Barramundi on fly, the ethereal Witte River in the Western Cape, Edward Barder bamboo landing net and more …

The weather in Cape Town was tourist-perfect for a few days, right up until Robin Douglas and I fished last Wednesday when the doors that hold back the Cape’s great southeasters suddenly swung open, windows rattled, branches broke, leaves blew into the heavens and the cerulean blue skies we’d enjoyed turned smoky grey and suggested rain was imminent. We went out anyway, to the lower beats of the Lourens, probably on the old premise that some fishing is always better than none.

In time the sun did come through and the sky turned a lovely blue that was shot through with the white lace of streaky clouds but still the wind blew, straight downstream in fact, so hard that even after sharp, tight-looped casts our flies often landed downstream of the tip of the fly line.

Click in images to enlarge them

I thought of Ed Herbst when I saw Simulid (black fly) larvae on river bed stones leaning with the current in serried ranks like soldiers on parade. Wolf spiders scurried over the rocks (I still feel sure this at times Cape trout take the Para-RAB as a spider), swallows swung circling loops over the silent stream and the occasional fish rose. But in the unremitting wind the fishing was hard-going, although we landed heaps of trout on Beat 1.

Simulid (black fly) larvae

I tested the stomach contents on one fish and as expected Baetid nymphs were there, as were adult black flies but, surprise, surprise, so were winged flying ants.

Stomach contents

On a nearby rock we found hordes of adult black flies and the husk of a hatched dragon fly nymph at least two and a half centimetres long. An imitation tied on a long shank size 8 hook would have worked I guess, but we weren’t that desperate at the time.

Adult black fly

Try as I might I could not get a fish to take any interest in Ed Herbst’s latest black fly nymph which has a more pronounced waist and Coke bottle shape, but they did come to the dry fly and here and there I got a reasonable shot of trout under water and missed a gem of a photo by a whisker.

Missed a gem of a photo by a whisker

When we had threaded enough casts between the brief lapses in the wind, taken plenty of fish and covered what felt like miles of water we headed out to fish another section of the stream we thought might be more sheltered. On the way there we snapped the tip of Robin’s 2-weight Sage despite taking the rods apart and laying them in the back of the truck with what we thought was infinite care.

But by then we’d had enough. And still the wind blew, showering us in tumbling gusts of fine dust and leaf debris, wind strong enough at times that we felt we could lean against it without falling over.

Later Robin emailed to say what a lovely day’s fishing it was.

Ed Herbst’s revised simulid nymph

The fact that Ed Herbst’s revised simulid nymph went untouched on the day doesn’t mean it isn’t a great pattern. I believe it is and I will be posting a few to my pal Nick Taransky in Australia and to Ian Douglas and Hugh Rosen in California, to spread the research and development net a bit wider.

The orange belly looks of a Kern River Golden trout

A subscriber sent me these images of trout caught in a tiny Karoo stream and they can’t help reminding me of Kern River Golden trout. Or am I just having a romantic flight of fancy?

Alex Hathorn writes from Australia

As a keen reader of your weekly newsletter, by way of variety, I thought you'd be interested in a somewhat different species being caught on a fly. I was very lucky to get this 60 cm (3.5 kg) male "barra" in a freshwater billabong on the Mary River, Northern Territory, last week. The fly was a home tied purple, green and yellow 1/0 clouser on a 9wt intermediate line.

 At this time of year, the northern part of Australia keenly awaits the onset of the wet monsoon rains which flood the coastal plains and connect these landlocked billabongs to the sea until about March. Large barramundi move into the saltwater to prey on food washed in by the run-off,  gobbling up prey with a toothless mouth the size of a wheelie bin.

 Barramundi need to be in saltwater to spawn: The act of changing sex (sequential hermaphroditism), as well as spawning, takes place only in saline environments (typically mangroves and river mouths) before most of the population migrates back to freshwater environments after the peak of the monsoon. Landlocked barramundi evidently all remain male irrespective of size. Some of these female fish can grow to 1.5 m in length, but any catch over a metre in length is regarded by most as the Holy Grail.

Few fishermen here bother to fish for barramundi on fly as large soft plastic lures on bait casting rigs are the norm. So a fly-caught fish of this size is exciting and a bit unusual even for the hardened guides who normally troll up and down the waterways with three or four tourists to a boat.

Needless to say, one is constantly aware of the fact that these waters also teem with large saltwater crocodiles, and land based fishing is foolhardy, if not impossible.

Spoilt for choice – Riaan Heyns writes

Piet Beyers and I went to Fransmanshoek (refer to the chapter ‘Hartland’ in his book) this weekend. We caught a few beautiful musselcracker; I was alone at the time when I caught this one and took this iffy picture just before release.

