Largemouth Yellowfish The Expert Approach: Part I

A fish of a thousand casts, it may take years to bag that trophy largemouth yellowfish on your own. In this series of articles, Field Editor MURRAY PEDDER gets the inside scoop when he talks to three experts in order to fast-track your path to success.

Whenever I hear an angler say, “I am going to target largemouth yellows,” my first question is: “Are you taking a guide with you?” If the answer is no, I immediately think the said angler obviously feels very lucky, or they are going to be using dynamite. As is the case with all fish, time on the water, trial and error and experience is what it takes to figure out how and when to successfully target any specific species. With largemouth yellows, it may not take weeks or months but rather years to eventually know what you are doing and why, and to start achieving a certain amount of success. I agree you can visit certain locations on the Orange and the many private venues or secret spots that guides keep to themselves and get into some fish, but to successfully target trophy largies on the Vaal River takes a great deal of time on the water, experience and self-belief in what you are doing. Less luck and more skill sets the true largie fisherman apart from the casual wannabe like myself. In my opinion, if you can muster up a reasonable amount of success on the Vaal River, you can take largemouth yellows anywhere.