By Martin Davies
Email: flyfishdavies@gmail.com
Phone: 082 398 1088 or 046 622 4423
Winterberg
Thrift remains low at about 30 – 33% but of course this is still a large area of water and takes about an hour and a half to walk around. It is also crystal clear now. An example of the quality of fishing on offer is that Andrew Renton took 48 trout in two half day sessions. Quite a few of these fish were over 60cm. Many were caught on egg patterns but apparently bloodworm and buzzers were working equally well. A number of 10 pounders have been recorded in the catches in the last month, but much depends on the weather and the regular cold fronts which have been coming through from the Western Cape tend to put the fish off for short periods.
At Redcliffe the dams are at about the 80% level and Ventnor Dam is full of medium sized rainbows while Delton is the dam for larger fish. Martin and 2 assistants took between 50 and 60 fish over 2 days to harvest ova for the Ventnor hatchery to supplement the stock they already have there.
As mentioned last month Martin is holding about 150 000 MTD strain of rainbow fingerlings in his Grahamstown hatchery, and also up at the Ventnor hatchery which is jointly owned with Mathew Morgan. The 20 000 brown trout ova purchased from the Western Cape and held in Grahamstown are starting to hatch and will in future add to the variety of trout fishing on offer in the Eastern Cape highland dams.
The cottage at Ventnor was reopened for clients on September 1.
Stormberg (Queenstown area)
QFFC chairman Reg Morgan (082 7033489) says that most of the dams are at good levels for this time of year. The excellent fishing is a result of a comprehensive stocking with the MTD strain of rainbows over the last couple of years and a 11lb rainbow was taken recently. All the dams have now been closed for the 2 week period up to the annual Gathering which has been postponed to the long weekend of 24 to 26 September. It is good to report that the maximum number of 40 rods have been booked in for this event, only 2 of whom are locals, with the rest of the entrants coming from as far afield as Joburg and Cape Town.
Somerset East
Alan Hobson of the Angler& Antelope reports that they have recorded 40ml of rain in the last couple of weeks which has kept water levels stable. Mountain Dam of course remains the premier dam and also holds a few browns, but the dams at Glenavon are also doing well. Another highlight of the fishing is that the Buffelshoek dam up at Swaershoek was scoured out after the drought and enlarged. This dam plus another 4 dams on the property have been restocked and these recently introduced fish are already in the 500g class already while those placed in the nearby Little Fish are also growing out well.
As mentioned last month the Karreebosch Dam near Cradock which also dried up in the drought was restocked and these young rainbows are doing well.
Original article can be found on https://www.fosaf.org.za/
