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Vaal
Flyfishing for Yellows
By Graeme Addison
First published in
ToGOTo
magazine, 2007
The faint swish of the tapered fly-line is
all that disturbs the peace of the river. Occasionally,
there is the plop of a fish rising, spreading ripples across
the pool in the Vaal River where flyfishermen come to hunt
the clever and elusive large- and smallmouth yellowfish.
Once dismissed as bottom-feeders without any
interest or romance for serious fishermen, the yellowfish
has come into its own as one of the world’s best freshwater
fighters.
If you can see the fish rising and you can’t
catch ‘em, say the old hands, then your technique is at
fault. That’s why at Otters’ Haunt we run clinics for
beginner and intermediate flyfishers, who come here for the
instruction and to explore the great variety of river
conditions in our corner of the Vaal. Just two kilometers
down from Parys on the North West Province bank of the
river, we are secluded beneath a small koppie with many
island channels in front of us.
These channels vary from fast whitewater to
small, shallow rills over rocky ledges, with most areas
being wade-able. They offer the sports enthusiast the
opportunity to try different flies and different methods of
stalking and casting. By comparison with other stretches of
the Vaal, where the river tends to be open, slow-flowing and
sometimes scenically dull, the river around Parys is broken
up into picturesque, boulder-stewn islands with hidden turns
and silent creeks where the otters lurk.
Nothing could be more peaceful than an early
morning or late evening excursion along the banks seeking
place where the yellows lurk. A light mist lies on the
water, the golden and scarlet light paint it in serene
colours, and it is hard to imagine that you are only 120km
from the clattering city of Johannesburg.
The smallmouth- (Leobarbus aeneus) are sleek
and fast, the average catch weighing around 1-2kg; the
largemouth yellow (Leobarbus kimberleyensis) tend to be
bigger but are harder to find and are much
 sought
after: the older monsters can weigh 6kg or more for a good
catch, and even grow to 9kg.
The river here is sleek and powerful. The
bubbling rapids and strong currents are ideal for the
yellows. The amazing geology of the Vredefort Dome has made
the river what it is in this area. Recently declared a World
Heritage Site because it marks the largest and oldest
visible asteroid impact crater on Earth, the Dome is
circular granite plug about 40km across. (The total diameter
of the crater, which stretches from Johannesburg to Welkom,
is about 180-220km).
The Dome in the centre is flanked on the
northwest side by a semicircle of mountains called the
Bergland, the “inner collar” of the crater. Parys and the
nearby town of Vredefort nestle in the foothills of the
Bergland. As the river makes its way across the granite it
carves numerous vein-like grooves between which there are
hundreds of small islands. Called an anastomosing river
(after the way our blood vessels branch under the skin) this
riverscape creates a unique ecology for the local stretch of
the Vaal.
The tumbled rocks of the riverbed been
“plucked” off the granite shelving and rolled along by
successive floods. Underneath these rocks and on the
downstream side of pourovers are rich nurseries for the
larvae of river insects and crustaceans: the diet of the
Small Mouth yellowfish. Knowing something of the habitat of
the fish, and of their habits, helps the fisherman who must
match the fish in cunning.
Fish upstream, not down, as then you will be
behind the fish. One can often see the smallmouth whose
shadow moves along a gravel bed up towards the whitewater
where it seeks food. But it’s no good dropping your fly on
top of the fish – that just spooks it and the fish will make
off to safer pastures. Best let the fly drop in the
whitewater and float down towards it. Be secretive, keep
your shadow off the water, and move quietly!
Yellows are of the Family
Cyprinidae
(minnows or carps) and both types found in the Middle Vaal
need to be conserved with a strict catch-and-release policy.
It is also unfair to catch them when they are spawning in
spring and summer.
 Largemouth
are on the IUCN’s red list of endangered species, with a low
resilience and population doubling time of around 14 years.
The largemouth is the largest scale-bearing indigenous fish
species in southern Africa and the adults are found flowing
deep channels or below rapids. It preys on insects and small
shelled river creatures, often hovering in the current with
its large mouth open to catch what comes its way.
The more plentiful smallmouth, although not
listed as endangered, have fairly low resilience with a
minimum population doubling time of 4.5-14 years. The
smallmouth is a shallow bottom feeder whose diet includes
various insects, water fleas, snails, plankton, mussels,
small fish, algae and other nutritious matter. It breeds
after the first rains of the season in spring through to
midsummer, and moves upstream to spawn over suitable gravel
beds.
The existence of well-fed yellows is regarded
as an indicator of environmental health, so I am happy to
report that around our place there are plenty of them! On
some clinics, beginners have pulled out their first fish
within a few minutes, and catching five or more in a day is
not unusual. One has to be aware, though, that various
parasites and tapeworms have been found to infect these fish
even in the area of the Vaal Dam where the water quality is
good.
The fact that sewage finds its way into the
Vaal mainly below the Vaal Barrage – where local authorities
either don’t care or don’t have the capacity to control
overflows – has brought negative press publicity to the
area. We swim, paddle our canoes, and wade in the water,
though always washing off afterwards. It was landowners like
us who first campaigned for the conservation status of the
Vredefort Dome, and we’ll keep up the pressure.
We are always asked what kinds of fly, strike
indicator, and hooks to use for the yellows. This is a
complicated subject on which much late-night oil has been
burnt, and braai meat burnt too while the argument rages.
The experts love to dispute their favourite tricks but don’t
reveal their pet secrets anyway. I am not going to get into
it. Suffice to say that the most successful flies are those
that imitate the normal diet of the fish, such as caddis
fly, mayflies, buzzers and blackfly.
“Dry fly” refers to any fly fished upon the
surface of the water, and usually made of
non-water-absorbent materials and designed to look like the
adult stage of aquatic insects. One can also use spinners,
shrimps, crabs and even small fish as trolled bait, though
this gets beyond flyfishing.
The best way to learn about all of this is to
get out and do it. We can usually tell when a beginner is on
the loose because the amount of expensive new kit – rods,
waders, toolboxes, flies – is directly proportional to the
ignorance of the user. Never mind, the experts are out there
and willing to help, just sign up for a class that will save
you weeks of frustrating trial and error!
If you are buying for the first time, we
recommend the rod should be anything from a 5 weight upwards
to about a 9wt.
“Fishing requires crossing rocky channels so
wading is essential, it can be tough and physically
demanding but there’s always a shady tree close by,” says
Craig Eksteen – until recently the lead guide on our
clinics. He’s now gone off to start a new river operation at
our farm on the banks of the Orange River in the Kalahari,
where there are fewer trees and bigger fish. But that’s
another story. |
