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News

AGM 2006

Please be advised that the date for our Annual General Meeting for the year ended June 30, 2006, will be Saturday August 19. This year’s AGM will be held in Dullstroom – so everybody will be able to enjoy fishing on and around the AGM date.

Details as follows:
• Date – Saturday, August 19
• Time – 10.00am
• Venue – The Critchley Common Conference Room (at the gate of the Critchley Common Estate)

The AGM will be followed by light refreshments.

As the outgoing Chairman for 2005/06, I have indicated to the Committee that I would prefer not to to stand for re-election for 2006/07; therefore, the Committee would invite nominations from the members for the office of Chairman – please forward nominations for this or any other office, as well as apologies for non-attendance to the Secretary, Bruce Boshof. (theangler@dullstroom.net)

A planned club competition will be held on Saturday October 21. The event will be a social competition, with the emphasis on fun – but their will be prizes! Exact details will be advised later – for now, please diarise and take note that the event we will be for members and their guests.

Facilities

Dullstroom Flyfishers has come a long way in the past number of years to a stage where it no longer have control over or preferrential access to the two town dams in Dullstroom. Members will still be subsudised by the club to fish on the towns dams when they buy their tickets from 'The Village Angler' at the Poacher Centre.

DFF, however, has leased another dam some three km from town on private property where it manages an extensive strech of water for its own account. This dam is called the Janson's Dam.

The dam situated in the upper reaches of the Crocodile River, above the town dams, ensuring a consistent flow of unpolluted water. This water established itself as productive very soon, as can be seen in the article on a day's fishing on Janson's Dam.

In the words of club chairman, Allan Hatton: "..it has been made very clear to me that neither DFA or Oaklane will be awarded any agreement that gives them exclusivity or any other benefit on either the Upper or Lower Dam - the plan is to go public on the Lower Dam from September 1, 2005, at which point a new ticket structure will be introduced (including 1/2 day, daily, weekend, monthly and annual permits). This is probably in everybody's best interests and makes many of the issues that we have been wrestling with disappear overnight. .

"Next, the bailiffs (Sarah, Bongani and France) all now work full time at the Dams - two-shifting from 6am to 12noon and 12noon to 6pm. Again this is better for them and better for the fishing community in general.

"The Town Dams Committee will continue to function and they will be looking to the resident DFA Committee Members to support them in managing the fishery - principally myself, Bruce and Jan de Jager - we are all quite happy to help them in this way to maintain the excellent level of fishing that is currently being experienced. And it really is excellent - we have stocked some very large fish on both dams and they are in superb condition right now. I urge you to encourage our members and public anglers to give it a go!"

JANSONS DAM UPDATE

The DFA Committee has approved the following rules for fishing activities at Janson's Dam:
1. This is not a public fishery - fishing is for paid-up members only on a free of charge basis until further notice (Proposal to introduce rod fees under review by the Committee)
2. This is a fly fishing only water, using conventional fly fishing tackle - no spinning or bait fishing whatsoever
3. Members may fish with one guest (per member, who must be present at the Dam), so long as the guest has paid a daily rod fee to be determined at the Committee's discretion from time to time. (Presently this rod fee shall be paid to the Office Bearer at the Village Angler and shall be R60 per day until further notice).
4. Anglers will fish generally on a catch-and-release basis, subject to the following:
   • One fish per day may be taken for the pot - all other fish are to be returned to the water, even though they may be damaged or killed accidentally
   • Anglers are requested to observe reasonable catch and release limits (suggested 6 fish per day)
   • Fish are to be released carefully - preferably not to be removed from the water (see the attached guidelines)
5. Fishing is from half-hour before sunrise until half-hour after sunset
6. Float tubes (or any other non-powered, single person floatation device) are permitted subject to the following:
   • No more than 2 on the water at any given time
   • Enter and leave the water at least 20 meters from any bank angler
   • Tubers not to approach within 50 meters of any bank angler
   • No persons on the water under the age of 14
7. Anglers must treat the owner's land with care and respect, in particular:
   • Do not drive off the established road
   • The gate must be left locked at all times (A key is available from the Village Angler upon payment of a refundable R100 deposit)
   • Park only in the designated areas (No parking whatsoever on the dam wall)
   • No fires, other than in any designated area
   • No dogs without the owner's specific permission
   • Do not interfere with fauna or flora
   • Take all your litter home, including your cigarette stompies

A day's fishing on Janson's Dam

By Neil Champion

A couple of months ago, Jan de Jager and I took a mid-week visit to Jansons Dam. The weather? Typically Dullstroom - damp, misty, with a chilling breeze of the East Bank, we never saw the sun from early morning to about 11am and at times we couldn't see each other too well either!

The few fish that were showing were way out in deep water. I fished the outlet corner hard for the first hour or so - fishing deep and alternating between Zaks, Hare‘s Ears and a pheasant tail pattern designed by Arthur Cove, a leading English “nympher” in the '70's. These are all great little flies for prospecting when there are no obvious clues on feeding.

Further up the bank, Jan was working the shallows off the flooded grassland. For those of you that have fished with Jan, you will be well aware that each and every hooked fish is welcomed by a hearty cry of "Geromino" - and it was evident after an hour or so that he was doing something right - again. I persevered in my favourite corner - but after 5 or 6 "Gerominos", curiosity got the better of me and I headed off into the mist to establish what was going on.

What was going on appeared to be a small (size 10ish), leaded, dark-olive dragonfly nymph fished 15 to 20 metres out. All the dragons in my box were either much larger or of the floating variety, so I tied on a dark olive hairs ear, firmly of the opinion that how you fish 'em is far more important than what you fish. Well, after a few half-hearted plucks on my side and four or five more "Gerominos" on Jan's I eventually dropped my pride and demanded one of the seemingly successful flies from Jan's well stuffed box.

And what followed was a couple of hours of some of the most dazzling nymph fishing that I have enjoyed anywhere. The fish were feeding in around 2 metres of water and they were clearly locked into a dragonfly hatch in that particular area and in that particular area only - apart from the occasional "bump" in the water, nothing gave them away.

Occasionally, I switched flies, just to be sure, and there was no doubt - it was either dragons or nothing! To cut a long story short, we caught and released 29 fish between us in only a few hours fishing (Jan does keep count ) - we probably pricked, turned over or dropped another 12 to 15 fish at least.

All the fish caught were fat and in excellent condition including a few of the larger fish that were put in a few weeks before. And as I say - we never saw the sun. Late the same day, we returned to the same spot, with the same fly (me having spent a feverish hour or two at the vice!) and caught another dozen or so.

Even later, over a glass of wine, we did the maths - there are only 500 or so fish in that 5 hectare dam and we made contact with almost 60 of them on the same day in a 30 metre radius! But what's even more amazing is that we fished from early the very next morning - fishing hard all over the dam in bright sunny conditions - and got only one take between us!

Funny thing this fishing game - but what is clear is that we are going to enjoy some wonderful fishing at Jansons, especially when the insect chain is firmly established, and our fish are going to grow big quickly!

Objective

The objectives of the Dullstroom Flyfishers is to provide high quality flyfishing at an affordable price to all flyfishers who fish according to the rules and regulations of the Club.

Membership

Application forms for membership of the club are available to all those who are interested in flyfishing, subject to acceptance of the rules and regulations stipulated by the club. Prospective members need to be sponsored by two current members of the club. For more information on membership, contact Neil Champion on 011 636-4648