The Complete Fly Fisherman – August-September 2019

F

ive kilometres from Dullstroom,

if you look to your right down the

valley, you will see two dams

in the distance. These are just

two of the seven dams that are on offer

at Driehoek Farm, and that’s without

mentioning the section of river that

flows through the 560ha property. So, on

assignment to review this venue, we were

pretty excited at the prospects. Turns

out, Driehoek has been around since the

early 1940s and one can only believe that

it is just as beautiful now as it was back

then. Entering the farm it is immediately

apparent that it is well managed just by

how good the roads are throughout,

which is thanks to the hard work put in

by farm manager Bruce Boshoff and his

team. We were lucky enough to be given

the opportunity to stay at one of the three

houses at Driehoek, ours being called

Driehoek as well.

THE FISHING

With seven dams to choose from and

5km of the Crocodile River there is

enough water to keep you busy for days

on end, the dams being especially well

stocked with quality brown and rainbow

trout. On our first day we were like kids

in a candy store and wanted to fish as

much water as possible. We started at

Loch Fillan, the biggest dam, and were

into some excellent fish almost immedi-

ately, nothing under a kilo and in fin-

perfect condition. Making our way down

the valley, fishing dam after dam, we were

like trout rising to a midge hatch. Each

dam produced beautiful, strong-fighting

fish, and we soon came to the conclusion

that there weren’t actually small fish in

the dams as they just seemed to get bigger

and bigger. The stocking system that has

been put in place is one all farm owners

should take note of: 2855 fish were

stocked between March and April 2018

with a release rate of 80% fish caught.

Strict catch report records are kept,

which makes control of stocking and fish

numbers a lot easier, and, of course,

assures an excellent fishing experience.

These dams have everything a fish

needs to grow to great size. Deep holes

with towering weedbeds teem with drag-

ons, damsels and midges, so it did not

surprise us to hear that the current farm

record is sitting at just over 12lb. On the

first evening, we experienced a big midge

hatch and found fish inhaling the midges

just below the surface. Big fish boiling

everywhere can test one’s fly fishing skills

and patience to the extreme as the fish

lock on to these midges and will not even

think of eating anything else. After much

frothing on the water, I finally managed a

nice fish on a midge imitation while my

48 | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 | TCFF

DESTINATION

Driehoek Farm

TCFFcracks an invite to an exclusive trout venue in Mpumalanga

that has a reputation for producing big fish.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DYLAN ISAACS & CORRIE RAUCH