Fly Fishing For The Clanwilliam Rock Catfish
Catching The Clanwilliam Rock Catfish On Fly
Clanwilliam Rock Catfish
The Clanwilliam Rock Catfish (Austroglanis gilli) is a freshwater fish species that belongs to a rare group of river rock catfish. There are only 3 species known to exist in this group that belongs to the Genus of Austroglanis… The Clanwilliam Rock Catfish is endemic to the Western Cape in South Africa, and can be found in the Clanwilliam and Olifants river systems, and their neighbouring tributaries and streams. They are a vulnerable fish species and are not very common, although occasionally caught accidentally by fly fishermen seeking out other rare fish on fly such as the Clanwilliam Yellowfish or Clanwilliam Sawfin.
The Clanwilliam Rock Catfish is the cousin of the Common Rock Catfish that is caught around the rest of the Country on fly in the bigger river systems. In Afrikaans this group of fish are called Klipbarber… Meaning Rock Catfish (Direct translation).
More Information On The Clanwilliam Rock Catfish
The Clanwilliam Rock Catfish is a vulnerable species and stream channeling, damming, water extraction, sedimentation of the rivers are the main problems. Predation from Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass and Spotted Bass are also a huge problem that threaten this species.
The Clanwilliam Rock Catfish feeds at night and is primarily nocturnal, although it will feed during the daylight hours preying opportunistically on insects, caddis larvae, mayflies, crustaceans and other invertebrates that get too close to the rocks where they take cover.
The Clanwilliam Rock Catfish can grow up to 20 centimeters in length.
How To Fly Fish For Clanwilliam Rock Catfish?
The Clanwilliam Rock Catfish is hard to target on fly, but can be caught as a by-catch when targeting other species within it’s range. You can scale down to a 4 weight when targeting these fish, but the general target species found with the Clanwilliam Rock Catfish require a 5 to 7 weight outfit. This species of Rock Catfish will take similar flies used for Barbel (But much, much smaller) and general Yellowfish flies.
The best flies to use for the Clanwilliam Rock Catfish can be seen listed below:
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