Says Alan, ‘I have been waxing lyrical for some time about our Karoo waters in Cradock, the source of the Paul’s River which is spring fed up in the mountains between Cradock and Graaff-Reinet. Well, I do now have reason to brag!

I have included a catch report from one of our Bankberg Trout Fisher’s Club members, Brent Hart, who spent the long weekend in June up here. We had re-stocked both the Paul’s River and two stillwaters in September 2011 with 60gram 18cm yearling trout. There are fish in the river now over 50cm long and knocking on 2,0kg!

The dams are a natural phenomenon, super-charged, and have produced fish up to 4,78kg - look at the kype on the fish in the picture above!  It grew to over 4,7kg in just over 21months! The secret is platannas and tadpoles and a thick soup of aquatic insects.’

Here is Brent Hart’s catch return:

“16^th June. Arrived at Kareebosch at 11.00am. Fished till 1.30 and landed 20 fish between 2 pounds and 5 pounds. My son Matt Landed 3 fish, one nice 5 pound cock fish.

Fishing in the afternoon was slower but with bigger fish and I landed seven trout averaging 5 pounds and Matt took 3 fish averaging 3 pounds.

17^th June we fished Kareebosch, again between 10.00am and 12 pm., with me landing three fish and Matt seven, averaging 4 pounds.

Then between 2 pm and 4 pm I landed another seven fish around the 5 pound mark and a bigger one of 10.5 pounds.

Having fished Kareebosch on more than one occasion since Alan Hobson has been stocking the water with Martins Davies’ fish, things have really been hotting up on every outing.

So much so that I have wanted to take my son Matthew up there for a while now and this last Father’s day long weekend presented the perfect opportunity. With the Barometer stable we were off but never imagined a double figure fish so soon on this water.”

(From Tom Sutcliffe:

Alan has a fly fishing gem right up there in the heart of high lying Karoo mountains, a place worthy of being rated a world-class fishery and tourist destination now by any standards.

 See http://www.tomsutcliffe.co.za/fly-fishing/friend-s-articles/item/201-alan-and-annabelle-hobson-a-profile.html

And a photo essay on this great venue at http://www.tomsutcliffe.co.za/fly-fishing/my-fly-fishing/item/108-fly-fishing-on-the-edge-of-the-karoo.html

Alan Hobson is a R.E.F.F.I.S. Accredited fly fishing guide who runs The Angler & Antelope Guesthouse in Somerset East, Eastern Cape, along with his wife Annabelle who is a superb cook.

Tel 082 44 22 884

Email Alan at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Website http://www.anglerandantelope.co.za/)