THE MOLENAARS RIVER DU TOIT'S KLOOF WESTERN CAPE
From Sharland Urquhart
“I am sending you a few photographs I took of Tim Rolston with some lovely, largish very plump rainbows he caught on the Molenaars yesterday. Fish were not plentiful, but were really of a lovely size and put up a strong battle when caught. These are the largest river fish I have ever seen on a Cape stream. As you know it is a wide river with a huge amount of water to cover, but apparently it gets extremely hot in the summer months.”
Tom Sutcliffe replies and adds a few of his pictures of the Molenaars:
The Molenaars is a continuation of the Smalblaar River and has produced well conditioned trout over the years. In the high summer, the valley is more closely hemmed in by mountains than the Smalblaar itself and consequently gets a lot warmer than most.
Darryl Lampert playing a fish on the Molenaars
Note how the mountains hem the valley
Also, given the tightness of the topography, the wind is funnels and it can blow like mad here, often straight downstream. But it’s one of the widest and most spacious of the Cape streams and in its own way, one of the most beautiful.
Typical Molenaars water
With the extra space casting against the wind doesn’t present as many problems as it does on tighter streams.
The lower sections are widest, but higher upstream there is a lovely of quick, riffle and pocket water similar to what Tim was fishing in Sharland’s picture and where trout are more copious.
But generally there are better-sized trout on the Molenaars than on many other Cape streams.
In the lower sections there are a few large pools where fish can be spotted by climbing onto high surrounding rocky ledges.
(Tim Rolston is a local guide who knows and understands Cape streams better than most. See http://www.inkwaziflyfishing.co.za/)