Vaal Dam Carp Fishing "The Nursery School"

[WalkersKiller]

So myself and Gavin Erwin drove to the Vaal Dam on Friday afternoon after work. We intended to fish a different spot this time, the place was next door to Island Shores (UJ).  We arrived there about 17.20, 91kms from Edenvale. The place was beautiful, besides the fact that it had been vandalized and was completely run down. Thjis are must of had about 3kms of shoreline to choose from. We picked a spot and setup camp. We then set up our Carp rods. A few minutes later we were both ontop our first fish. I landed a Smallmouth Yellowfish and Gavin got a nice little Mirror Carp. A good start. We then rowed out our Barbel rods and waited. Throughout the night up until about 1am when we went to sleep, we continued to land juvenile fish in superb condition. We did go to this venue expecting big Carp but we had so much fun catching the juveniles. It just shows you that these large specimens we as freshwater anglers like to target have to start off somewhere. We had a long conversation about this and about how many anglers would get angry or neglect the fact that the fish they were catching were too small. Its a shame some people think this way and take it for granted.









Saturday morning I was up and quickly landed a few Mudfish. Then we were onto the fish. We were delighted to see such a healthy population of Yellowfish and juvenile Carp, as well as Mudfish. My favourite catch of the weekend was actually a Mudfish that barely covered the palm of my hand, an absolute beauty! I got a very nice little Ghost Carp which still had a bit of pigment on his scales. It was lovely to be out in this natural environment with birds and insects all around us. The bank eventually got quite full during the day but many anglers left before dark. Gavin caught a beautiful Smallmouth Yellowfish and an awesome Mudfish, and we continued to catch and release the 'nursery fish' throughout the day. Then, just after we had had an awesome chicken and wors wood braai, Gavins Barbel rod ran, FINALLY, after giving a good account of itself he was landed a lovely +/- 5kg fish. We caught a few more fish after this and called it a night.



































We woke up the next morning with a target in mind before we went home, 100 fish. We started off Sunday morning on 46. We were in the zone and we were catching Yellow after Yellow with a Mudfish and Carp every now and then. Gavin then had the genious idea of rather wading out and fishing light tackle in the deep water with just a normal bottom trace. We had great fun fighting the Muddies, Yellows and Carp here... Then we went back to the bank after some good fun and when our mielie bomb finally ran out we hit the 90 mark. 90 Fish in a weekend is pretty good fishing to me and all in all we were happy and had a great weekend!



























Total Fish - 90
Barbel - 1
Common Carp - 24
Ghost Carp - 1
Mirror Carp - 10
Mudfish - 11
Smallmouth Yellowfish - 43

The baits that produced were: Plain Sweet Dough, Almond Milies, Sweet Corn.
We were using a Vaal Dam mixed with Plain supercast mielie bomb.
Dips that were tried and successful: Tjop Tjop, Banana Essence, Almond "s"

Vaal Dam Carp Fishing - The Smaller Fish

WK - 

[Dominique]

Good going Walker    weeks ago we went to Deneysville for the weekend, the aim was to land some big boys... however we too were catching so many Juveniles. it was amazing to see that they were so active and took on anything you put out. I would imagine its a good sign that the vaal is a good breading ground. This should make future    Good.

[WalkersKiller]

Thanks Dominique, those are my thoughts exactly. With alot of other bodies of water being overfished and poisoned this was great to see 

[Lichia amia]

Nice report Walks
 
 
 
Fished Rus n Bietjie on Friday and pretty much the same story . Between my Mate and myself we landed 40 odd baby Carp in the under 1kg range.  Was wondering if it was the norm this time of the year ? 
 

[WalkersKiller]

Nice Lichia, yeah I think the Carp are starting to spawn in certain areas of the Vaal already...

[Naruto]

Seems they have spawned already by the looks of those small ones...

Thanks for the report Gareth! Fish like you guys did this weekend doesn't happen too often and its always nice to think back and reflect on what you guys did right to get the fish on the bite and to land them.

 :shre:

[WalkersKiller]

Its a possibility  I know it was lots of fun and very satisfying 

[Manuel Junior]

Nice report!!! WK
 

[WalkersKiller]

Thanks MJ 

[FLOPPY]

Looks like it was a fun weekend, Shot guys !!

[WalkersKiller]

It was Floppy! 

[azcoza]

Hello are there ablution facilities at this venue, is this place directly next to UJ Island Shores also is it a safe venue

[WalkersKiller]

Hello are there ablution facilities at this venue, is this place directly next to UJ Island Shores also is it a safe venue

Hi there,

Yes this is the place next to UJ, its actually part of Island Shores, a section that hasnt been closed. It is very run down, the ablutions are there but not maintained and sometimes are locked and it is fairly safe, wouldnt go there by myself though.

[Debbie]

Great report back .... love the photos 

[WalkersKiller]

Thanks Debbie