PWV section of "The
Southern African Trout and Flyfishing Directory."
The PWV comprises the industrial heartland of South Africa. However within this triangle there are many dams and some substantial rivers which offer angling for "coarse fish". Apart from some winter trout fisheries close to Johannesburg, angling is predominantly for species such as black bass, carp, barbel (catfish), mudfish and yellowfish.
While all these various species can cbe taken onsistently on the fly, it is the Smallmouth yellowfish which has become the darling of flyfishers. The Vaal river, below the Barrage where it still looks like a river has many such spots and while the Smallmouth yellow does not make a habit of jumping when hooked, it has more than enough power and speed to catch your admiration. In the warmer months Smallmouths congregate in the faster water areas, but in winter they move into the pools and are less accesible. However, this is also a good time to be on the water for the larger, though less numerous, Largemouth yellowfish.
For overseas visitors, the yellowfish (of which there are 9 species in Southern Africa) is a cousin to the Indian mahseer, except that the extreme weights of the latter are not reached. However the largemouth yellowfish is still caught in excess of 20 lbs and angling in general for Smallmouths can be of workd-class quality. Some excellent yellowfish angling in stillwater is experienced at the massive Sterkfontein dam in the Free State.
Between
Johannesburg and Pretoria and northwards into the Limpopo province,
many of the rivers carry the Largescale and Smallscale yellowfish
( Labeobarbus marequensis and polylepis respectively). While these
are both fine anglng species, they have a deserved reputation
for being wily and very subtle takers of a fly.
One of the attractions of catching these fish is that they are partial to nymphs and so the fast water nymph fishing - Czech nymphing - can be excellent at timesto fish which can average over 2 lbs. with the odd 6 - 8 lb. specimen being landed from time to time.