DocPhil wrote:
Good vid, enjoyed it!
Tell us more of the place he caught it
The dam is located right up against the SA border, about 25km north of Komatiepoort border post. It is fed by the Sabie river as it enters Moz.
There were no "tourist accomodation" available (at the time, not sure if that has changed) - we just haggled with some locals in fanagalo and ended up camping in the settlement used by the contractors when the dam was built. It is about 2km south of the dam wall.
On another occasion a couple of years later I visited the dam closer to the inlet.
A South African has some sort of concession there and a permanent tented camp right on the water's edge.
We fished the inlet from a boat but only got small ones. This was around February. The bike trip was late December. Apparently the inlet boils with fish in Nov-Dec.
The inlet gorge has steep cliffs on the southern side, with raptors such as fish eagles and gymnogenes nesting there.
Netting is unfortunately widespread, and even though it was "closed season" for the netters, we hooked a lot of sunken nets.
I landed this barbel at the inlet on an 8wt flyrod.
