Vaal River fishing and Facebook fun

April 12th, 2010
Mark Peter Ducker with a beautiful Vaal river carp

Mark Peter Ducker with a beautiful Vaal river carp

Quite often people post a few photo’s via our facebook group. We do however want to keep all out loyal readers informed and will from time to time post some of these photos here in order to show the fish caught at the various venues. You can join our facebook group by searching for Will & Dre’s Fishing Reports and clicking on the join group link.


If you want to send us some photo’s of your own, email the photo’s to readers@willndre.co.za or post them via our facebook group. Remember to provide us with information (where possible of course) such as your name , the type of fish , the weight of the fish , the bait used , the name of the venue , the GPS coordinates or exact fishing spot , the month of the year and if the fish was released.

Thank you Wynand du Plooy for submitting the following photo’s of your trip to the Vaal river. Unfortunately I do not have any information on the baits used, the conditions or the time of year.

Wynand du Plooy and his friends with some nice Vaal river carp

Wynand du Plooy and his friends with some nice Vaal river carp

Wimpie Esterhuizen with a beautiful Vaal river specimen

Wimpie Esterhuizen with a beautiful Vaal river specimen

Another Vaal river carp

Another Vaal river carp

Wynand du Plooy

Wynand du Plooy

Danie Estrerhuizen with his Vaal river carp

Danie Estrerhuizen with his Vaal river carp

Fishing for carp in the Vaalriver at it's best

Fishing for carp in the Vaalriver at it's best

A Vaal river Muddie

A Vaal river Muddie

One of the smaller Vaal river carps

One of the smaller Vaal river carps

Wynand du Plooy with his personal best

Wynand du Plooy with his personal best

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Crocks or gumboots?

April 8th, 2010

I never really liked wearing gumboots, it’s big , bulky and just… well…uncomfortable! So here is my tip for the week, replace your old worn out gumboots with a pair of fake Crocks. Macro sell these little wonders-for-your-feet for about R65.00 to R80.00.

My Fake Crocks

My Fake Crocks

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Hartebeespoort Dam, green or clean?

April 5th, 2010

Two to three years ago I got quite excited about the efforts to clean up Hartebeespoort dam, since then it is as if all efforts , like most things our local government attempt , died a silent death! Altough I couldn’t find any time to fish this weekend , I pushed aside a few minutes in order to take some photographs of the dam and the surrounding areas. As reported in one of our previous posts (Ifafi, sewage problems continue at Hartebeespoort dam) we decided against fishing Ifafi, De Rust or Roos se oord because of the water quality and reported problems surfacing again. So being in the Hartebeespoort dam area this weekend , the big question came up , GREEN or CLEAN? And the answer is??

The Hartebeespoort dam water quality

The Hartebeespoort dam water quality

It is probably important to know that this dam was once a clean well preserved tourist destination. Now? Now it’s only a tourist destination, a green, money generating, polluted tourist destination. As rightfully said by my brother-in-law, only a scratch-and-sniff patch can truely provide our readers with the full effect, because it is not only the green colour but also the ‘wonderful’ smell completing the Hartebeespoort-dam-effect as we know it today.

Driving towards the famous tunnel, the traffic gave me a chance to get out of the car and walk around the bank.

Driving towards the famous tunnel

Driving towards the famous tunnel

Notice the empty beer bottle in the photo below.

Pollution at Hartebeespoort dam

Pollution at Hartebeespoort dam

Despite all the bad reports on Hartebeespoort dam I still have a desperate longing to at least try fishing the various venues and we probably will. Recent reports in ‘The Tight Lines’ gave positive reviews on resorts such as De Rust and it might be worth while spending a few hours fishing these venues.

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Kurper Bonanza 2010, Forever Resorts Loskop Dam

March 31st, 2010

I’m not a fan of compititions for a variety of reasons but mostly because of the types of people that these events attract, this year however I decided to move away from my comfort zone and join Willem and Karmen early Saturday morning to obtain some valuable input that can be shared with future first timers. I had some work to finish Friday night and decided that the 3 hour drive to Forever Resorts would probably not be the greatest of ideas after the customary three beers after work. So I went home , slept for a few hours and left for Loskop dam 2:00 AM.

Arriving at the resort I quickly handled the necessary admin and went looking for the bank were we were supposed to fish. This was our first trip to Loskop dam and to be honest we were not exactly sure what to expect, non the less the excitement was building! Following the signs, we quickly experienced a familiar feeling when arriving at a closed gate.

Waiting infront of the closed gate

Waiting infront of the closed gate

Driving through the gate I was looking for some kind of grass bank, sadly there was none, it was just… a tar road???? Surely this couldn’t be the bank!

The bank at Loskop dam

The bank at Loskop dam

We walked over to our neighbour and he too had an expression of disbelief on his face. For a few minutes we stood, weighing up our options. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the neighbour walking restlessly up and down the tar road, finally comming towards us with a map of the resort. He introduced himself as Chris and asked if we can keep his fishing spot while he drive around the resort looking for a better bank, so we exchanged numbers and he assured us that he will give us a call as soon as he find a better spot. 10 minutes later the phone rang and we were off to claim a part of the spot Chris found.

The new spot Chris found

The new spot Chris found

I felt much better paying the R200.00 for the competitions as we started preparing our rods and I could see that everyone was in a much better mood.

As we were targeting Kurper, we decided to try something we read about a while back, to mix Boeliebeef and Pronutro into our mielie bomb.

Mielie Bombs mixed with Boeliebeef and Pronutro

Mielie Bomb mixed with Boeliebeef and Pronutro

The Boeliebeef provides something meaty for the Kurpers while the Pronutro is an excellent binding material.

The mielie bomb

The mielie bomb

The day started of slowly and Chris caught the first of a number of smaller fish on some earth worms. Willem caught a few smallmouth yellows of his own while I teached some boys the fine art of casting.

The first small mouth yellow caught by Chris

The first small mouth yellow caught by Chris

Willem's first fish

Willem's first fish

Unfortunately as with our previous trip I blanked and had too keep myself busy with other ‘recreational’ activities.

Keeping myself busy with other recreational activities

Keeping myself busy with other recreational activities

Chris and his wife kept pulling out fish every 10 to 20 minutes and even though we all used the same bait and fished at the same distance, none of us could keep up with their tempo. I guess it’s true what a wise man once said: ‘location…location…location’.

Chris with descent size Kurper

Chris with descent size Kurper

Overall the competition was a great success with some great prizes.

Some of the prizes

Some of the prizes

A loskop Dam Blue Kurper

A loskop Dam Blue Kurper

In my personal opinion Loskop dam is not a bank anglers venue and should be fished from a boat as most good fishing spots can not be reached from the bank.

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