Blyderiver largescale

[Troep]

Guys,

We went fishing on Blyde river on Saturday...

Millions of small yellows, and the big ones are quite wary of any movement.

I saw a few nice ones!! The flow of the river was very high but still very clean. Very difficult to get the flies down, even with a monster split shot.

I got 2 small ones of the same size, its my first largescale, and I can promise you Ill be back when the flow is down with a bigger specimen.

I can see they are interested in the fly, but before they can react the fly is gone.

Anyway, in a months time Ill get them.

Cheers

[chris williams]

Good stuff Troep, it's great fun and I'm sure the new experience of getting a couple of smaller largescales on the Blyde gave you more satisfaction that say catching a brace of average sized smallmouths on the Vaal. If your reactions are quick enough to catch the babies you'll have no problems catching them when they're bigger!

[E.T.]

Troep

Die Blyde het Smallscales en hulle is alles behalwe small. Die vis op die foto lyk vir my soos ñ Nkomati Chiselmouth en nie ñ LS Yellow nie.

My broer trek Maart Nelspruit toe. Doen bietjie research op die Treur dan sal ek saam met jou uitgaan vir ñ dag as ek daar is om vir my broer te kuier.

Cheers

Koos

[chris williams]

I just opened the photo - you're right, it is indeed a small Nkomati chiselmouth

[E.T.]

I just opened the photo - you're right, it is indeed a small Nkomati chiselmouth

Chris

Sorry, for my reply in Afri-bloody-kans. My sincere apologies. But you have been here for so long that you are almost an Boertjie by now.

[Herman Jooste]

Chris

Sorry, for my reply in Afri-bloody-kans. My sincere apologies. But you have been here for so long that you are almost an Boertjie by now.

En kan daai Engelsman VLOEK in Afrikaaans.

[chris williams]

Chris

Sorry, for my reply in Afri-bloody-kans. My sincere apologies. But you have been here for so long that you are almost an Boertjie by now.

I've been here so long I'm almost Mr. Ples!

[Troep]

Goed dan, vriende familie en souties...

Ok, im not an expert on midget fish like that, although the guy in the flyshop at Sabie told me its largescale, I have to admit, the scales are quite large.

But I have to agree on the Chiselmouth, its got a "Chiselmouth"!!

Well anyway, theres millions of them!! Theres some lekke huge ones also!! Something thats interesting is that they have a blueish tail when they are in the water - they are real beautifull fish when they swim in these large schools!!

Anyway, its one more specie for me!!

Koos, ja my maat jy is meer as welkom!! Ek is deesdae baie min op die water en ek sien die bietjie skill wat ek het is ook besig om te verminder agv my lack of commitment!! Werk het my beet aan 'n gevoelige plek, en dit reen so baie hier al die riviere is nou al amper 4 maande in vloed. Laat weet my asb, daar is 'n lang 8km stretch wat ek een saterdag wil gaan vang saam met iemand wat kan!!

Cheers guys

[jock0]

Looks like a small LS (or SS) to me, but the only way to be certain is too do a scale count.

Regardless it's still pretty rewarding to get one of the buggers under tough conditions so well done! There arent too many people on here who manage to catch them with regular success so big or small its an achievement.

[chris williams]

Yes Jocko knows his fish around this area and I tend to agree they can be a b'gger to firmly identify especially from pics, and jocko may well be right.

I'm also convinced from round my Seekoeispruit area at Badplaas some of these in-breds may even spawn hybrids - the fish as well......

Without referring to my Skeltons etc at home, as a quick (not scientifically precise) rule of thumb field guide when I'm fishing areas in which all three of these species may be present, I usually use a number of 34 as the base scale count. Anything below that is more likely to be a LS and anything above more likely a SS or chiselmouth. For more exact identification, count the scales on the spot and take a decent photo. I tried counting the scales on the little guy in the photo and got to around about 34 before wanker's squint took over as per usual!

The reason I reckon it's a chiselmouth - though I can't feel it's lower lip - is the more rounded upper snout they tend to have over the yellows, also their fins are generally a tad shorter.

Anyway who cares at the end of the day, you caught a fine little fish and hopefully he and his mates will grow up into big strong men!