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Ian Couryer                   Professional Fly-fishing Guide                  082 306 5929

E-mail: yellowfish@polka.co.za

 

 

Ian Couryer Website newsletter October 2009.

 

 

Largemouth yellows on the Vaal River

 

With Summer fast on its way, the main winter season for largemouth yellowfish has come to an end. As you may or may not know largemouth are normally an elusive and hard to catch species, requiring dedication and good fishing skills to catch the larger specimens. These fish can reach sizes of over 40 lbs so big is what it is all about. Several “doubles”( fish of over 10 pounds) were caught off my inflatable boat this season with a 14 pound fish caught by Chris Binnington being the largest of the guided fish. This fish was hooked after about 7 hours fishing without a take! The fish came off an edge and took the fly seconds after it landed and on the first few strips. On hook up this largie broke the surface and “greyhounded”( A kind of surging , porpoising jump.) for a few meters before taking off. Well done Chris, a fish to be proud of! This fish was caught just last month and was taken on Chris’s 4th largemouth trip with me.

John Neaves’s 20 lb fish of 2 seasons ago is still my largest “guided” fish to date. As Largemouth yellows are predominantly sight predators the better water clarities of winter help anglers have a reasonable chance of snaring one of these trophys. Largemouth yellows can still be caught into Summer as long as clarities on the Vaal river remain good. In clarities of less than 40cms the fishing does definitely suffer and I am hesitant to guide at 30cms and less visibility, although fish are definitely still caught.

 

The Largemouth yellow is mainly for the experienced fly fisherman, with casting accuracy and distance being important, as well as a huge dose of perseverance and all round fish sense and concentration. This is normally tough fishing and not for the faint hearted. Having said that, I would fish a week without a take if I knew I would be guaranteed a double at the end of it. Tough but extremely rewarding, and without question my favourite fish on the planet. A 20 pounder is within everyones reach.

 

Smallmouth Yellows

 

The fishing for Smallmouth yellows on the Vaal has been very good of late with numbers of decent sized fish being caught. At my regular spots there where a lot more spawners than usual, possibly due to the very hot weather.

There was a slight lull in the fishing for a few days a couple of weeks ago as the water came up following some rain and this resulted in the water temperature dropping by more than a few degrees. At this time of the season when water temps are still marginal, this has the effect of putting fish off the feed and large numbers do head for deeper water where temps are more stable. Visibility is in the 40 cm range at the moment which is pretty much perfect for shallow water fishing.

There is an obvious lack of large caddis larvae subsurface with small caddis worms and leptophlibedae mayflies being in the majority. Some of the mayfly nymphs are in the # 16 and # 14 range and mostly dark in colour. A pheasant tail nymph in the right size can be a killer. Early season fishing is invariably better in the late afternoon as the water is at its warmest then. At this time of year there are a lot of spawners around so watch where you put your feet and move away from thrashing fish and shallow water. The biggest fish normally come from the deeper glides below the fast stuff anyhow.

Ian