The quicker flooding meant the area couldn't be cleared properly before the reservoir filled up, resulting in structures such as an old road, telephone poles and the old farm house structure being flooded and remain in the reservoir till this day.
[1] Indigenous fish species in the dam include Sharptooth Catfish (clarias gariepinus), Orange River Mudfish (labeo capensis), Moggel (labeo umbratus), Banded Tilapia (tilapia sparrmanii), Southern Mouthbrooder ( pseudocrenilabrus philander), Three spot Barb (enteromius trimaculatus), Chubbyhead Barb (enteromius anoplus), Straight-fin Barb (enteromius paludinosus) and Smallmouth Yellowfish (labeobarbus aeneus) and species introduced include Common Carp (cyprinus carpio), Largemouth Bass (micropterus dolomieu), Swordtail (Xiphophorus hellerii) and Western Mosquitofish (gambusia affinis).
The dam is completely surrounded with reeds (Phragmites mauritianus) with the exception of 5 or 6 narrow openings only wide enough to launch a boat.
[4] The area surrounding the dam is typical Highveld grassland with scattered acacia trees (Vachellia karroo), commonly known as the Sweet thorn[5][circular reference] and Haak-en-steek (Acacia tortilis)[6][circular reference] The dam is surrounded by at least 7 karst springs of which only 2 have a permanent flow throughout the year, the others are false eyes, only flowing in summer after the rains.
As most anglers only target bass at the dam, the carp and catfish have grown to massive sizes.