| Date of Report: Tuesday, 12th May 2026 |
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Name: Duane Howell Phone: 0832286707 Duane Howell of the Underberg Flyfishing Shop says there are only a few days left to fish the rivers available to the UHTFC. Due to foot-and-mouth disease, access has been limited to sections where landowners have given permission. The club has decided to close these waters on 15 May instead of at the end of the month, as water levels are dropping rapidly. Encouragingly, some good-sized fish have been caught recently which is something to look forward to on the reopening on 1 September. Fishing will now switch to the dams of which about 18 are managed by UHTFC. A month ago, only 4 were open because of FMD but the remainder are now slowly opening as most of the cattle, especially dairy have been vaccinated. Jack Avni at Giant’s Cup has also been delivering fish for stocking now as these deliveries were postponed because of the disease. He also said his water temperature in the dam had dropped quickly to 11°C over the last week because of the cold weather and high winds although the water may be slightly warmer in the dams at lower altitude. In addition, the Underberg area was much drier than the Kokstad area further south where they had had much more late rain. One can expect fish in the colder dams to be well into spawning mode and some of these dams may have inverted already.
The Umzimkulu in late May in Scotson’s Valley
An Underberg Dam, photo by Nina Ludwig. |
