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 warmer months, but there’s no shortage of adult insects flying around to tell you what to strap on.

Our still waters are dominated by float tubes / v-boats  and when fishing any decent sized dam, you can understand why. But many of us have adopted a lazy boy approach to this very distinct style of fly fishing, which at this time of year can be detrimental to one’s catch records. Finning around a dam at high speed might induce a reaction, but a more considered approach will net your more fish.

Trout hug the weedbeds for cover and ease of food access, and at this time of year, if you want to find the fish, find this, their pantry!

We tend to moan about weed in a dam far too much, as it interferes and irritates our clean retrieval, but we really should focus on spending more time in and around this habitat, especially in Autumn.

An effective strategy is to place yourself in the weedbed, literally, and make sure you’re in casting distance of the holes or channels. You ideally want a floating or hover line, so you can control the retrieve and be presenting just your leader and flies into these zones. I like to have a tandem rig comprising of a slightly weighted larger profile fly followed by a weightless smaller pattern on point……be prepared for a take on the drop! If allowed to settle, the retrieve is a short / gentle one (you can also fish this static), but the key is to keep your fly in the zone longer.

Don’t give up on a hole too soon, try an alternative fly to your first choice on point before abandoning  where the fish should be holding,

The takes can be surprisingly subtle, you might actually think you’ve hooked some weed, in fact very often as I pull my fly out of a little weed snag does it induce a take.

One of the most productive habits to condition yourself to on every retrieve, is changing the trajectory of your fly, which is a simple piece of muscle memory. This is very effective on an intermediate or sinking line, as whatever your pattern, generally your fly is moving horizontally through the water column and by simply lifting your arm ( when you have about 5 meters of line left in the water, if you line doesn’t have a hang marker), you are pulling the fly vertically up. This triggers a response from any following fish, with strikes occurring as close as your flippers, so be prepared. It also obviously also works on a floating line, but with a weighted rig, you are working your flies vertically through the water column anyway.

Everyone has their go to rig, but you won’t go wrong on an imitative green or brown dragon, trailed by a delicate red eyed damsel…..it is after all the Year of the Dragon.

Take nothing away from a minnow variation fished in deeper water, but you have all day to do this and the satisfaction from finessing a fish from it’s comfort zone is hard to beat. So don’t be quick to rip and strip at pace in open water if your dam has a good deal of weed structure, fish the spaces in between and keep your fly in the water longer.

Here’s to the Trout chasing the dragon.

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 swinging streamer that never ceases impress. It’s horses for courses, with water temperature dictating terms, yet regardless of your species preference, to bastardise a phrase, the Trout will always come home to roost.

Typically here in the Natal Midlands, after the rivers have flushed and in the lower reaches burst their banks, the equilibrium of the current returns to a robust flow rate, allowing the larger Trout to leave the comfort of their pools and move confidently through the river course. The timing is everything and never an exact science, but if you’re fortunate, the increased water level is constant and will clear, no where near Gin, but a far more forgiving dirty Martini, providing the ideal conditions in which to convince those wise old Trout to come out and play.

These are water conditions you can fish throughout the day, just changing tactics as the sun moves across the horizon.

We all love to throw a dry, but at this time of year, it generally only delivers a consistent result at first light to moving fish, on a quick drift through structure or the insect hatch in the late afternoon / last light. Hoppers and Caddis remain my firm favourites and rarely disappoint in late Summer.

But if you resolve to spend more time fishing this year, it requires dedicating the whole day, leaving many hours in-between to fiddle with a bigger fly.

Sticking with a floating line for ease on control, my first-pick fly is this years’ namesake, the Dragon, which is one of the most versatile flies you can strap on. The more imitative the better and any colour as long as it’s green is my motto. It is a fly that can be fished on the fringes, drifted across any structure or simply laid to rest in the slow water. Not many trout refuse this meal and the Big Browns of the Natal Midlands resemble any addict in the way they chase the Dragon.

Despite all of these flies mimicking what you will see all around the river bank, I can’t help but resort to some Guerrilla tactics, just to keep busy during the inevitable slack periods. We all have those ugly, go-to streamers, that practically kick down the door of where a trout might be holding and for me there’s non better than the Bully Bugger! As crass in appearance as the name implies, it’s effect on River Trout in South Africa re-enacts the charge of the light brigade, with the same result, if it wasn’t for the fact that we release our fish. I’ve yet to throw this fly on any day and not elicit a chase or a solid take, but predictably not all with a happy ending.

For the time being I’m grateful the river Trout are firing in the freestone streams of the Berg, which I hope continues until their migration upstream to spawn. Fortunately that’s the automatic transition to the still water season and based on the 2355 Trout caught and released in WildFly country last year, we have a lot of Trout action to look forward to.

So make sure you spend more time Trout fishing in 2024, and with this being the ‘Year of the Dragon’, here’s wishing the fish find your fly.

It’s the one calendar entry that keeps any fly addict awake at night with excitement, a fly fishing epic that will potentially go down as the greatest adventure of your life! It starts with months of planning, hours on Google Maps, and researching the internet, and culminates in a weekend of festivities, with a bit of fishing thrown in the mix and a lifetime of memories to take home.

The difference between a good fishing trip and a legendary adventure teeters on the “wolfpack” you choose to run with. We all have our selected group of fishing mates but the ones who make a fishing expedition truly epic are cast in a certain mold.

 

The Researcher

Without him, there probably won’t be a trip, he’s the guy who spends more time on Google Earth than Rassie Erasmus does on Twitter. He starts tracking weather patterns 2 months ahead, and on the day of departure will hand out a travel kit that includes, a full trip itinerary with a time schedule, hand-drawn detailed maps of the water that will be fished, a blank catch logbook, and number 2 pencil.

