what happened to De Mond

[petercoetzee]

Hi guys,

Im worried about De Mond Ive been fishing it hard consecutive weekends now, two weekends ago I spotted a few fish tailing and got excited that the fishing was back. But this last weekend and the one before I walked the place flat and saw close to nothing.

Yesterday I fished hard all day and spooked two small fish... Thats literally all i saw. I also saw millions of dead prawns and 6 or 7 small dead leeries.

Could there be some sort of contamination upstream? Run off from farms ? Nitrogen fertilizers?

Anyone else see anything Saturday??

[swsmith]

This is worrying......i take it the mouth is open?

[Korrie]

could be the natural swings of nature, with a bit of a cold snap, that have disturbed every thing.

With a permanent Nature conservation office/entrace official, they would probably notice if some thing serious went on. But then again, maybe not.

[Jono Shales]

Could just be that the tides are different to what they were when you went last.

If you record the moon phase and tide, you may uncover some secrets. Works for me ... just my suggestion.

Festilisers upstream would stuff things up considerably !

[Johan.knoetze]

we were quite a big group on saturday and only 2 leeries and 1 mullet was hooked just about every boddy blanked
We saw sum grunter tailing but out of casting range
The fishing was defnetly down since our last visit last year
And there was even a dead sand shark who knows maybe there is contamination thats why the fish die and the prawn

[cptfly]

Hi Johan,

De Mond can be a very unpredictable place. Firstly the tides play a big role in that action on that river, as I have learned there is a 2 hour swing in the tide from the ocean mouth to the bridge. With regards to the dead prawns and fish report that to the office of Cape Nature at the gate, they staff there is very helpful.

I also know from discussion with Pierre de Villiers (Cape Nature head of estuaries) that the landowners further up river are all very protective of this river and I doubt that they will contaminate the river.

My personal view on the river is that it might be a bit early for De Mond, I found it too be much batter here towards Easter. I also found that in the school holidays the river is full of swimmers and you will hardly spot any fish.

I still believe there is big cob/steenbras in that river that we are missing out on. I have seen what my kids catch on bait and we as fly fisherman are only scratching the surface

Well that my 2c worth.

[Conrad Botes]

The dead prawns (millions) is quite alarming. I have never seen a dead leerie there. I once heard of a farmworker who washed out an empty pesticede drum in a Mapumalanga canal and ALL the fish on the next 6 farm dams got killed.

That said, I agree with John that De Mond can be fickle. Some times there are heaps of juvinile leeries, other times you blank.

[E.T.]

Raw metals and sewerage got into the canals from Harties that feeds the farm dams towards Thabazimbi and the fish in just about all the dams died. The saddest thing is that they tried stocking new fish and it seems that the fish is just not catching on in that water.

[poppernel]

Raw metals and sewerage got into the canals from Harties that feeds the farm dams towards Thabazimbi and the fish in just about all the dams died. The saddest thing is that they tried stocking new fish and it seems that the fish is just not catching on in that water.

Thats because fish dont eat shit!! man, what we gonna do about this is a really obviouse action. KEEP pressure on GOV. officials until ACTION is taken.

[petercoetzee]

is it possible that the guys are using crop sprayers in that area? Pesticide would surely be blown in...The wind never stops there.

Other than that- there was a farmer at the gates on sat morning and he was saying he reckons they've had one of the worst harvests in history this year. If they are laser leveling and flood irrigating upstream then there would be definite leaching into the system.