Windknot
Fishing in Potchefstroom

Then in 1997 under the chairmanship of Harvey Venter the first “Bells FOSAF/Windknot Yellowfish Exposition” was held at the Elgro River Lodge in the Vredefort Dome.

In Vanderkloof Dam, largemouths have found one of it’s last safe heavens. Mr. Fouche says that one of the main reasons given for the planned netting is the high numbers of smallmouth yellowfish, the cousin of the largemouth yellowfish also found in the dam. So it will be interesting to see if we can get them in the shallows in winter. Right there and then Herman suggested that we visit the dam the next week. After about 45 minutes of looking for fish we decided it was time to explore the dam a bit further. We can see the fish cruising, we are casting to these pieces of gold, but they showed no interest in us or our flies. We spend close to and hour still looking for the fish and gave up after a while heading back to where we launched. The wind was pumping every now and then, and as we went back we found fish in the sheltered water, at one point spotting a school of fish we estimate to be close to a 100 strong. It was difficult finding the fish, but we learned a lot and enjoyed the day on the water. It was the beginning of the long awaited trip to Vanderkloof Dam. Considering that it was our first visit to this venue, we did quite well on the first day as everyone caught some fish. The next day was disappointing for most of us as the fish were nowhere to be found. We tried every fly, every good looking spot, various depths and retrieves, but the fish were gone! He hooked a big fish and wanted us to assist him as he would not be able to net the fish on his own. We immediately lifted anchor and after about 20 minutes we saw Jeremy in the middle of the lake! That evening everyone was talking about the big fish. For at least some of us Vanderkloof will always be the place to go to if you want to catch big fish. On arrival and whilst setting up our camp site it was apparent that the visibility was very good in the area immediately adjacent to the Camp which is situated about 16km from the inflow area and 4km from the Gorge. Although it rained incessantly every night for three days and the Pongola was flowing strongly and chocolate brown the whole dam was still in a fishable state although some areas were cloudy we actually caught more quality fish in these areas than others. The weather improved over the following few days and we continued to take a lot of smaller fish up to 1.5 kg’ every day with some days throwing in some nice bonuses with 2kg fish and also a 3kg and a 3.6kg fish for Tinus. All in all this trip exceeded expectations for this time of year. The group camped on the banks of the dam and all in all a very enjoyable weekend with Agostino once again showing off his special culinary skills. We fished hard for 8 solid days, every day a different one presenting its own unique opportunities and challenges. Big Batfish are also everywhere and we will work on flies and strategy to target them next time.