Although this fish was only 78 cm and by no means a slab, it’s incredible to think that this specimen is already around 15 years old. Apart from being amazing fighters, they have such a regal presence, with the same blunt head and beautiful ‘stuff you’ expression as a GT. I wish I could say that I caught it on a red crab imitation, but unfortunately the conditions were just not conducive to casting a fly!

 The picture above is of my favourite fishing spot for rock and surf, with the iconic name ‘Vegkop’; it features right up there on my haunted-by-waters list. Happily I can switch from the dramatic imagery and sound of breaking surf to the swiftness and gurgle of a special patch of Elandspad Beat 4 pocket water. Aren’t we spoilt for choice in this land?

Discovering James R Babb as a fly fishing writer

This week I received three of James R Babb’s books, an author new to me but highly recommended. My endlessly generous friend, Clem Booth, sent them out from London and I will be reviewing each in turn.

Babb is currently the editor of the prestigious Gray’s Sporting Journal, so the man clearly knows his way around words. But here’s high praise indeed: Ted Leeson, himself great fly fishing author says this, ‘Jim Babb proves yet again that he’s one of the funniest, most literate, most relentlessly ironic writers ever to poke a pen at the soft underbelly of fly fishing.’  

The Witte and Lotheni revisited by Conan Rossler

About 15 years ago I left to work in Australia - I had a job in forestry in Tasmania for about 10 years and obviously had access to some world class fishing , particularly sight fishing to wild browns in the lakes. I am currently in NSW working in forestry again - unfortunately a long way from any suitable water although as you would know there is some superb fishing in NSW.

Every few years we head back to South Africa as a family and I squeeze in some fishing in the W Cape and the Berg. We arrived in mid-September and I had a day on the top end of the Witte with my good friend Graham Sutherland.

Beat 6 of the Witte River, an ethereal Western Cape brown trout stream  

Beat No. 6 is a favourite stretch of mine. The day was superb as you can see from the pictures and although the water was running marginally high as you would expect at the beginning of the season, we snared half a dozen beautiful brownies.

We then went to the Lotheni at the beginning of October. The river was very low but still had a surprisingly good flow through the pockets.

Lotheni in the KZN Drakensberg

I had only three sessions in the eight days we were there mainly due to family commitments and some very difficult berg winds, but managed over 50 fish all on dries. Most of the fish were in pocket water and were very happy to come to the dry. The biggest was about 13 inches. (I was lucky enough to take a superb 18 inch fish on a dry there last autumn but the water levels were superb at the time although fish numbers were lower than this visit).

I am an avid follower of your site; it pulls heavily on my heart strings when I see all the places I used to fish on your newsletters! 

Keith Douglas, son of my fly fishing pal Robin, opens the season

Says Keith:

A month into season and I managed to sneak up the Lourens with my father and opened it with this beautiful fish from Beat 2.

And his brother, Ian Douglas living in California, takes ownership of a bamboo gem

I’m extremely happy with my new Carlin bamboo that has just arrived. I went up to the Sierras this weekend and caught some beauties on it. The wind blew a gale, but it still got a really decent line out.

It’s the ‘Perfectionist Light’, 7'6 3wt, hexagonal hollowed out, medium flamed cane, blued hardware, Amboyna reel seat with down locking ring, 12 ring cigar-type cork grip, red agate stripper and the wraps are in cardinal with black tippings.

Here is the full spec: http://www.carlinbamboo.com/Customers/IanD/

 Edward Barder landing nets from Clem Booth in London

Edward Barder has been building his beautiful split-cane rods full-time for 25 years now. Those in the know consider him to be the finest exponent of the craft anywhere in the world today although with bamboo, passions are heightened and there will be no shortage of opinions!

I personally regard Edward's work as flawless, but also as a benchmark not only for rod-makers but for artisans generally. Simply put, his rods are priceless jewels. Expect to wait two years for yours to be delivered, but it is worth every second of the anticipation to receive a beautiful wand that will not only do the business but appreciate in value as time goes on.  

Every now and then, Edward also builds nets. These are equally exquisite not to mention totally functional. To celebrate his 25th year of rod-making, Edward produced a very small number of magnificent nets (five of them; I have Number 4) one of which I was pleased to take delivery of yesterday.

This is a net which has been purpose built for very big fish and mine will be deployed on my Thames boat for pike on fly. More about the boat on another occasion.

I hope these images capture the essence of his work; a bamboo shaft of cane with a beautiful brass joint which he made at my specific request. The hoop of the net is also made from cane; this time strips of the same sort of Tonkin that would otherwise end up in a rod. The two pieces of the handle reside in a beautifully made cloth bag.

