Catfish run In SA

[Ryan]

This is going to be a shorty....

After our Leauge on Saturday we took a walk up the one bank looking for Palletjies (Long story - we did not find any) but we came to an inlet where there was a massive catfish run taking place (several hundered barbel were herding baitfish into the rapids and slamming them at any given point we could see about 100 heads up and out the water in a 5m square space. We raced back to our campsite hastily assmebled our 9 wt fly rods with floating line I managed to scratch some Baitfish immitations out of one of my old tigger boxes. 40lb tippet flyline straight to the fly and we were good to. What happend in the next 30 mins proceeded to be some of the best and most exciting flyfishing I have had in a long time - I even picked up a carp in the foray eventually it was so dark we were guessing where the barbel were.

In the morning we returend at early bells but the barbel were gone and I managed to hook and land a few carp onm baitfish patterns.

All in all it was hectic - marno caught his PB barbel on fly and the mozzies chowed the crap out of us........But wow man put me back there in a heartbeat.

Trout and yellows are a gentleman fish but there is nothing like the brute force and dirty fight of a barbel - ask Marno - long time since I have seen the look of disbelief on an anglers face -he got properly stretched so did his fly rod....

Herewith some Photies

 

[Ryan]

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[Ryan]

Marno's PB

 

[Ryan]

Streaached

 

[Ryan]

Early AM Carp

 

[Ryan]

Check that lekka ride

 

[bekkerian]

WELLDONE Ryan & Marno!!!

dit lyk awesome fun! Ryan, watse retreive gebruik jy om die karp te vang op vliegstok?! ek het al baie probeer, orals waar "borreltjies" is , maar nog geen geluk nie!

maar weereens welldone boys!

 

 

[Ryan]

Short erattic pulls on the flyline - no question they were on.

 

[bekkerian]

oh i see, do you think this will only work in a type of "feeding frenzy" like the Barbel run?

ive read about other ways of catching carp on fly is to drop your fly infront of feeding carp(sight fishing) so no retreive there... 

diff flies are used on these to methods...

ive once jigged a carp in its side and it was a awesome fight, would love to catch one the right why...

will this retreive work at feeding carp(where borreltjies appear)

 

[Ryan]

BEst is to cast towards sighted feeding fish.
Try using flies like small wooly buggers try and cast past the fish and bring it fairly close past his nose - normally they will not hesitate in slamming the lure - be warned up your tippet as they are very good at smash and grab. In the vaal River you will find schools of feeding carp a well presented nymph will produce results.
As to flysishing on Borreltjies -very difficult as you can not be sure the fly is at the right depth - hence using loodkoppies to plumb the depths
Hope this helps

 

[bekkerian]

hey Ryan this will help alot!

just another thing, what size loodkoppie do i use for karp and how is it suppose to look, ive got loodkoppies for catfish, but that seem a bit big for them carp...

think my tippet may be a tad weak, dont want to get that strick and then loose the fish when my tippet breaks!!!!!!

 

 

 

[kitefisher]

Well done Ryan and Marno,making everyone jealous,must have been an awesome sight.Just goes to show if you spend enough time next to the water,you start seeing and experiencing things that most mortals dont.

@Bekkerian,where you see bubbles my suggestion would be to use something like a black/red wooly worm try and anticipate how far past the feeding carp you have to cast to have the fly eventually hit bottom right next to the carp or rather right in front of the feeding carp,erring on the far and front side of the carp if you can determine where that is ,so that your line does not scare it.

Like Ryan said ,a few very very short twitches should do the trick but I will go so far as to say that you can leave the fly still for a minute or so before applying the very very short retrieve,reason being that the carp will sometimes suck the fly without any movement applied from your side ,the mere turbulence created by the carp feeding gives the fly movement equal to the other 'FOOD" dislodged by the carp's feeding.

 

[bekkerian]

awesome Kitefisher...!! thanks

but with my floating fly line, do i put on a slitshot to get the wooly worm to sink? or should i use my sinking line? sorry for the Q's but i really would love to get me a carp on that fly line!!!!

thanks guys!

 

[Ryan]

You can use floating Line - just make sure you know what the water depth is - I would not try for carp in water deeper than 2m - there is just way too much hit and miss.
Floating Line you will be able to see movement more readily.

Thanks Kite....

 

[bekkerian]

so Ryan, i assume that the "strike" is more than an IMHALE than a strike!?! am i correct?

i'll keep a close eye on my float line tip for any weird movement and strike??

 

 

 

[Ryan]

Yes normaly it is just a slight twitch on the end of the flyline. (Rule of Thumb)
However what I experinced on saturday was them slamming the lure like an express train.....