HIGHLAND LODGE – SOME GOOD NEWS AND A MINOR PHOTO-ESSAY

Photographs Tom Sutcliffe

Owl Dam

Many South African anglers rate Highland Lodge as one of the best collection of stillwaters in the country. Double figure trout were common enough, but a bad drought forced Vicky and Luke Bell to close their water for a long spell.

Double figure trout weren't uncommon

Before that we got some great fly fishing and wonderful photo opportunities on these lakes.

Happily it looks like the lodge will open again in the near future. Here is what Vicky Bell had to say in a recent note to me:

‘Bernard’s dam is fishing very well and the trout are of a nice size. This is a photograph of one of the fish caught in December 2011, which was stocked in December 2009 at five inches and obtained from Martin Davies.

Photo per Vicky Bell

It had a very small head and a deep body weighing in at just short of 10lbs. Our 2010 stocking is producing 7 to 8 lb fish that came from Lunsklip hatchery.

Trout in Spurwing dam are growing very well. We stocked four to six inch fish in March that are now about 20 inches and putting up a great fight. These fish came from Wolf Avni.

As you can see we have tried fish from all over the country and they all seem to do well.

Coot on Spurwing Dam

The fish in Owl, Greywing and Sid’s dams are also very big, but we need to clear out some weed. We are working on this and will open these waters once the dams are fishable. The fish in Sid’s dam are also in the range of 7 to 10 lbs. The 1000 brown trout stocked here in 2008 should also be there.’

Highland Lodge is in the Eastern Cape midway between Dordrecht and Molteno. The landscapes are stark, but beautiful in their own way with wonderful sunsets and sunrises especially in the dusty winter months.

The lakes fish well in early summer and autumn, but the winter fishing, though cold and challenging, provides crystal clear water and excellent sport. I mostly use a floating line with a really long leader to get sink, but a floater with an intermediate tip is a nice line to fish sunken patterns, especially towards the middle of the day.

Bernards Dam

Flies that have done well for me are blood worm imitations, large DDDs, various black Woolly Worm attractor patterns and particularly imitations of dragon and damsel fly nymphs, all of it much of what you would expect I guess.

I once watched someone land a 12 pound brown trout from the bank at Bernard’s Dam and saw an 8 pounder caught off the wall of Owl Dam, but float tubing will make for more effective coverage of these lakes.

Let’s hope the opening comes earlier rather than later.