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Location: Vaal River, South Africa
Details: Saturday, 6th November
Hosted two clients for a Vaal River Yellowfish clinic at Silwerstrome.
The Vaal is one of South Africa's premier fresh water river fisheries and is home to the small and large mouth yellowfish.
The weather was generally warm, sunny and very little wind.
The vaal river is a significant water course which can run at over 1000 m3. Fortunately it was only running at 30m3 which is an ideal flow rate for fly-fishing.
We covered the basic New Zealand nymphing techniques (two flies) and then headed out onto the water.
The normal rig is a 6 weight fly rod, large arbor reel with floating fly-line and 150 metres backing.
The water is usually the colour of pea soup so we rely on strike indicators for strikes.
Fishing in the Vaal requires a lot of wading skill and a wading stick, especially since you cannot see the submerged rocks and holes.
Within a few minutes both clients were into two mudfish (The most common fish species at this particular venue) which put up a rugged fight. These fish were approx 1 kg.
It was after approx and hour while we were fishing in a fast riffle that one of the clients hooked into a runaway locomotive that shunted straight up the fast flowing current and snapped off both flies before anyone could react. That was without a yellowfish, which has incredible power and tenacity.
We hooked and lost a further 3 yellowfish but it certainly left a yearning to tame the beast.
It was a fantastic day and the guests eventually ended up hooking some nice mudfish and a 2 kg carp.
If anyone is visiting Southern Africa then I would definately recommend a visit to the Vaal for yellowfish and the Zambezi for Tigerfish.
Sundowner Adventures & MBH Fly-fishing offers a reliable guiding service. We can also arrange the accommodation & transport.
