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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
Good Day
I would like to get a pricelist for this fishing spot so that I can plan my next fishing trip
Hi George,
Sorry for the late reply, we were away fishing again 🙂
We paid around R1050 per night at The Riverhouse, that’s for the whole place. We were 4 so it was a really good deal considering what you get.
We dealt with Laura but unfortunately I don’t have her number. Try contact them on SafariNow with this link,
https://www.safarinow.com/go/the-riverhouse-renovaal-self-catering/
Let me know if you need any further info.
Regards
Linky
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.
Hi Ruan,
You chose a nice spot, it’s as decent as Vaal River fishing spots get, really nice and fancy. The rooms are also perfect for a small family. Kids might get a little bored though if the bite is slow 🙂
Honestly we fished at around 70m, which is almost halfway across the river. The Vaal is around 150m wide at The Riverhouse. If the river is flowing strongly (unlikely in April) we would fish even closer. For what it’s worth I think the river is deepest further away from The Riverhouse. But we got all our biggest fish at 70m.
Take a boat of some sort if you can, not for snags (almost zero snags there) just for a fun paddle up the river.
And you’re very welcome, we’re always very happy that someone finds the site useful, makes it all worth it!
Regards
Linky
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
Hi Jacques, we’ll have a look for you. It should still be available as far as w know…