Verlorenkloof Estate- Where Fish Eagles Roam and The River Beckons

Revisiting old haunts, rekindling fond memories, TCFF’s editor PJ Jacobs finds himself at peace with the world in the company of an old friend. Photographs by Lizelle Jacobs

It was like meeting up with an old friend after many years. The river looked much like it did when I had last seen it. Although I fished a section further upstream more recently, this part of the river doesn’t get much traffic and if memory serves right, it’s close on two decades since I last walked its banks. A proud stream with its origins high up in the Steenkampsberg, the Crocodile River meanders down a valley so peaceful that the cries of the fish eagle can be startling.
During our visit in May this year, the river was on its best behaviour; crystal clear and sparkling like a dewdrop in the sun. I normally reserve my 3-wts for optimal conditions and couldn’t have asked for more – the cloudless sky a bright blue, with hardly a breath of wind and the air just warm enough to be comfortable. Up ahead in the riffle I saw a fin break the surface as a fish porpoised on something subsurface. I felt the familiar tug in the gut as anticipation set in, and with a forward flick and one back cast, my offering found its way to the current seam and waiting trout. I was smiling – as good as it gets, I thought.

If you care to listen, trout rivers talk to you. They are mysterious, placid at times, sometimes boisterous, with no two alike.

They are full of life, hiding secrets that we try to unravel – which we sometimes do and other times not – but they always have more to tell. They change with time, but their essence remains. They become like good friends as you get to know them better, welcoming you back after years of absence without prejudice, proud to present you the opportunity to appreciate again what they have to offer. To us fly fishers, this is a connection to the soul.

I used to fish the Crocodile a lot in the early years, but it’s been a while since I last gave it a proper dust-off. I was pleasantly surprised to find it much like when I first fell in love with it, bursting with life, in the pink of condition with little or no siltation or pollution, banks well managed and the river clearly happy. Not many rivers in this country can lay claim to that nowadays.

It was like nothing had changed, the years since my last visit simply washed away with the current bubbling over the rocks and pebbles of this delightful stream.

We were on Verlorenkloof Estate’s private stretch of river. They have been custodians of this section of the Crocodile since 1999, and finding the river in such great condition speaks volumes about how well they have cared for it. Verlorenkloof has a commendable history of promoting fly fishing in the Kwena Basin – more about that below – but lately they have refocused their efforts on maximising the stream’s potential, particularly in the lower sections that are not usually frequented by owners in the shareblock scheme.

The aim is to make this section more accessible to the public, and with some of their existing quality accommodation available for casual rental and the opportunity of fishing one of the top rivers in Mpumalanga, barely 2.5 hours from Gauteng, they are hitting a sweet spot.

About 10km is augmented by some of the river’s own brood stock, ensuring that it carries a good head of wild trout as well as trout that originated from the river. Preserving the genetic heritage built up over many decades makes perfect sense, as these fish have learnt to adapt to all conditions of the river over the years.

We sat down one morning over a cup of coffee to chat to Chris Venter, the estate’s sales and marketing manager, and Eric Johnson, Verlorenkloof owner and developer. Both are fly fishermen, keenly interested not only in preserving the fly fishing heritage of the river, but in keeping it as natural and healthy as possible. Their plans for the river and Verlorenkloof from a fly fishing perspective are exciting, and we could not help some of that enthusiasm rubbing off. It is people like them who not only help keep our pursuit alive, but who ensure that the environment benefits from it. We also spoke about the colourful history of trout fishing in the area, and Chris put together some interesting facts for us, which follows below.

A HISTORY OF TROUT IN THE AREA

The Crocodile River rises as a spring on the Steenkampsberg north of Dullstroom. After a lengthy meander through the highlands, the river tumbles spectacularly over the escarpment about 5km upstream of Verlorenkloof Estate. The river thus has an extensive high-rainfall catchment area, and in living memory has never been known to dry up.

It forms the boundary of Verlorenkloof over a distance of 10km, from where the land rises steeply through grassland and kloofs to the quartzite cliffs of the escarpment. The Crocodile has been home to a breeding population of rainbow trout since the early 1930s, when they were first introduced by the venerable FC Braun, a jeweller and watchmaker in Lydenburg at the time, who hatched eggs behind his shop in Voortrekker Street and drove out over weekends to establish trout in the surrounding rivers and dams.

