Early Winter Fishing at Vaal Streams

Early Winter Fishing at Vaal Streams

Early winter or late autumn? I don't really know. All I know is that when you slip on a rock and get water down your waders, it's about ....... this cold! Never the less, I guess it's all part of the game.

This past Saturday I headed out to my favourite spot once again. Vaal Streams has quickly worked its way up to the top of my list. It's quite a challenging venue to fish especially when wading upstream, but in my mind unrivalled to date.  After blanking on my last two outings, I was really keen for some action this time. I headed downstream, nymphing my way to some deeper pools to try some dry fly, but this proved rather uneventful. After reaching the deeper pools I met up with a fellow angling buddy. He had already tried on the dry, but to no avail and suggested we head upstream.

I found some really inviting looking water with slightly deeper, slower moving rapids. At about 13h30 that afternoon I had my first take. It came off quite quickly, but finally some action! I started slowly heading back downstream, meticulously working every viable section of water in a grid pattern.

Success!!



I had a good take at the bottom of slow riffle and after a very nice fight, landed a beautiful yellow of about 40cm. It took on a #14 gold bead olive caddis, which I tied with a lead under body and tungsten bead for extra weight. I had another take in the same spot after that but lost it. By now I was starting to identify where the fish were holding.  I moved on down to the next really nice looking run and on my second cast hooked into something that blew my mind - but unfortunately at the same time, broke my rod! All I can say is that it was big (and I know what all you guys are thinking. It wasn’t a barbel). I caught a quick glance during the short fight and it was definitely a yellow. Anyhow, while trying to keep the monster out of the vegetation I obviously had my rod at the wrong angle and…..snap!!



My broken rod!!!



My nice yellow of about 40cm



Well, needless to say that was my afternoon fishing over. It was still ,however,  one of my best days fishing to date. The challenge of locating fish in colder water and then the success of finally catching them is just indescribable.

Once again, thanks to Isaac at Vaal Streams for his incredible fishing venue.