52 centimeters but no weight
So, guided by future smallmouth yellowfish legend Chris “the gold digger” Le Roux I might just have caught my personal best for the second time in 2 weeks, but without a scale to measure. This is the second time I’ve been out with him and both times have been electric.
Awesome smallmouth yellowfish
We hit the Vaal near Parys and immediately found ourselves the only two anglers on the water. We rigged our lines with our favourite flies (or rather Chris’ favourite flies) and made for the rapids. In true style Chris was on within the first five casts or so. And that pattern just continued throughout the day which ended with him landing approximately 22 yellows, one of which was a striking 60 odd centimetres.
An unfortunately grainy photo of Chris' monster smallmouth
I on the other hand managed to land a mere five yellows and 2 muddies, one of which could have been my new personal best, broken after just a week. One of the things that i learnt from Chris was the correct method of Czech nymphing, which requires NO strike indicator. The concept is that with a strike indicator you allow a lot more drag and “bowing” on the line, ironically leading to more missed strikes. Now for the novice this would seem a paradoxical approach to yellow fishing, but as you use the technique more and more, you find yourself fine tuning your senses to detect the strike not only more frequently but also easier.
Inside!
Always remember it is often difficult to adjust the leader length of your line to the varying river depth with an indicator, and leader length in relation to this is of paramount importance, which can, with practice be more easily adjusted without an indicator by simply developing a feel for the depth of the target area. Tight lines.
