Dear forum, I wish to find out a bit more about

[Zane]

Dear forum,

I wish to find out a bit more about the olifants river in the Cederberg.

When fishing the Cederberg I normally fish the Doring river which in my opinion is the best smallmouth bass river that I have ever fished.

Ive attempted to fish the Olifants river on a number of occasions but have always returned with marginal catches.  I fished the deep pools below the Bulshoek dam and caught large spotted bass but no smallmouths strangely enough.

I have also fished the large farmdam adjacent to the railbridge in Vredendal and caught some respectable smallies there to.  I have however never fished the Olifants river between Citrusdal and the Algeria.

It would be appreciated if you could share your experiences on this intriguing piece of water

 

[Visverskrik]

Zane , that should be a good strech in spring when the water is still flowing nicely, however, the bottom looks very sandy, which is not ideal for SM. The strech where the river flows into Clanwilliam dam can be very productive, even in winter, my friend caugt lunkers there, and the water was 9oC!!!

 

[D-Man]

Hi

New to the site.Unfortunately I can not contribute to your post,but could you share some info on the locations/spots when fishing the Doringriver?Recently got a boat and wish to fish that piece of water.

 

[Visverskrik]

I would also like to know where Zane fishes on the Doring, best place on a boat is a place called Die Mond , behind Ceres. Awesome place with great fishing.

 

[D-Man]

Thanks for the info V.I take its smallies?Any directions,accomodation etc for Die Mond?

 

[Zane]

Hi guys,

The place that I fish is on the DeBrug farm owned by Koos Greef.  The farm is near Trawal and is situated close to where the Doring river enters the Olifants river.  Koos has a single cottage and his rates are very reasonable

The Doring River is normally unfishable until late October as it almost always in flood!  There are other resorts in the upper Doring such as De Mond but their rates unreasonably expensive.

The Doring river dries up to a large extent during summer, resulting in the fish  being concentrated in pools varing from 500m to the size of a swimming pool.  I remember catching and releasing over 35 smallies in the 1kg class from a pool the size of a swimming pool.

I suggest that autumn is the best time to fish there as this place gets as hot as the Richtersveldt.  Forget about boating this is float tube country.

The only downside of the venue is that it is very far from Cape Town +/- 350 kms (maybe not such a bad thing or else all the bad elements would ruin the fishery).  The second downside is that it cannot host too many anglers, 3 float tubers would be the limit that the venue could sustain at any one time.

I dont have Koos's number but you can obtain the number from the tourism office in Vredendal.

One last thing.  This is most certainly the most unspoilt bass fishery that I have ever fished.  I was actually of 2 minds disclosing this info.  PLEASE PRACTICE LIVE RELEASE as such fisheries are becoming increasingly scarce.  The loss of the Breede river as a smallmouth bass fishery has been a major knock to smallmouth addicts such as myself.

I hope to make a trip out there some time in march/april.  I will confirm closer to the time.

 

[D-Man]

Zane.great info.Much appreciated.The Breede is still top of my list,but I will most certainly give that a go.So no chances of putting a small boat on the river?Bank angling an option?

Any baits you would recommend?

Thanks again.

 

[Zane]

Dear Dman,

The water level of the Doring River fluctuate radically.  In winter it floods and in summer it is reduced to a few interspread pools with long distances of black rock or thick riversand. 

You can launch your boat and fish the pool in front of the farmhouse which I estimate to be approx 300 to 400m long but from then on you will have to proceed by foot.  When river levels are higher the high number of rapids with the associated rocks will make it difficult for you to proceed upstream unless you have an ark canoe.

For that reason float tubing is ideal.  The nice thing about this venue is that the vegetation growing adjacent to the river bank still allows you to hike parrallel to the river, so you can cover long distances on foot between the pools while carrying your tube.

So yes you can fish from the sides but that world is cobra country and it is really isolated.  You are in a deep valley, no cellphone reception and NO PEOPLE!  I have often fished there alone and once almost had a really nasty fall trying to scale a ridge while carrying my float tube.  If I had come unstuck I would still be lying there.

The Doring unlike the Olifants is totaly pristine.  The ever increasing agriculture along the Olifants has contributed largely to the demise of clanwilliam dam as a good fishery as a result of the poisons and fertilizers that pollute the system.

The Doring river water is exceptionally clear and I have often observed big bass cruising 5 m below me!  The fish are extreme.  In fact so much so that when my brother and I compete against each other at this venue, we restrict ourselves to exclusively fish with our 3 worst lures for the whole day.  we still mange to catch a ridiculous amount of high quality fish.

I get bored of using my conventional tackle and therefore resort to fishing with a 5 weight flyrod, using self tied deerhair flies such as dahlberg divers and poppers.  If you going for numbers, fish with the best bass lure ever made flukes & sluggos, you can't miss.

