| Date of Report: Saturday, 18th July 2026 |
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Name: Chris Williams Email: chris@willship.co.za Phone: 071 565 1688 The reports for this mid-Vaal section of the river are very upbeat now. Firstly, Collin Hyman of Elgro Windknot club sent us this contribution by Anton Hartman, recognised as one of the experts on the Vaal. “Vaal River is looking very good and all fish are extremely healthy and in great condition... the floods of the past 4 years have caused the river to not reach the critically high maximum temps in mid-summer for prolonged periods as in the past 10 years preceding that... what this does is it allows the fish to not reach the climax of their tolerable maximum metabolic rate where stress causes havoc on their ability to fend off parasites and keep their protective mechanisms in good working order... the early season largemouth often carry scars of this stressful period as they are even less tolerant to extremes on the high end of the temperature scale that smallmouth... the average minimum water temps are also rising year by year and the this keeps the fish above their tolerable minimums as well... so the long term outlook for the ecosystem of the Vaal will be that the fish will spend longer periods of time outside their comfort zones during mid-summer if the rains are going to decrease according to current predictions... largemouth has been plentiful this season with 4 to 10 fish caught in an afternoon during my recent outings... all things considered, the Vaal is looking the best its looked in many years... hundreds of fish have been eating on the surface between 17 and 14.5 degrees of water temps and the hatches were incredibly consistent and long lasting... not many rivers beats the Vaal when it comes to numbers of fish as well as quality fishing... it’s a world class gem just under our doorstep” Then further downstream further downstream at Wag n Bietjie in the Orkney area Andre Hoffman reports that the clarity of the river is much improved with plenty of activity visible. He has had few clients recently and no opportunity to fish himself, but several groups are booked in 2 weeks’ time and expects them to do well targeting largemouths Also note that in October there are two flyfishing festivals to be held at Elgro River Lodge. Week 1 starts on the 1st October and the 2nd on 8th October. Details are at https://www.fosaf.org.za/calendar.php.
Fishing the Vaal |