A vital part of the team “The Researcher” makes sure no unexpected, unpleasant surprises pop up.

The chances of him catching the biggest fish of the trip…? very good, he knows which flies work where and which areas will be most productive. If he spends this much time planning a single trip you can bet his fishing skills have been refined and tailored with the same amount of effort.

Gadget Boy

The name says it all… No situation arises that he can’t handle with a piece of technology. Gadget Boy has the latest and greatest tackle and apparel, his boots and waders look like they were designed by NASA and even though the lodge you are staying at is fully equipped, he brings along a complete pop-up dining set and compact kitchen just to make sure. On the water, he looks like a walking talking Icast tackle trade show, and whatever you do don’t ask him about the fishing apps he has on his phone.

If you do forget something at home or even break a rod on the trip, “Gadget Boy” has got your back.

Don’t worry about him catching the biggest fish of the trip, he’s usually preoccupied with his toys.

Bear Grylls

This dude was made for the outdoors. He is in his element when he is outside in the wild, he doesn’t own a pair of waders and wet wades in 9 degrees Celsius, he gets by with a few of his favorite flies pinned to a faded John Dear trucker cap and a Swiss army knife hooked on to his belt. He loves to give “Gadget Boy” a hard time.

When things go wrong in the wilderness, this is the guy you want by your side. Your group’s very own Bear Grylls.

Probably has the best chance of hooking the big one, I mean this is his backyard.

Beer Can

The life of the party… He will lose his sense of humor if there is no space in the car for at least five cases of beer, avoid a very unpleasant situation by dedicating packing space for beer. He refuses to drive and usually rides shotgun because traditionally he cracks the first cold one as you leave the driveway and follows up with “Let the games begin boys” or something to that effect.

“Beer Can” will serve as entertainment for the week, armed with tons of outrageous stories and inappropriate jokes, there is never a dull moment with him around.

He irritates the rest of the crew with the amount and quality of fish he tends to catch… With beer in one hand and a busted old fly rod in the other don’t be surprised if he catches the big one.

 

The Instagrammer

Often you forget what his face looks like because it is constantly hidden behind a camera lens and or iPhone. He’s got a thousand gigs worth of sunsets, emerging insects, and close-up shots of fly fishing rods clasped by some hand model and he can list every photography filter known to man but struggles to recall the name of the fly he just tied on.

The bonus is, your trip will be well documented with this fellow on tour and he has a knack for making 10 inches look like 20.

It’s hard to operate a camera and fly rod at the same time so I wouldn’t bet on the “Instagrammer” to nail the big one.

 

If you had preordered the weather, it couldn’t have been better.

A bite in the air,

cold enough waters to entice some feisty Trout and the beautiful backdrop of the Giant in the picturesque Kamberg Valley, all without the interference of any wind….what more can a fly fisher ask for?!

A few Trout perhaps? Well seven Hundred and Four of them made it to the net in this year’s TOPS Kamberg Trout Festival, with many more lost and some really big fish poking their heads out the water.

Being the largest fly fishing festival in any one gathering held in Africa,

everyone always arrives expecting to get a little action on the dams. But, the real reason the majority of guys beg a pink ticket for this weekend,

is the time they get to spend on the bank-side with great mates, reliving the good times.

The format of every team fishing together guarantees these social festivities and many teams spend more time off the water than in it, content to embrace their time in the country.

But it takes just a single big fish to motivate some casting and word of a 60cm Trout in the 1st session had us all rummaging in our fly boxes for that killer pattern.

What fly was working was certainly a point of animated debate over lunch. In the highlands of the Kamberg,

the water temperatures measured a frigid eleven degrees, galvanising that spawning urge in the Trout, dictating that colour of fly was a key factor.  Yet, in the heart of the valley it was a difference of up to four degrees warmer, with the fish still chasing some Minnows and feasting on a range of natural imitations.

The variety of dams and distance between meant that you got to

experience the full spectrum of water and enjoy some spectacular scenic surrounds, such is the bounty of Trout waters in the Kamberg.

By Friday evening a few more trophy Trout made it to the weigh-in with a monster of 68cm being landed by Michael Kollmorgen.

Despite many flies being thrown at the cause on Saturday and lots of fish eclipsing the half-meter yardstick netted, no-one was able to surpass that impressive benchmark. Louise Steenekamp walked away with the top lady fly fisher with nearly seven and a half meters of fish measured and the best male angler was Jasper Ward with over 8 meters of Trout recorded.

But the talk of the festival was the Tendela development team, who took 3 of the top 7 positions in total Trout caught and managed between them to register nearly 22 meters of fish.

A huge congratulation to Richard Khumalo, Tembi Ngxongo, Mvelo and Nkosinati for their outstanding performance.

A true credit to the local community that they represent.

The wonderful aspect of this fundraiser is that the whole Kamberg

community comes together and their hospitality is second to none. There are too many people involved in Steve Edkins team,

who organise everything, to give everyone the real kudos they deserve, but a huge shout out must go to the Kamberg ladies, who work tirelessly behind the scenes to keep all the anglers very well fed with their hearty country fair.

The generous support of TOPS at Spar, WildFly Outfitters, Hardy, Greys, Airflo and Xplorer had all the prize winners ginning from ear to ear and it is only through the Kamberg Farmers Association, with Garth Ratsey in the chair that this event is possible, giving all the entrants access to the Kamberg waters.

Hat’s off to the Kamberg community for hosting us fly fishing fanatics.