Vaal River House – Vaal River – Apr 2018

We finally made it to Vaal River House on the Vaal River in Renovaal, a place we’ve been hoping to visit for a long time. It’s a beautiful free-standing self-catering house on the banks of the river. As a couple, it’s out of our price range but good friends of ours joined and made it possible.

riverhouse vaal river carp waiting game
Waiting for the next run, carp, barbel or yellowfish, anything please
Fishing

For a change, we had the best possible weather, windless and pleasant. But the fishing gods played a cruel joke on us by making sure the river would be flowing really fast after some heavy rains in the week. This made keeping your lines straight almost impossible. We resorted to casting quite shallow mostly and luckily in the river that’s still monster territory.

Initially only smaller fish came out. Carp, barbel, mudfish, and even small yellowfish were regularly caught. 

riverhouse vaal river small barbel
Small barbel were again regularly caught
riverhouse vaal river smallmouth yellowfish
A few little smallmouth yellowfish were also caught

With the house so close to the water night fishing was definitely on. And with a massive spotlight on the premises, it made life very comfortable. We even braaied by the water on both nights, because we could.

riverhouse vaal river barbel fishing
Nighttime fishing at Vaal River House for barbel was productive

As the weekend wore on the bigger fish started realizing there was food in the water and began making appearances. Our friends caught some huge barbel and carp, including a chaotic 15 minutes when they caught two 8kg barbel at the same time.

We also managed to land a few nice fish. Here are some examples.

riverhouse vaal river big carp
At least Martin managed to land a nice big carp
riverhouse vaal river big barbel
This barbel put up quite the fight

All in all another great Vaal River fishing experience at an ideal section of the river. I’m sure if the river wasn’t flowing so fast we would have had even more luck. But I’m not complaining, lest the fishing gods should hear me 🙂

Tip: If you should find yourself fishing in the Vaal or any river which is flowing faster than normal here are some (very obvious) tips to help keep your lines straight –

  • cast shallower – you really don’t need to go that deep in the Vaal anyway, there’s no point casting to the opposite bank, and when the river is flowing fast the more line in the water the more drag on your bait
  • keep your lines high – same reason as above, more line in the water more drag, this is sometimes not possible if surface debris keeps washing down too and snags on your line
  • heavier rig – another obvious tip
  • use only one hook – taking off the second hook helps to avoid snags when your rig is washed into underwater structure
  • cast with the flow – this is mostly not possible, but if you can try to cast downriver to once again lessen the drag, this gives your lines the best chance of staying straight
Accommodation

The house was great. There are two large bedrooms with a bathroom in between and a shower with a view of the river. Two lounge areas, a nice kitchen, and a huge deck area overlooking the terraced lawns to the water. You won’t easily find so much space anywhere else.

riverhouse vaal river inside view
View of Vaal River House from bedrooms
Vaal River House vaal river front view
Front view of Vaal River House from the river

There are proper metal stairs down to the water where a willow tree provides shade. And as mentioned at night there is a floodlight that lights up the whole fishing area.

riverhouse vaal river stairs
Stairs down to bottom fishing area
riverhouse vaal river view of fishing area
View of terraced fishing area from wooden deck

It truly is one of the most comfortable fishing accommodations we’ve been to on the Vaal River, you almost feel guilty to be staying there.

Summary

Great fishing despite the river flow which was unlucky. This is a really wide part of the river with massive fish. The accommodation was first class, you won’t get much better. 

 

Check out the little tip section above on what to do in a fast flowing river. But in terms of fishing here goes:
Carp: banlic and tcp floats
Barbel: also took the floats but especially liked chicken livers

(2 days)

carp x3 (large)
carp x8 (small\medium)
barbel x5 (large)
barbel x8 (small)
yellowfish x5 (small)

 

This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. George Kapp

    Good Day

    I would like to get a pricelist for this fishing spot so that I can plan my next fishing trip

  2. Ruan

    Hey, So I’m going to fish this spot in April with the family, just want to know what was the distance you fished. Thanks for the website on vaalriver venues was searching a while for place to go thats looks decent enough for wife and kids to take with.

  3. Jacques

    Howdy all – does this venue still exist? I cannot find any details on the web and the link also does not work?
    Any numbers or contact emails I can try?

    Regards
    JV

    1. Martin Ferreira

      Hi Jacques, we’ll have a look for you. It should still be available as far as w know…

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