Introduction
Zwakala
River Retreat is the only venue in the Haenertsburg area that provides instant
access to the Broederstroom River. This mysterious and tranquil river that
flows through indigenous forest and pine plantations offers fantastic, catch
and release fly-fishing for both Brown Trout and Rainbow Trout. This privately
owned farm venue provides accommodation in various configurations ranging from
a comfortable campsite on the river bank, romantic cottages for couples and
cabins for families. There are various other activities on the farm such as
mountain biking trails, river tubing, swimming etc. for the non-fishing
members. There is also an events venue (Mina’s Art Café & Farm venue) ideal
for weddings, family or corporate events, music performances and art
exhibitions.
Accommodation
During
this venue review we stayed in the newly finished Cob House which is a 4
sleeper cottage with 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen and veranda. The cottage
does not have any electricity, it has solar powered lights, a fire boiler for
hot water and a gas fridge and stove with an oven. The one bedroom has an
on-suite shower with one door leading into the living room and the second
bedroom is separated from the second bathroom with two doors, one leading to
the patio.
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| Cob House Cottage - Veranda |
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| Cob House Cottage - Living Room |
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| Cob House Cottage - Main Bedroom and En-suite Bathroom |
The
living room has a large L-shaped couch perfectly positioned around a cosy fire
place. Between the living room and the kitchen there is a dining room table
looking out over the veranda. The kitchen is fully equipped with all the
necessary utensils and as previously mentioned a gas stove/oven and fridge. In
front of the veranda there is a fire pit and braai facility, which is the perfect
place to sit and relax after a day’s fishing.
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| Cob House Cottage - Second Bedroom |
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| Cob House Cottage - Fire Pit |
Personally,
what makes a venue special for me in terms of accommodation are the smaller
details! When you break away for a weekend you want to be comfortable
especially if you taking your partner with you. Zwakala passed this test with
flying colours, from the fire place being lit on arrival (which was perfect
with the cold, misty weather), to the most comfortable bed with feather down
duvets and cloudy soft pillows. I also loved the fact that the cottage does not
have any electricity which allows you to really just break away from all modern
day distractions.
Fishing
The
section of the Broederstroom River that runs through Zwakala offers some
fantastic fishing! The river is only a few meters from the cottage, which
allows a very relaxed fishing experience. To fish the river effectively you
need at least three days to cover all the sections. The river has various
features from a slow flowing section through a forest, various slow riffles,
some faster flowing pocket water, pools with waterfalls and some deep slow
flowing sections with a lot of structure.
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| Perfect dry fly water - Slow flowing section of the Broederstroom River |
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| Forest section of the Broederstroom River |
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| One of many waterfall pools |
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| Perfect pocket water in the Broederstroom River |
I
suggest that river should be fished very slowly and patiently, you will often
just have one chance on a big fish during your stay and you don’t want to mess
it up. In some of the overgrown sections you will often find a pair of fish
slowly sipping insects of the surface, you need to observe them for a while,
plan your attack and only then present a fly to them. If you don’t fish this
river slowly you will often walk past some of the bigger fish or just end up
spooking them, often they will just be holding on the bottom and you will only
spot them by seeing an occasional flash as they take a food items.
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| Brown Trout caught on a Bullethead Hopper |
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| Bullet Head Hopper with CDC underwing |
Ideally
you should be fishing a 3 weight rod (or lighter) with a maximum length of 9ft,
shorter rods will definitely help in the overgrown sections. I recommend you
fish a 9ft 3x tapered leader (if you can handle longer you can use a 12ft) that
you step down to 6x tippet (or even 7x in some of the shallower sections).
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| Largest Rainbow Trout of the trip |
I
enjoyed fishing dry fly and I mostly fished a dry and dropper rig and switched
to a single dry fly if I spotted fish. I caught most of my fish on small
Puterbaugh Caddis and Bullethead hoppers. I used black jig mayfly patterns for
the dropper and occasionally fished a NZ rig in the deeper sections, this
delivered the largest fish of the trip. In some of the pools I switched to a
single black or olive jig streamer which proved to be very effective. I fished
the streamers upstream the same way you would fish a nymph and just kept
contact with the fly.
Summary
Zwakala River Retreat offers the perfect balance between
living comfort and fly-fishing quality! This is definitely one of the best
fly-fishing venues you can visit that your wife/girlfriend will also enjoy!
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