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You know you should find a fish in a river when the river’s name appears in the fish’s! So when we put the shotguns and rifles down long enough to flick fluff in the River Vaal, I fully expected to have the Vaal-orange largemouth yellowfish (Labeobarbus kimberleyensis) yanking my line. Nevermind that its sibling the smallmouth yellow fish (Labeobarbus aeneus) is much more common. I had might sights set on BIG.
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Which was just as well: the Vaal is no trout stream or chalk river. Its a monster at 150m wide. Sidling up to it in our Crocs (shoes that is) and shorts, 5-weight rods in hands, we couldn’t help but feel undergunned. I have fished smaller rivers with 15 foot double handed 10-weights. Hours spent scanning the fish-porn online had armed us with a series of facts:
1. The River Vaal is wadeable
2. Yellowfish, regardless of mouth size, readily take dry and wet flies
3. The ‘freshwater bonefish’, even a 2lb yellowfish will take you down to your backing
4. Beware: yellowfish are dangerously addictive even for the experienced user
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Unfortunately, as Fact 1 turned out to be…not entirely true, we were never able to prove the veracity or otherwise of Facts 2, 3 and 4. The Vaal had burst its banks six weeks before in floods the likes of which hadn’t been seen in 20 years. Although receding, there was just too much water heading downstream to make dipping more than a toe attractive.
Tiptoeing back along the bank to avoid waking slumbering monitor lizards (an effort put paid to by the dog mistaking one for a fire hydrant), we retreated to the buggy and the safety of our shotguns. Yellowfish fever will have to wait for another trip.
