WK's Vaal Dam Diaries...

[WalkersKiller]

Hi guys, I decided to start a thread that reports and describes my trips, starting from the one below, to the Vaal Dam and supplying detailed information.

Thursday, July 12th, 2012

After work I departed for Inloop at the Vaal Dam. I left at 5.55pm and eventually arrived at 8.17 pm as I was driving slow. On the way to Inloop I saw something rare and special. 3 Aardwolf. They are strictly nocturnal and very secretive and the first one I saw quickly ran across the road, with a youngster following slowly behind it, staring at me for a few seconds and then dasing off to find its mother. 6 kms down the road I saw another one, as i slowly reached for my camera I must of spooked it, as it ran off.



I found a nice deep spot and casted roughly 70 meters.

I had a single hook Vaal Dam trace with a single juana mielie and plain supercast bomb. A few odd movements on the bite indicator was all I got. I rebaited again at 2.03am and got a small run with no hook up.

Friday, 13th July, 2012

I was up at 6.15am, rebaited the same rod again (It will now be referred to as the right rod) and then i set up another rod with a double hook Vaal Dam trace. It was 6 degrees as I sat down to watch the sun come out. The Carp and Yellowfish activity was amazing, the whole area was full of fish breaching the surface.




The water level had dropped since my last visit here. There were a few bites between 6.40 and 11:15 am but nothing was happening. There was a lot of bird activity and recorded 37 different species during this period, including the massive Goliath Heron and beautiful Orange Throated Longclaw.




11.19am I had my first fish on the bank, it fought very well and went off on a screaming run and fought to the very end. It was a very fat fish and weighed 2.8kgs, the pic doesnt do it justice. It did open up a size 6 Owner hook which was suprising. It was about 60 meters from the bank where the cast was made, and bait used was plain supercast feed mixed with cream soda and a plain single mielie dipped in vanilla essence.




Sean and Gavin joined me as they were staying for the weekend and got a few fish averaging about a kilo. After I caught my second fish they started pulling out some good size Carp and Mudfish.



7.10pm After a loooooong wait I had my second fish on the bank and this time landing it was a lot easier with the help of the other guys. It was 3.1kgs, a beaut of a Common Carp. It was caught on the same feed as the previous fish and this time plain sweet dough dipped in vanilla essence on a Vaal Dam 2 hook trace with 2 size 12 Owner hooks and 9lb hook links did the job. After this I didnt have much action until i left early the following morning.

[Kumz]

  Nice one ... Dude u have to take me one day ....    ....

[Rory]

Super report and some nice fish Gareth! Good tick that longclaw 

[J-Rock]

Sounds like you guys had fun, despite the cold weather. 

[Lichia amia]

Nali report Bru !!!
 
   for braving the cold !

[WalkersKiller]

Thanks guys, was freeeeezing, Kumz come with next time bru...

[Kumz]

Thanks guys, was freeeeezing, Kumz come with next time bru...

   

[WalkersKiller]

Keep your eyes open for a report on Monday 

[WalkersKiller]

Went back to Inloop for Friday night with J-Rock. We left after work and arrived around 730pm. We quickly unpacked in the terrible weather, it was freezing and there were gale force winds blowing. We set up 2 Carp rods, 1 with sweet and banana dough and one with honey glow mielies. Plain supercast feed was used.

The first run was at about 8.30pm, the rod with the dough went away and JR hooked into a solid fish, it turned out to be his pb Common Carp of about 2.5kgs.



The rod was rebaited and 20 minutes later, I hooked into a solid fish, it would of thrashed my PB, I had never felt a Carp as heavy as this fish, but unfortunately the hook pulled quickly into the fight and I was bleak. All I could do was try again... Same story happened a few minutes later, it was a very small carp this time and the hook pulled just as I was getting it close to the bank.

The wind then picked up and the fish went off the bite until about 1am, where I managed to get 3 fish in 45 minutes: A Common Carp of about 700grams, a 1kg Mudfish and my PB Common Carp of 4kgs! I was stoked with this fish, it was more round that long and was really fat, it gave a good account of itself. I was so happy to finally break my 3.5kg mark which had stood for about a year and a half, many 3.2 and 3.3 kg Common Carp had been landed, but now I have a new PB 







In the morning our leaving was postponed due to the terrible weather, and I managed to land a small Mudfish and J-Rock got 3 good sized Mudfish. So we both finished up on 4 fish, not bad for a quick session, and they were all quality fish.







While this was happening Sean got a beautiful Grass Carp, the first Grass Carp we had caught at this specific spot...



Gavin in the mean time was caining the Carp with 4 and 5kg fish and he got these 2 monsters on sweet dough and egg yellow supercast feed. A Common of 7.1kgs and a Mirror of 8.2kgs, Gavins biggest Mirror Carp to date!!!!!!






WK 

[Kumz]

  ............ ...........Great catches !!!   

[Rory]

Awesome catches guys!! 

[WalkersKiller]

 

[Lichia amia]

  well done some good fish there !!!

[Zetti]

Well done G!

Do you ever stay home over weekends and relax or are you against that?

[shagnrelease]

Nice stuff, lekker cold however!!

[WalkersKiller]

Very cold!

Adolf, it is strongly against my beliefs 

[Naruto]

Great stuff WK! I am of to a place called Apiesdeel close to Christiana this weekend. Hoping to get some decent barbel in the river....

[WalkersKiller]

Nice, tight lines bru!

[WalkersKiller]

Friday April 5th 2013

So we were originally scheduled to drive through to Inloop, but that area is under new management and unfortunately no fishing is permitted for the time being. So we went through to Tago along the Vaal Dam, which is close to Inloop. I drove there with brandy and we met up with gavin erwin and Sean Bisset. They had already been there for a while and had caught some Barbel, Yellowfish and Carp.

I was keen to experiment with my new bomb which included: Vaal Dam Supercast (As the binder), peanuts, boiled hemp seed (700g), crushed unboiled hemp seed (300g), pineapple essence (10ml), 10 grams Koi Pellets, Peanuts (50g). I dont know if I did something wrong but it didnt work very effectively.

On Friday I only managed 4 fish, a small carp, a mudfish, a grass carp and a largemouth yellowfish. The other guys got good fish including some nice carp and a 13kg Barbel.

Brandon did very well with the carp0 landed good average sized fish, with a bite tempo of roughly 45 minutes (Average). We planned to fish through the night but about an hour after dark the carp went off the bite completely and the 5 degree weather wasnt very nice to fish in.
















Saturday 6th April 2013

I awoke early, around 6am and the fish were on the bite straight away, managed a few grass carp, smallmouth and largemouth yellowfish and a mudfish, still no carp and no size fish 

Brandon woke up and had a bite tempo of 20 minutes or so and was nailing awesome carp, Gavin was getting a fish on every throw as well and lost a monster of a fish on a bait he rowed out, potential PB for sure!

We ended up leaving at 3pm and it was a nice quick trip, the fishing at Tago has nothing on Inloop though and I hope it will be open very soon once more!









What Worked? Baits: Sweet Dough, Bunspice Floaties, Perdeby Mielies. Bomb: Vaal Dam Supercast. Trace: Vaal Dam. Casting Distance: 80-150 meters.

WK 

[Lichia amia]

Good fish there Walks , looks like you okes had a jol .
 
PS: Heard the Easter Bunny got spit braaied