With the Katse dam level creeping closer to the home pool below camp each day, we have been lucky enough to come across good numbers of smallmouth yellowfish despite recent cold-water spell due to the heavy and consistent rainfall of late. Upon arrival, the new guests were welcomed by the camp staff and soon after the guides were working through everyone’s tackle ensuring the rods were rigged correctly and ready to go.
The weather conditions proved stunning, but the cold water prevented the guests from getting any reaction to their dry flies. Once the water dips below 17 degrees, the yellowfish are not interested in anything on the surface. However, a couple beautiful yellowfish were landed using either a New Zealand style indicator setup or a dry dropper configuration (suspended nymph below a dryfly) around camp.
The full day out on the upper sections of the Bokong proved to be very tricky and technical due to the combination of skinny water levels and chilly water temperature. However, despite the cold, there were several fish in each run – but they became one shot wonders. If your presentation was just slightly off, the entire run would spook and disappear back into the deeper pools. The guys had loads of fun trying to outfox the yellows but at the end of the day, everyone left with loads of laughter but dry landing nets 🙂
On the flipside, we are seeing a steady increase in the numbers of rainbow trout moving into the river and estuary sections indicating that we will have a bumper trout season this Autumn.
We cannot wait!
Cheers for now,
Phil & Greg
