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Oranje rivier
- Thread starter Slukderm
- Start date
Hi Slukderm
I know this is a year late, but we currently have nearly exactly the same water level as last year, so thought I might as well chip in with a recent experience.
Had a trip planned from 28 December to 3 January (2022 for reference) to go and hunt for some Yellowfish in the Orange River near Hopetown. The excessive rain lead to incredibly high water levels that exceeded last year's ( was at the same venue in March 2021). I tried my hand at Yellowfish in the main river but with zero luck. Submerged trees wreaked havoc with my attempts to reach visible barbel as well. Fortunately the venue I frequent has multiple inlets/ditches (or erosion gullies, or whatever they might be called) caused by water erosion. These are dry most of the year, but they fill up substantially when the water is this high. The specific one I visited was more than a meter deep up a kilometre from the main river. These ditches/inlets were absolutely teaming with fish. My assumption is smaller and larger fish explore these calmer waters for both new sources of food and shelter away from the fast-flowing waters. If you find one of these erosion ditches, no matter how small/narrow it looks at the river, follow it to its termination. The one I explored was only about 8 meters wide where it met the river, but extended very far and became deeper than 3 meters in some spots.
Long story short. I found myself at the far end of one of these gullies/ditches near the end of the day and it was utter madness. We got a good number (5+) of Largemouth Yellows between 4:00 and 5:30 as they picked off little Tilapia which were visible in abundance. All these were caught on small lures in the same 15m x 20m patch of water. As it got later the Yellows seemed to vacate the area at exactly the same time. Things got quiet for about 30 minutes, and then things got very interesting. The barrel had arrived.
As a group, they had heard the small fish from the deeper parts of the ditch to where it terminated, and they started picking off the little fish in the 1-1.5m of water. It was magical. There was enough action in the water to make it seem as if the water was boiling. Needless to say, the barbel smashed anything that moved. Little barbel outnumbered the bigger guys by a fair margin, but there were some big guys. Unfortunately, I only had light gear with me and only one barbel popper/lure combo. I got smashed 4-5 times per cast by little guys and I picked up a few smaller fish (5-7KG) in just minutes. Much to my dismay, I got hammered by something huge which instantly broke my 20LB braid ( the heaviest I had on hand) which ended my session for the day.
I will also note that quiet conditions earlier in the day seem to be important. I went back the next day with heavier tackle, but a couple of youngsters having fun in a kayak between me and the main river seemed to impact the barbel's ability to school and hear fish which stopped the same thing from happening following day.
Hope this is helpful. I will be exploring places like these much more in future,
I know this is a year late, but we currently have nearly exactly the same water level as last year, so thought I might as well chip in with a recent experience.
Had a trip planned from 28 December to 3 January (2022 for reference) to go and hunt for some Yellowfish in the Orange River near Hopetown. The excessive rain lead to incredibly high water levels that exceeded last year's ( was at the same venue in March 2021). I tried my hand at Yellowfish in the main river but with zero luck. Submerged trees wreaked havoc with my attempts to reach visible barbel as well. Fortunately the venue I frequent has multiple inlets/ditches (or erosion gullies, or whatever they might be called) caused by water erosion. These are dry most of the year, but they fill up substantially when the water is this high. The specific one I visited was more than a meter deep up a kilometre from the main river. These ditches/inlets were absolutely teaming with fish. My assumption is smaller and larger fish explore these calmer waters for both new sources of food and shelter away from the fast-flowing waters. If you find one of these erosion ditches, no matter how small/narrow it looks at the river, follow it to its termination. The one I explored was only about 8 meters wide where it met the river, but extended very far and became deeper than 3 meters in some spots.
Long story short. I found myself at the far end of one of these gullies/ditches near the end of the day and it was utter madness. We got a good number (5+) of Largemouth Yellows between 4:00 and 5:30 as they picked off little Tilapia which were visible in abundance. All these were caught on small lures in the same 15m x 20m patch of water. As it got later the Yellows seemed to vacate the area at exactly the same time. Things got quiet for about 30 minutes, and then things got very interesting. The barrel had arrived.
As a group, they had heard the small fish from the deeper parts of the ditch to where it terminated, and they started picking off the little fish in the 1-1.5m of water. It was magical. There was enough action in the water to make it seem as if the water was boiling. Needless to say, the barbel smashed anything that moved. Little barbel outnumbered the bigger guys by a fair margin, but there were some big guys. Unfortunately, I only had light gear with me and only one barbel popper/lure combo. I got smashed 4-5 times per cast by little guys and I picked up a few smaller fish (5-7KG) in just minutes. Much to my dismay, I got hammered by something huge which instantly broke my 20LB braid ( the heaviest I had on hand) which ended my session for the day.
I will also note that quiet conditions earlier in the day seem to be important. I went back the next day with heavier tackle, but a couple of youngsters having fun in a kayak between me and the main river seemed to impact the barbel's ability to school and hear fish which stopped the same thing from happening following day.
Hope this is helpful. I will be exploring places like these much more in future,