Dean Riphagen reports from a trip to Highland Lodge where he had some of the best fly fishing of his life when he took a party of Frontier Fly Fishing clients to this amazing venue!
Says Dean:
The fishing was phenomenal – probably the best stillwater fishing I’ve had in all my years fly-fishing in South Africa.
We arrived around midday on Wednesday and the weather was good. As discussed, the best winds are out of the ESE or NE. Then the fish feed hard due to the associated high pressure. When the wind swung on Friday the fishing deteriorated markedly. I landed a fish of 8¾ lbs on Thursday afternoon and hooked and lost three or four others, one of which was small – around 2 lbs. The rest were all big fish. That night it was cold and the following morning (Thursday) it was -5 degrees and both the front- and rear windscreens on my truck were frozen. The wind was variable, coming from the ESE or the NE. The fishing was crazy hot.
(Click in images to enlarge them)
We did have short (half hour) patches where the fish weren’t on the prod, but for the rest of the day it was mayhem. I personally hooked 13 fish and landed just six of them. The rest were all large and gave me a proper hiding! Here are the weights (in lbs) of the fish I landed on Thursday – 7, 7½, 8, 8, 8½ and 10. JP also got a fish of just over 10lbs on Thursday morning. I started the day fishing a Janssen Dragon and lost most of them. Then I reverted to a Filoplume Dragon a lost most of them as well. I then went to a Filoplume Leech which proved very effective. I didn’t bugger around with tippet material either – I went with 2x Scientific Anglers fluorocarbon which tested 9.8lbs.
The following day there was a marked change in the fishing. The wind (a cold one) had swung to a west or south west and the fishing deteriorated as a result. I got one fish in the morning of 1½lbs and that was it. After lunch the wind continued to blow from the west and south west and, as a result, we battled to connect with fish. Then late in the afternoon the wind swung to the NE and ESE, the pressure rose and the fish went crazy again. I landed a further five fish – 5½, 7½, 7½, 9 and 10lbs. One of the clients with me, Pete Blankenberg, had never had a fish over 5lbs and had never had a fish pull him into the backing. That had all changed the previous day and Pete then got one on Friday of 9¼ lbs so there were smiles all around.
Even from a distance you can see that this is a lot of rainbow trout!
On Saturday the wind continued to blow out of the west and south west and the fishing again was tough. I managed three fish of 8, 9 and 9¼, the last two fish being taken on a corixa pattern.
On Sunday morning the wind continued out of the west and south west and I managed two fish, both of 7½lbs, before we packed it in and headed back to Johannesburg.
(Note: Dean says he was using the Scientific Anglers Type II Uniform Sink line, the density compensated line. However, next time around he says he will definitely take the new Scientific Anglers Hover line for the shallower areas.
The Hover GPX was awarded a Best of Show award for a Freshwater Fly Line at the IFTD show in Reno this August .)
(See the Highland Lodge website on http://www.highlandlodge.co.za/)
Next week i will be posting an equally dramatic piece on Highland Lodge sent to me by Greg Carstens who has just returned.
