18/04/2026
The Jan du Toits: A River You Have to Earn
Some places you plan for. Others you wait for.
The Jan du Toits Kloof — the JDTs, as it is known to those fortunate enough to have fished it — runs deep in the Boland mountains outside Wellington, protected on all sides by Cape Nature and managed by the Cape Piscatorial Society. The CPS holds a special access arrangement with Cape Nature and the Mountain Club of South Africa, but the number of permits issued each season is severely limited, and the only way to obtain one is to win the annual lottery. Members enter a draw held each July or August. There is no other way in. No amount of knowing the right people, phoning the right office, or arriving at the trailhead with good intentions will get you there. You enter, you wait, and if your name comes out of the draw, you go. When my number came up, I understood what it meant.
April. The last weeks of the South African trout season. The fish are in their best condition of the year — deep-bellied, strong, coloured up after months of feeding through summer. The Cape mountains are beginning to turn. There are rivers in the Western Cape you can book on a Tuesday afternoon, ...
