THE RAW EXCITEMENT THAT IS STERKFONTEIN DAM AND ITS YELLOWS
Jade dos Santos text and images
My old man taught me how to fish when I was in nappies, not with a fly rod at first, but eventually, like graduating, I got a rod. So whenever we get the chance to throw a line together it’s specia. We try to make trips annually, but really they could never happen often enough.
Sterkfontein embodies four main elements that excite me the most about South African fly-fishing. Dry fly surface action, sight fishing, terrestrials and our local pride, the yellowfish!
When my old man suggested we make the trip, it was sentimental many ways. We were fishing in my neck of the woods, using tactics I love, and we were going hunting for yellows, a species my father introduced me to. So instead of my old man taking me fishing, I felt I was taking him.
We managed to get a few days with famed Sterkies guide Dennis De Klerk, a legend in his own right, and made the 3.5 hour drive down to the Free State from Johannesburg.
As we drove up to the farm in scenery that is normally the preserve of the North Eastern Cape, I realised I felt very much at home in this environment, with its rolling green hills and poplars lining small slivers of fresh water that crisscrossed the countryside.
Dennis is a fantastic host and his wife a champion in the kitchen. The hospitality and access he provides is unparalleled. If you are in the area I recommend you give the man a call.
We spent the first evening huddled around a table on a typical old English veranda watching a thunderstorm roll across the horizon, talking tactics and tying beetles and hoppers.
I am a terrestrial’s fanatic, and I thought I came prepared, but the next few days proved locust-sized patterns are probably more apt than hoppers in a place as big and as grand as Sterkies.
The hoppers hereabouts are more like small birds than insects. I thought I came prepared with rows of size 12 - 10 hoppers. In the end I was tying them on size 6 wet fly hooks. The fish rely on that terrestrial source so much they have become specialist operators in acquiring them.
The tactics were simple enough; we would drift parallel to the shoreline casting flies onto the banks, or bouncing them off rocks, getting them to plop down in the water. Sounds simple enough? Yeah right.
The following morning we set off at gentlemanly hour. Yellows are not exactly morning fish like trout, which on the edge of winter is pleasant enough.
We hitched up Dennis’s custom Sterkies Drift boat and made the slow decent down to the huge expanse of turquoise blue water, cradled in the tall, green wild mountains of Sterkfontein .
We cruised the dam looking for lies, slowly drifting along the banks, spotting flashes of gold in the waves lapping the shore.
Fishing from a boat allows you certain advantages at Sterkies. You don’t spook as many fish, you stay out of spawning grounds and you cover a lot of water in a day.
The most daunting aspect about fishing for Sterkies yellows is learning not to strike on a pickup. You are putting out 15 metre casts, strictly no false casts. It’s the kind of fishing that demands high caution.
You bounce a size 10 beetle off a rock cliff and wait for a gold bar to slowly rise, smash the fly like its dammed, and burst off at high speed into deeper water. The adrenaline flows whether you hook up or not. Watching that gold slab lift through in deep contrast to the clarity of the light blue water is every dryfly guy’s nirvana.
It’s more like fresh water bone fishing than guys chasing carp on flats. You are drifting slowly along, engine off, and sight fishing to yellows cruising the shore in true bone fishing fashion. In fact Dennis and my old man set about making the first Sterkfontein flats pole one night, and it worked a charm.
'Don’t strike, don’t strike, don’t strike, on! Strike, Shit, it’s off." I had many of these moments. Dennis chuckled at me and laid on advice as only a rough-handed Sterkies guide can. Loud curses could be heard bouncing off the mountain walls.
The hard lesson here is to stay calm, to wait for your line to move with the fish, but you will be forgiven for making mistakes occasionally.
I occasionally got off the boat and walked the banks, where you can slowly stalk the edge, hiding behind tall thatch grass, making less them a metre cast over the grass to the waterline. It’s a strange thing casting so close, camouflaged only by the thatch and watching yellows swim right up to your eye line a metre away to smash the fly. It is intimate fishing to say the least.
In the three days we fished, I had a blank day, but that didn't matter. I had some good smashes and my old man got into a few good fish. On the last day, we were rewarded with a double hook up, always a great moment.
Sterkies is truly a special place. We caught many great fish and lost a ton more. Talk about a world class fisheries and I will tell you Sterkfontein is one of them without a doubt.
ACCOMMODATION AND GUIDING
Local guide Dennis de Klerk who has fished the dam since it was built, also provides rustic and homely accommodation for anglers in chalets, a rondavel and in the farmhouse, all 2.5 kilometres from the dam and 12 kms from the entrance. He has his own boat and slipway ‘right up where the yellowfish are’. The Sterkfontein dam is situated 1740 meters above sea level and is pristine and totally unpolluted.
There are two boats available: a rubber duck and a fiber glass boat with access to the entire dam. Maximum of 3 clients or 250 kg.
Food and refreshments are supplied. Tackle can be hired. There are large and smallmouth yellowfish.
Rustic, comfortable accommodation either self-catering or full board. There is a very nice little hotel 4 kms away. There is no Escom power, but solar power, gas, wind and wood work very well.
(1): Chalet with a double room, and room with 4 singles plus (2): rondawel with double bed. In house (3): double room plus (4): room with 4 singles. Rates pppd: R200 self-catering. Full board R350 includes: morning tea / coffee, rusks, jogurt, muesley, cereals: evening, braai or cooked meal, tea/ coffee, children under 10 half price, babies free. Boat R2000 pday (09h00 -17h00) for 2 , R2500 for 3 , includes food , cold drinks and guiding. Contact Dennis at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or on 0845814847.
GPS CORDS 28° 30’ 19.08”S ..29° 05’21.64”E
