Large catfish caught in Vaal Dam in the middle of winter.

This past Saturday (18 June) I went to the Vaal dam to catch catfish. That’s right the VAAL DAM in the middle of winter.

Armed with my BBB (Babich barbel bugger) an 8/9-wt rod and float tube I went in search of the elusive winter catfish. It was a perfect day with very little to no wind. I paddled out into the middle of a bay at which stage the wind die down completely, I became aware that there was catfish all around me, one swam into my flipper giving me the feeling that I was going to be toppled over into the icy cold water. It was a little after midday and the fish were still in the deep water sitting in the thermo clines, because they were neither on the surface nor on the bottom, otherwise I would have caught at least one.

The calm conditions only lasted a few minutes before a gentle breeze started and the catfish became undetectable again.

I paddled around for a few more hours before I noticed any other signs of fish. I found a few fish in the back of a shallow bay. I could see a small disturbance about 2m away from the bank, barely noticeable, almost like small air bubbles rising to the surface. I put out a few casts, had a few slight knocks. I was not sure what type of fish they might be. I added a #8 woolly bugger to my BBB (New Zealand style) and was rewarded almost immediately with my first June Vaal Dam catfish of about 2.5kg. My theory that catfish can be caught anywhere in winter had just become a bigger reality, the Vaal Dam has to be one of the more difficult of winter venues.


Anyway I went on to catch another 5 fish within a short time period. I had found the school sitting right next to the bank, I would catch or miss a strike and I would have to move each time because the fish scared very easily in the shallow water. At this stage I was wading thought the water and had just scared a couple of fish. In frustration of my blunder I stood still waiting for the fish to show themselves again when I notice a small break on the surface, so I cast in that direction, placing the fly gently on the water about 5m away from me. Nothing! Casting again, nothing so I was going to cast again and as I was pulling my fly out of the water I made contact with a fish. It often happen that when pulling a fly out of the water to cast again you foul hook a fish and these fight like monsters.


So now I had hooked into a steam train that happily took more than 100m of backing off my SHILTON reel. My reel was looking empty when I decided to give chase; I slowly, very slowly gained a little line just to have it all taken back again. Every time this fish came near to another fish it would fire up its engines and speed off again. This battle took the best part of 30 min with the fish coming to the surface every so often, looking more and more like a foul hooked fish. I eventually managed to get close to the fish and was contemplating pulling the hook because I could not lift the fish, and  he was foul hooked and that doesn’t count for anything. The fished just turned a sped away again, taking me into the backing, again. As he had turned speed off again I notice two swirls, one would have to be his tail and the other his head. They seamed to be fairly far apart? Maybe this was a big fish? So I decided to take the bull by the horns and play the fish some more. All in all I reckon I was busy for about 45min before I pulled the fish into the shallows for the first time, lip landed it. This was a good fish possible my biggest winter catfish and after all he was hooked in the mouth, so I decided out of madness to take it back to be weighed.

Madness? My float tube was about 4km away. I slipped my rod into my waders, through the fish over my shoulder and asked my sanity no questions. By the time I reached my v-boat this fish was just short of about 50kg. Full of slime with legs burning. The actions of a mad man? I through my tube over a fence climbed through it, and thought if I don’t take a picture now then it will soon be to dark to do so.

I placed the fish on the tube, took a couple of happy snaps and put the fish in a bag so that I could get one of the club guys fishing a competition to weigh it. I was just about to go, when the local farmer and his backup approached me. In Afrikaans he asked. ”were do you come from? How did you get here?” still out of breath I pointed into the distance and replied that I had caught this fish over there, and that I had wadded and used my float tube to get here. In disbelief he asked again how did I get here, I just said I had caught this fish in the bay and carried it all this way so that I could get it weighed before putting it back. The farmer looked across the bay and said that that was also his farm and he thought that I was hunting on his land. I shook my head and replied that I would not do that and that I had come from that farm in the distance, pointing to my car, which was still a speck in the distance. The farmer out of frustration because he just was not getting a straight answer out of me, checked my bag and said ‘ Dit is 'n groot vis” and left.

He then followed me as I towed my tube with fish for about 1km before he disappeared. I wadded through the water for about 1.5km before getting onto my tube to paddle the last 1km or so. Whilst putting my flippers on I broke a strap. …t. What now? I lay on my belly over the tube and began to paddle with one flipper. Don’t let anyone tell you that this is easy. It is madness.

It was dark by the time I reached the car. I threw everything in, including myself who, at this point, didn't even have the energy to take the neoprene waders and booties off. I found the chairman and records offices of the Boksburg angling club who weighed the fish on an electronic scale for me. The one gentle men said, “It’s about 12kg” I replied, “It’s about 12kg to 20kg”. We placed the fish into the crate on the scale and it’s head filled the crate up, we doubled the fish over to fit it in.18.280kg. I released the fish and went home.

So catfish fishing in winter is not a myth it’s a good time.

Terry Babich