In addition, Edward will build a very small number of 25th anniversary bamboo rods; 5-weight in 8 foot 3 length; 3 piece. Titanium fittings, intermediate wraps and the finest agate stripping ring you will ever find will complete a unique piece. Will I be acquiring one? Well, to be fair, I have enough in the way of bamboo to last a lifetime or two but the question is whether one's life could be truly fulfilled without this object of beauty. Perhaps I will find myself in a circle of similarly addicted bamboo nuts uttering the words : ‘My name's Clem and I'm a long way from being a recovering addict!!!!’ I confess;

Edward will reserve one of these for me.

Jan Korrubel’s report from KZN

The variable weather here in the Midlands has no doubt played a good part in keeping anglers off the water.  Andrew Fowler in his Truttablog notes: ‘With the onset of our spring rains having occurred in some places and not in others, the weather is foremost on the mind of the river fishermen. In fact our conversations are just a little obsessive at the moment.’

 Visit the site at www.truttablog.com to see why – the two pictures of the Mooi River (showing present and past conditions) certainly bring things into perspective.

That being said, I am pleased to report that some rain has been received.  Nottingham Road felt the brunt of its first proper summer thunderstorm on Tuesday this week.  The storm dropped 65mm, doubling the total rainfall received for October. 

However, as with the previous major thunderstorm that recently ravaged the Dargle Valley/Howick/Hilton, the rain has been so specific in its area of fall.  I was up in the Kamberg Valley the day after the Tuesday storm, and apart from the odd puddle on the roadside, it almost appeared that it hadn’t rained up there.  With the lack of rain, the famers are having make extensive use of their dams, and the stillwaters are dropping fast – many showing a rather large and bare ‘tidal range’ and low tide mark.

While ’tis the season for river fishin’, I have respectfully declined approaches for guiding while we wait for the rivers to start moving properly again.  My guest on Friday, Grant Hudson, was desperate to fish after a while out of the game, so we opted to float tube a Kamberg stillwater.  Of course the weather changed for the worse on the day, but Grant got his first fish barely a few kicks away from the side, and a respectable 20 inch / 52cm it was too.  The fly of choice was a Hamil’s Killer. 

Not five casts later, and Grant was into his 2nd fish (again the Hamils), this time a more modest fish of around 15 inches / 38 cm.  After that, it went dead.  After a complete lap of the dam with not a fish troubling our various offerings, the chill had settled in and with Grants waders leaking horribly, we called it quits and came back and tied flies.

Grant Hudson

Nottingham Road received another 12mm last night.  This, and a report of 20mm up in Underberg by Miles Divett, had me on the blower to Matt Haden up at Tierhoek Estate just below Giant’s Castle, asking about the rain there.  Also 20mm was his rushed response, on his way out the door to inspect the Bushman’s River.  The report and pictures just received from Matt showed a chunky rainbow, and the flow looking much better than previously.

There is some more good rain (30mm) forecast for Giant’s Castle tomorrow, which should provide another good push into the catchment.  The rain forecast peters out over the week ahead, but looks good for the week thereafter.

For local readers in the Durban/Pietermaritzburg vicinity, Wayne Stegen will be tying his “Salmo Taddy” tomorrow night at the monthly meeting of the Durban Fly Tyers (readers will recall that this fly was recently responsible for a 13.2lb / 6kg giant cock fish caught by Anton Smith).  DFT meetings are held at Westville Library, 19h00 for 19H30.  For more information, please visit www.durbanflytyers.co.za. 

Quote of the week about wildness, via Steve Boshoff…

We can accept each other as barefoot equals sleeping on the same ground. We can give up hoping to be eternal and quit fighting dirt … No expectations, alert and sufficient, grateful and careful, generous and direct. A calm and clarity attend us in the moment we are wiping the grease off our hands between tasks and glancing up at the passing clouds ...The wild requires that we learn the terrain, nod to all the plants and animals and birds, ford the streams and cross the ridges, and tell a good story when we get back home. And when the children are safe in bed, at one of the great holidays like the Fourth of July, New Year, or Halloween, we can bring out some spirits and turn on the music, and the men and the women who are still among the living can get loose and really wild. So that's the final meaning of ‘wild’ - the esoteric meaning, the deepest and most scary. Those who are ready for it will come to it. Please do not repeat this to the uninitiated.

From The Practice of the Wild by Gary Snyder.

Final quote

For every complex problem that exists, there is an elegant and simple solution that is wrong.

HL Mencken (American satirist)

Why does this quote remind me so much of fly fishing and fly fishers?

Tom Sutcliffe