Invest in a float tube.  Its cheap, easy to transport, will last forver and is the best way to catch bass.  You can contact me on my personal email zamerton@gmail.com if you wish to join me for future fishing trips.

Sincerely

 

[Visverskrik]

[color=#006600]D-Man[/color] wrote:

Thanks for the info V.I take its smallies?Any directions,accomodation etc for Die Mond?

D-Man, you drive to Ceres, and go straight through the Town (Main road), and over the pass, Forgot the passes name, but just go sttraight, the tar road becomes a dirt road, they call it the "wit pad", its +/- 100 KM, you will see a huge tractor tyre with the name De Mond on it on your left hand side, thats the turn off. Will try and get a contact number for you. You can get SM. LM, Clanwilliam yellows and Clanwilliam Sawfin there. Please be very gentle with the last two Species, they are beautiful fish and very threatened. Hope this helps.

 

[Visverskrik]

[color=#006600]Zane[/color] wrote:

Hi guys,

The place that I fish is on the DeBrug farm owned by Koos Greef.  The farm is near Trawal and is situated close to where the Doring river enters the Olifants river.  Koos has a single cottage and his rates are very reasonable

The Doring River is normally unfishable until late October as it almost always in flood!  There are other resorts in the upper Doring such as De Mond but their rates unreasonably expensive.

The Doring river dries up to a large extent during summer, resulting in the fish  being concentrated in pools varing from 500m to the size of a swimming pool.  I remember catching and releasing over 35 smallies in the 1kg class from a pool the size of a swimming pool.

I suggest that autumn is the best time to fish there as this place gets as hot as the Richtersveldt.  Forget about boating this is float tube country.

The only downside of the venue is that it is very far from Cape Town +/- 350 kms (maybe not such a bad thing or else all the bad elements would ruin the fishery).  The second downside is that it cannot host too many anglers, 3 float tubers would be the limit that the venue could sustain at any one time.

I dont have Koos's number but you can obtain the number from the tourism office in Vredendal.

One last thing.  This is most certainly the most unspoilt bass fishery that I have ever fished.  I was actually of 2 minds disclosing this info.  PLEASE PRACTICE LIVE RELEASE as such fisheries are becoming increasingly scarce.  The loss of the Breede river as a smallmouth bass fishery has been a major knock to smallmouth addicts such as myself.

I hope to make a trip out there some time in march/april.  I will confirm closer to the time.

Hi Zane, I think i know the farm it's right by the bridge. True what you say, the fishing is epic, and hopefully will stay that way. We are moving there when the house gets sold, I'm leaving the rat race and going after my dream to live on a farm. On my avatar pic is where we will be settling that is the Doring down there and it never gets fished. I'm going to try walk down there in late spring when the weather is hopefully still cool enough, and hopefully have lots of action with the fly rod.Thanks for sharing the info.

 

[Visverskrik]

 D-Man try this number ph. 027 - 3412330, below a pic of the turn off sighn, ok the tyre is not that big, and also a section of the pool, I've seen okes with boats there, you must give it a go, have a jol.

 

 

[Visverskrik]

The turn off

 

[D-Man]

Guys,thanks so much for all the info-cant wait to get some of those bronzebacks!!

As you say Zane,those tubes are cheap,worthwile getting one for such a trip,will certainly do.Let us know when you are up there Visverskrik.

Peace!

 

[Visverskrik]

Will let you know D-man, just pray the house gets sold, been on the market for a year now. I'm planning some lekka stuff there, including extreme fishing adventures:fishn

 

[Zane]

Dear Vicerskrik,

This may be a bit presumptious but if you get the farm I would really like to fish there.  Please keep in touch.

Sincerely,

 

[Visverskrik]

Zane I thought that was a given boet, any time, we will just have to do a bit of a hike, but it doesn't seem that your're scared of that, all going well we will be able to go down on horse back (Tame ones), and stay over in the cave for the night. My future place is just a bit upstream from De Brug.ad:: 

 

[plug]

Damn that system is huge!! How far down do the bass go? Klawer, Vredendal, Ludzville and Koekenaap? Must be one of the largest sytems in the country for smallmouth!

 

[fishypete]

Does anyone have contact details for Die Mond on the Doornrivier.

I would like to go for yellowfish and bass.

Would you recommend another place?

Would appreciate any help.

 

[Zane]

Hi Fishypete,

I must admit that I was last there in 2009.  The river was really messed up by the 2008 floods in that many of the good pools silted up.

I have lost Koos's number but phone the Vredendal tourism office and ask for the number for the De Brug farm owned by Koos and Estelle Greef.

 

I would appreciate it if you could provide me feedback on how it went as I am planning to go there in early October.

 

Tight lines