Gkhui Gkhui ‘Tidal’ River

The Orange river, forming the boundary between the Northern Cape and the Free State, is many miles from the ocean yet its flow fluctuates daily. While it appears to be tidal, this fluctuation is in fact man made. It is caused by the opening of hydro electric sluice gates at Vanderkloof dam upstream. The schedule of opening sluice gates depends upon Eskom’s needs at the time, and while it is usually predictable, it can be as erratic at times as the nation’s blackouts, so randomly produced by the same organisation.

On a recent trip to Gkhui Gkhui, a lovely little lodge situated on a farm around 70km downstream of Vanderkloof dam wall, we got to experience the effects of Eskom’s seemingly arbitrary operations. We were informed by Chris van der Post, who manages Gkhui Gkhui, that the fishing was best from first light until around 10am and then from 3.30pm till dark, due to the water levels being low enough over those periods. What neither Chris, nor we knew, was that Eskom had other plans that particular week.

We were surprised to wake up on our first morning and find that the water levels were actually higher than they had been the afternoon before. Higher water levels mean colder water, as the water that is let out through the sluices comes from deep and not the surface of the dam. The higher water also drives the river fish from their normal feeding positions into deeper holding spots, where they wait out the temporary flood. Most feeding activity comes to a halt under these conditions, and fishing can be very tough when the river is flooded.

We went fishing anyhow, but the bite was slow and despite plenty of effort and many casts, our results were sparse. We kept an eye on the water levels and noticed that they did drop, just not when they were expected to. This made planning our outings a little more hit and miss. We had three days to fish and caught some good quality smallmouth yellows on lure and fly and managed to land a few largemouth as well, though no trophy sized fish came out.

I was very impressed with the water and structure around Gkhui Gkhui. I could see the potential for good yellow fishing. Also the quality of guiding from Chris and Wian Fereira was top class and I could sense their frustration at the erratic flooding which was handicapping our efforts. The lodge also has a couple of excellent pontoon rafts to fish off, which we used for a couple of sessions, giving us access to some superb water and structure in the form of boulders, submerged timber, overhanging trees, weedbeds etc. Just the quality of the structure had me energised with excitement. This was definitely country that could produce some good fish.

We later found out that one of the turbines at Vanderkloof was not working, so instead of releasing water twice a day over two turbines, they were releasing water five times a day over one turbine. On the positive side they were making the expected amount of electricity. On the negative side they were emptying the dam much faster, as the same amount of water is released whether it is one or two turbines, and the fish downstream were getting confused with five ‘tides’ a day.

Despite this we landed some decent fish and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring a new piece of water. There was certainly enough potential to bring me back to Gkhui Gkhui, and I hope on my next visit that the ‘tides’ are back to their regular twice a day schedule, so that I can enjoy the full fishing experience of this beautiful, untouched piece of river.

 

Craig Thomassen
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