I heard about some locals in Clanwilliam who claim

[Droomvanger]

Naturally no barbel occurred in Western Cape.

jmgravenor wrote:

BoikieLouw wrote:

I heard about some locals in Clanwilliam who claims he caught a Barbel in the Clanwilliam Dam.I wondered about it and went diving with a speargun in Clanwilliam Dam a few days ago around Rondegat and what I saw amazed me.I was diving when I saw a large gray,blackish thing on the bottem.I first thought maybe a pipe or something? But when I came closer I reaised it was a Barbel and it shot away leaving a only dust behind.I did a bit of research on the internet and it looks like some people have caught Barbel in the dam.A huge problem I think.:alien

The Olifants also fills up the dam...Tonnes of barbel in there. Naturally they would appear into the dam. There might have been barbel in the dam for yonks. Bronzie fishing there is still bloody good though!

 

[jmgravenor]

Sorry I meant to say...Since barbel were introduced to the Olifants, and the Olifants feeds Clan...the barbel would have come down into clan from the Olifants...

 

[Zane]

It all makes sense now... Clan fished brilliantly about 3-4 years ago. Over the last two years at Clan and Quaggas/Brandvlei we started catching huge bass but they were far and few between with no small bass evident in the shallows.

I had first suspected in Clan that the ever encroaching orchards closer to the waters edge was contributing to increased fertiliser and pesticide run off that was decreasing the water quality. Now faced with the tangible evidence of the barble in Clan its a no brainer that the smallmouth are on their way out.

Smallmouth cannot handle another apex predator in a system that they occupy. I experienced this in a little known dam by the name of the Rooikrans dam near King Williamstown in the mid nineties. This dam was only stocked with smallies and I have never experienced such good smallmouth fishing, not even in Clanwilliam. Then the local bassmaster chapter introduced largemeouth bass in order to allow for more variety. Within two years the smallmouth population crashed and never recovered after that.

I saw the same with the Breede river where the water quality and structure is ideal for smallmouth and I was privileged to catch it in 2002 when there were still a fair number of fish. The next season the same trend occurred where we just caught big fish but no juveniles were to be seen. This event coincided with the appearance of the first few barble. Again it only took two years for the smallie population to crash as the barble occupied the same structure as the smallmouth and would predate on the bass at night when they slept in the open water. Now the Breede only has the occassional small mouth but does have a fair number of large mouth bass.

History is now repeating itself and shortly the heyday of Clan and Brandvlei will be a distant memory. I can only advise that you guys fish the upper to mid ranges of the Doring river in the Cederberg or source some farm dams that still hold smallmouth bass.

Sad turn of events indeed...

 

[drkobus]

Hoe is die vangste op die oomblik in Clanwilliam dam?

 

[ThunderPie]

Hello,
so if I understand that right any Barbel should be taken and not released in western cape dams/vleis?

Is the barbel edible?

I do a lot of barbel fishing in my area (germany) and those fish are not hard to catch if you know what to do and have the right tackle

Best bait is a live bait, handsize fish on a float.
and also rotten squid works very good in our rivers.

Does anybody know spots on the dams/vleis for barbel that could be shared?

Thanks
Stephan
(That Catfish was caught by a friend of mine)

 

[EugeneC]

For the record, barbel in Clanwilliam Dam is not news, they have been there for ages. I did a trip up there with my Dad about 7 years ago and we caught 3 barbel during our five days on the dam. They were not monsters, but they were big enough to challenge most other species found in the dam.

 

[ThunderPie]

OK good to know, So i dont have to club all of them.
are those barbel edible?
the ones we catch in europe are
(but we only eat the small ones, the big are to fatty and dont taste good anymore)

 

[aquadementia]

Stephan they are edible, but try to find out if there is a history of DDT pesticide in the area. It can last for 10 years in the environment and especially builds up in your apex predators like large catfish

 

[ThunderPie]

DDT would not be nice, the locals there should know if the fish are polluted or not?

 

[EugeneC]

I wouldn't bet my life on it...

 

[tackle whore]

There are plenty yellowfish in the dam , most are seen only when the river is in flood at the top or if you lucky enough to fish the weir area at the wall.Bardel have been around for along time BUT pollution, loss of habitat, competition for food all has an impact on the yellows and the bass, there is added pressure when an apex predator crashes the party like the barbel does .Another problem fish that no one ever looks at is the blue gill its a nest robber not so bad with bass that guard the nest but a big impact on yellow fish spawning beds.

 

[ThunderPie]

So how does the blue gill look like?

Would like to know, when I catch one I will not release it
Maybe use as bait if it has a decent size

 

[tackle whore]

Lepomis macrochirus sunfish/bluegill they in every water system in the Western Cape .

 

[ThunderPie]

Ah OK, I know them as sunfish
Easy to catch and not that big.

maybe useful as barbel bait