Day 5 of the Ladies Fly Fishing World Championships kicks off in classic competition style: a 5am wake-up, gear check, a below-average coffee, and a bagel that barely qualifies as breakfast. We shuffle into the hotel lobby, meet our group, and pile into the minibus—quiet, focused, and buzzing with last-day nerves and excitement.
Waiting for the Winter Trout to turn on, means biding your time until the water temperatures tell them to. As soon as it dips below that 12 degree mark, it should properly trigger their urge to spawn, with Hens looking for running water at inlets (a rare feature in Natal Winters), and, or shallow water in which instinct dictates they should focus on finding suitable habitat to shed their eggs. These excretions will send any cock fish into a fighting frenzy, but even without this water bound aroma, at this…
I believe all us social anglers suffer the same contradiction. When emerging off the water victorious, we bestow our wisdom with great gusto, confident that we’ve cracked the code, yet when the fish do give us the middle fin, we have a littany of ‘rational’ excuses as to why they aren’t co-operating. No where is this more apparent than at the TOPS Corporate Challenge, largely due to the fact that when celebrating the catches, loose lips are quick to dispense pearls. There are many legitimate reasons as to why Trout…
At one stage, I thought the second coming of Noah was at hand. We’ve barely seen a blue sky these last few months, the consequence being that in WildFly country we’ve yet to enjoy the Brown Trout season. The rest of SA seems to have suffered a similar fate in terms of torrential, turbid rivers. It does bode well for an action packed May though, despite giving only a small window in which to walk the Mooi river catchment. We’ve had far too much time to contemplate how we…
Picking the right time to throw a line is always a dilemma, not just because of the small windows we have in our busy lives, but more that the inclement forecast is when we choose to take the gap, which we all know, can change at a moments notice. Water flows and a dropping temperature are what herald the start of our Trout Season and autumn is unquestionably when our still waters start to perform, but us fly fishers and Trout have one thing in common, we’re both a fussy…
956 Trout was the final tally for the qualifying legs of the TOPS Corporate Challenge, giving entrants from all around South Africa plenty to celebrate. The 3rd Leg of TCC was one for it’s history books, with the enthusiasts attending who had never caught a fish before, nearly outnumbering the returning faithful, a testament to it’s reputation for festivities. As you’re reminded of at every gathering, this event has far less to do with fishing than it does for the time spent rekindling great stories with old friends and making…
There’s always a little trepidation before the official start to the Trout season. With the waters having been rested over the heat of Summer you are never 100% sure of how the Trout have faired or if they’ll react to your finest cast. Fortunately the 1st leg of the TOPS Corporate Challenge showcased what the WildFly waters have to offer and gave almost everyone cause to celebrate. As all who’ve enjoyed the festivities at the legendary Notties will attest to, these celebrations started well before anyone harrassed a fish. But…
The Fall, as it’s fondly referred to in the US, is my favourite time to test out new fly patterns. It’s those golden weeks before the leaves turn brown that the Trout feed freely and often languorously so. It all depends on the water temperature, but before their often aggressive spawning behavior, there’s a window in which a Trout’s focus is exclusively on the food chain and it’s a real buffet for the fish’s’ palate. Minnows and Platanna abound, as do many invertebrates. The hatches might not equal the slightly…
Everyone has Yellow Fever at the moment and when you see the quality of fish that Sterkies and select sections of the Vaal and Orange rivers are producing, you can understand why. But for me, it’s the start of Trout season that get’s my temperature spiking. Taking nothing away from the fighting qualities of our indigenous yellow fish species (which arguably can outstrip a Trout), there’s something just so majestic about a wild Brown gently sipping a dry off the surface and the speed at which a Rainbow attacks a…
