Czech Nymphing and some Kindergarten Smallmouth Yellowfish

I fished the Vaal River between Parys and Potchefstroom on Saturday with my girlfriend and some friends. As we arrived at our venue we where met with gloomy skies and a fine drizzle of rain. Although conditions were not ideal, nothing was going to keep me out the water.

The first few hours I was exploring the water and spotted some Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) feeding on some overhanging reeds. I made a few casts at them with different fly patterns with little to know interest. Will have to conjure up some kind of a vegetation fly for the next outing, something that represents fallen reed leaves or hyacinths. I moved on further down river and spotted a shoal of Carp (Cyprinus carpio) tailing in the shallows, this got me quite excited with some fish probably weighing around the 5kg mark. The carp was slowly moving towards me and I quickly tied on a bloodworm pattern and drifted the fly past them with no response. After another try the fish were so close to me that I could almost touch one of them, he eventually noticed me and startled the whole school.

After wasting some time on these alien species I rigged up a Czech Nymph rig with three flies: a lead and thread caddis as my control fly, a PTN and a orange bead brassie.

Green Lead and Thread Caddis Larvae

I started fishing my way up to a set of rapids and after about the first cast hooked into a fish that came of a few seconds later. A half an hour later while fishing in the rapids I eventually hooked my first little yellow in the fast water on the control fly.

The Average Size

A few casts later and I was into another little yellow, this time on the orange bead brassie. This seemed to be the trend of the day, I caught about 20 fish with only one fish being over 1kg. I reckon the water clarity made the bigger fish skittish and complicated things. Although I only caught small fish it was still quite fun and the kindergarten kept me busy practising my bite detection.

One of the Toddlers

Eventually I found that drifting my rig down stream in the fast flowing rapids in the rapids produced the most fish. I caught about 8 fish in about 20 minutes with this technique and it also delivered the biggest fish of the day.

Another victim to the orange bead brassie

Biggest for the day!

The Technique

What I basically did was stand in the fastest section in the rapid facing downstream and fishing in the tail end of the rapid. I would lift my flies up place them in the fast water and let them wash down into the slower sections. As soon as my line started lifting I would bring my rod tip down, low to the water and start a slow retrieve. Most fish where hooked as soon as the line started lifting or on the slow retrieve. The most important thing was always to keep in contact with the flies to detect any bites. This technique proved deadly and I could even detect the smallest of fish hitting my flies.