water column.
The front fish would use his nose to shovel the rocks around all the while feeding from the rocks, the fish behind would pick up the morsels that was dislodged. As the "pack" moved upstream the yellows would even swim upside down to eat the invertrabra from protruding tree trunks. Any morsel that was dislodge from the tree trunk would be picked up by the rest of the "pack".
As the fish moved up the side channel, the places continously changed to get other fish the chance to do the "dirty work"
As the fish reached the top section, they drifted down stream and started the whole upstream routine.
This reminded me on how the wild dogs hunt in a pack, with each member of the pack asuming the role of doing the front running.

This changed my mind about SM yellows, that SM yellows are definitly more active hunter feeders than purely opputunistic feeders, eating nymphs that are washed of the rocks.

[clarias]

Awesome observations Korrie, amazing how much one can learn from simply watching... wish the Fish river was clear enough to see the fish!

Yeah, I think the fish actually do actively hunt the inverts- they've even got the pointy snout (except the algae eating rubberlips). Those insects have evolved to cling onto the rocks, so there really wouldn't be that many of them randomly drifting around...hence the active pursuit by the fish.
Thanks for sharing that- just shows how the fish use teamwork.

[poppernel]

Awesome observations Korrie, amazing how much one can learn from simply watching... wish the Fish river was clear enough to see the fish!

Yeah, I think the fish actually do actively hunt the inverts- they've even got the pointy snout (except the algae eating rubberlips). Those insects have evolved to cling onto the rocks, so there really wouldn't be that many of them randomly drifting around...hence the active pursuit by the fish.
Thanks for sharing that- just shows how the fish use teamwork.

I'm sure trout also feed in packs. One morning early at Gubu in the shallows at doctors, I was surprised to see two trout real shallow working a weed bed by tailing just like grunter do with half the body out of the water. Got within distance and presented a b/h nymph, it fell about a 1 m short, but a trout ate it quick. While i was playing the fish, i noticed the others just carried on tailing. Needless to say i caught a few before they stopped.

[Korrie]

I'm sure trout also feed in packs. One morning early at Gubu in the shallows at doctors, I was surprised to see two trout real shallow working a weed bed by tailing just like grunter do with half the body out of the water. Got within distance and presented a b/h nymph, it fell about a 1 m short, but a trout ate it quick. While i was playing the fish, i noticed the others just carried on tailing. Needless to say i caught a few before they stopped.

In dams it is quite common to find a pod of trout. But I'm not so sure that they will display a "pack" mentality in streams and rivers.
In a river each trout will have his spot, where he feeds, hides etc. I know that grayling display the same behaivour as our yellowfish by staying in a school/pack in a river