This series of articles will help you find trout in South African stillwaters by discussing a four-step approach: finding the fish, the depth, the retrieve, and the fly. After this series, we will also focus on a detailed series on where to find trout stillwaters in each province of South Africa.

Choosing a Fly Fishing Stillwater Venue

Finding fish is the first step of a successful stillwater fly fishing day or weekend trip. This step starts before you even arrive at the venue. Doing adequate research on a venue will save you time and money.

Research can be done in various ways, and we would recommend the following steps and tools:

• Calling venues and asking about their stocking policy (this will give you an indication of fish size), frequency of stocking, average depth and stillwater sizes, water levels, and current weed growth
• Check recent reviews of venues on platforms such as Facebook, Google, etc.
• Instagram’s tag and location function can also be handy to see if people recently visited the venue and caught fish
• Posting questions in fishing groups on Facebook, WhatsApp, etc. can also give you some good information
• Once you book a venue, Google Maps and Google Earth can be used to study the features of the stillwater as well as underwater structures that can sometimes be seen by using the timeline function on Google Earth
• You can use Google Earth to identify the following (example below):
  • The direction of the current in the dam (if it has an inflow and an outflow)
  • Structure (sunken trees, rocks, islands, high banks, sloping banks, dam wall type, weed beds, etc.)

What Should You Do When You Arrive at the Stillwater Venue?

The information gathered before you arrive will give you a good starting point. However, don’t jump straight into fishing. First, observe and read the stillwater from a vantage point, and look out for wind direction, structure and features, bird activity, and fish activity on the surface. We recommend taking a notebook or perhaps a printed map of the Google Earth image of the dam and making rough sketches of your observations, especially of structures and features.

Stillwater Structure and Features

You can expect the following structures and features in any stillwater:

• Inlets and outlets
• Channels and old riverbeds
• Weeds (watergrass), which can be broken down into:
  • Bankside weeds/vegetation (weeds in the margins and edges)
  • Floating weeds
  • Submerged weeds
• Trees, which can be broken down into:
  • Shoreline trees (which throw shade onto the water at certain times)
  • Submerged stumps, trees, and branches
• Shallows (submerged ridge, bank, bar)
• Boulders and/or boulder fields
• Cliffs/high banks
• Drop-offs
• Shoreline (don’t underestimate how close fish would cruise to the bank)
• Scum lines (formed by a prevailing wind or debris from the inflow from the dam)

Basic Needs of Stillwater Trout and Time of Year

Trout require a few basics to survive like food, safety from predators (including us humans), and comfortable water conditions (enough oxygen and not too high temperatures). Keeping these three components in mind gives you a good idea of why the above structures and features are important. Some structure types provide food, shelter, or oxygen, or sometimes all of them. Below, we have broken down a few points on the impact of the season.

Spring

Generally, this is the most productive season, with conditions constantly changing. During early spring, weed growth is still slow, and more permanent features such as drop-offs, channels, submerged rocks, and submerged trees, etc. are important. As weed beds form, trout start patrolling the edges of these submerged or floating structures.

The wind also plays a big role, and the windward bank (the bank the wind blows onto) will often hold fish close to the shore. Often on these banks, you will also find discoloured water formed by waves, and trout will feed in the zone between the cleaner and discoloured water. Scum lines often also form this time of the year, and you will find various insects trapped in the foam, which attract cruising trout.

Summer

During summer, water temperature and dissolved oxygen play a big role in our trout stillwaters due to the hot climate in South Africa. The time of day is important, and you can expect better fishing in shallower water during the early morning and late afternoon. During the middle part of the day, you can expect fish to seek shelter in deeper water, areas with flow and structure, and areas providing shade from the sun. Weedbeds will also be more prominent and provide plenty of larger food items.

Autumn

This is often a brief and popular time of the year to visit stillwaters. Temperatures start dropping, weed beds slowly die down (however, they still provide plenty of food), and you can expect fish to be more active throughout the day in shallower water than in summer.

Winter

From around mid-June to August, South African trout tend to get preoccupied with spawning, and this would normally mean that fish would try and find shallower gravel beds or inlets to attempt to spawn. Generally, weed beds would have mostly died by now, and other more permanent features like drop-offs and channels would become more important near spawning areas. These fish often focus on feeding on midge pupa closer to the bottom earlier during the morning or closer to the surface in the afternoon.

Sources and Recommended Reading

• Dennis, Nigel. 2004. Getaway Guide to Fly-fishing in South Africa. Sunbird Publishing. South Africa
• Riphagen, Dean. 2004. Stillwater Trout in South Africa. Struik Publishers. South Africa
• Sutcliffe, Tom. 2011. Hunting Trout Angles and Anecdotes of Trout Fishing. Freestone Press. South Africa
• Cordes, Ron & Kaufmann Randall. 1984. Lake Fishing with a Fly. Frank Amato Publications. USA