Fly Fishing

Africa is a great fly fishing destination for traveling sportsmen and women. The well-developed infrastructure in South Africa makes it definitely your start-off destination to test your skills on some of the fascinating indigenous fish species that cruse its river courses and freshwater impoundments.

Our premier fly fishing destination for one of our most popular freshwater fish species, the small-mouth Yellowfish, is the mighty Orange River. Originating in the highlands of Lesotho, it is South Africa’s longest river that produces some of our best wild fly fishing opportunities.

Our chief destination is close to Vanderkloof dam, on the banks of the mighty Orange River. Pursuing the highly rated Small- and Largemouth Yellowfish as well as Barbel (Sharp-tooth Catfish) and Mudfish on fly. The Orange River is one of the best venues in South Africa to target our hard fighting, indigenous fish species on fly. Fishing will commence early morning, before sunrise, breaking for a late morning brunch and some siesta time before returning to the waters to fish the afternoon beat. Early mornings and late afternoons are most productive.

Apart from Mudfish, two of the most sought-after opportunistic fish species encountered on the Orange River are the Barbel and Largemouth Yellowfish. There could be no doubt that these are the apex predators in South African’s freshwater rivers. These fish are incredibly strong and can grow to weights of up to 40 pounds! It certainly is a worthy opponent on fly tackle and targeting them presents many challenges. Not many anglers have the perseverance to target these majestic fish and have regular success in doing so. We use the word perseverance because any “largemouth junkie” will tell you that if you want to be kept humble, target these fish. Most often what worked today won’t work tomorrow and you will need to cover a lot of water and make more casts than you care to count. If you do this and keep on doing it, maybe, just maybe that fish of a lifetime will end up at the end of your tippet!

For the serious angler, specifically targeting Largemouth Yellowfish, we fish our large freshwater impoundments off boats and rubberducks. Doing this improves your success exponentially and getting onto big fish are almost guaranteed.