Flyfishing report: Saltwater - Gqeberha/Port Elizabeth

Following the floods of over a month ago the water is still flowing strongly at the Kromme at St Francis and also the Sundays and Gamtoos. This is because the rains have continued in most of the catchments and even freshwater species such as barbel and carp have been caught at the low tide near the mouth of the Sundays. The good news is that at the Gamtoos the floods have scoured out the estuary which in many parts was quite shallow and is now 6 metres deep at places and as much as 12 metres in certain holes in the bed of the river. At present one really needs a boat as access from the bank is not easy. I predict that the coming spring and summer season could be very good and I look forward to September.

The Swartkops, by contrast, has a relatively small catchment closer to the coast and is now much cleaner. Although there are not many fish around, some good-sized leervis, kob and even skipjack have been caught close to the mouth, with the best fishing about an hour before or after high tide. There are also plenty of grunter in the estuary, but winter is not ideal for sight fishing because they stay in the deeper channels. You can still fly-fish blind in the deeper water with a weighted pattern such as a Clouser on a 15-foot leader, which I believe an expert like Marius Rousseau does on the Kromme at this time of year. My bucktails also work well.

The Swartkops – photo courtesy of Chris Schoultz.

Dylan van Breda on the Swartkops.