During the 1960s, the erstwhile Transvaal Department of Nature Conservation established a state-of-the-art trout hatchery at Sterkspruit outside Lydenburg and so gave rise to the substantial angling industry on the escarpment.

In 1947, a Pretoria family bought a riverside property just upstream of what is now Verlorenkloof. Their fishing log for the river, kept meticulously since that date, shows a healthy, sustainable population of naturally spawning rainbow trout in the river, with recorded catches of many juveniles and of some exceptional adult brood fish over the years. The river was home to the Emfuleni fly fishing syndicate for 30 years prior to 2000, which saw the establishment of Verlorenkloof, a shareblock estate that has become the country home for many Gauteng families, some now in their third generation. Over the years, the Crocodile River in the Kwena Basin built up a fine angling reputation, and hosted several competitive angling events until 2015, when stocking was terminated as a result of the countrywide drought of that year, and the permit issues with the authorities at the time.

A STORY OF SURVIVAL

When the river recovered in 2017, Eric Johnson was surprised to find that the exceptionally hardy trout that had survived the harsh conditions of the drought had produced a brood of wild fingerlings in the previous winter season. And so, the Verlorenkloof Wild River Fish Project was conceived. The project was based on the theory that a population of trout that have been naturally selected to be more resistant to temperature stress will be more sustainable in a warming climate. In August 2019, ten brood fish were caught in the river by a group of expert anglers and entrusted to neighbouring Lunsklip Fisheries, who raised and took care of the brood stock, stripped and fertilised the eggs, and bred a batch of fingerlings in the winter of 2020. Early in May 2021, the river was stocked with 375 of the wild fish bred by Lunsklip.

This meant the river now essentially had new stock of wild trout. Since the release of these trout, the river fishing has recovered wonderfully as the new fish adapted to the natural environment. They seem to have rejuvenated the wild trout that remained in the river as they compete for habitat.

A year later, in early May 2022, a second stocking of wild trout took place to bolster the population in the river. This time, 110 palm-sized fish, bred similarly by Lunsklip from wild stock in the Spekboom, were released in the river. The nickname Spekboom Red was given to these trout because of their beautiful pinkish-red hue. The Crocodile River at Verlorenkloof and further upstream to the escarpment remains largely unspoilt by agricultural activity and development, and is a resource to be treasured and nurtured.

ACCOMMODATION AND ACTIVITIES

Accommodation at Verlorenkloof is upmarket and comfortable. Crofts are cleverly positioned to provide privacy and a feeling of seclusion, almost like you are the only people around. They are fully equipped for self-catering, but Verlorenkloof’s Foodspace Restaurant and Coffee Shop at the main/administrative building offer a variety of mouth-watering meals at very reasonable prices if you do not want to do your own cooking.

You can even arrange to have a picnic lunch packed to enjoy next to the river or at one of the stillwaters.

The development is a working farm totalling 1600ha, and also offers a 42km network of professionally laid out trails into the kloofs and around the property, as well as other activities such as horse riding, mountain bike trails, birding, botany and archaeology sites. Full details of these can be obtained on their website.

Lest I forget, there are also seven dams of varying sizes, and we found them to be well stocked with rainbow trout.

VERLORENKLOOF YOUTH FLY FISHING TRAINING PROGRAMME

Verlorenkloof has a long-standing commitment to involvement in development and support of the local community, and in particular the youth. Part of this commitment is the Youth Fly Fishing Training Programme, where they train local young men and women in the art of fly fishing, the aim being to provide them with the necessary skills to ultimately become fishing guides at Verlorenkloof. The programme runs over four weekends throughout the year, and is conducted under the auspices of the Gauteng North Fly Fishing Association (GNFFA), led by Chris Tough and other competitive fly fishermen and women from the GNFFA. The programme focuses on almost all aspects of fly fishing, from basic casting techniques and line handling to knots, stillwater tactics, equipment, entomology and fly-tying. It is especially exciting to see the look on the faces of those students who manage to land their first fish on a fly they tied themselves. Throughout the programme, established guides also join in to assist the coaches, and in so doing are upskilled during a session tailored especially to them, called “Teach the Teacher”. They also benefit from discussions on the basic principles of guiding and teaching fly fishing.

More details about the fishing, accommodation and/or how to get permanent ownership can be obtained by emailing us at chris@verlorenkloof.co.za or by phoning us at 082 568 8881.