Fishing with Ian Cox
Yesterday I had the pleasure of fishing with Ian Cox on one of our smaller mountain streams. We were in the company of Robin Douglas on a day when the furnace doors were left open, the skies were cloudless, the stream no more than a gentle, glass-bright trickle. Small fish rose spiritedly to the dry fly from mid-morning until we left the stream around mid-afternoon. A couple were hooked, most weren’t, and one confidently took Ed Herbst’s new simulid nymph pattern.
Click in images to enlarge them
Ian Cox (right) and Robin Douglas trying a downstream drift over a better fish
Ian was down from Durban attending high level trout aquaculture meetings in his role as a lawyer in Trout SA, a strong new pro-trout lobby in this country working alongside FOSAF. He is wonderful company on stream and although our pickings were lean under such adverse conditions, I suspect he nevertheless enjoyed the day.
Two other on-stream visitors were the dragonfly above, the Juliana Skimmer, Orthetrum julia capensis, and a rare visitor, the Shell-backed Katydid, a grasshopper species, below.
Nigel Bennett on fishing Gateshead in the Eastern Cape Highlands
I was up at Gateshead at the beginning of December, roughly a week or so after the Bokspruit had received some good rain. In the four days we fished I was only able to bring one fish to the net, was broken off by a larger specimen and missed another two.
Typical of the lovely water on Gateshead
My close friend Grant totally blanked and finally admitted defeat. The stream was flowing strongly with regular afternoon thunderstorms. Basie reckons that last year’s drought is closely comparable to that of 1994 and that a good percentage of the population have suffered.
A well-conditioned Gateshead rainbow
Naturally the good news is that average size will, or has, increased. In a nutshell the fishing was really hard compared to previous years.
View down the valley towards Gateshead Cottage
(This is a pattern in the fishing hereabouts that I have seen many times before. Given reasonable rains, the condition and numbers of fish will improve and by March/April I suspect we’ll be catching many beautiful river trout. TS.)
Fishpond’s new Headgate tippet dispenser
Says Tom Lewin of Frontier Fly Fishing:
When you use Fishpond’s all-new Headgate tippet dispenser, you will wonder why no one has thought of anything like it before. The spring loaded hinge design allows an angler to easily add, remove and carry most tippet spools with ease.
Fishpond’s Headgate tippet dispenser
Just clip it on somewhere close and forget about the days of hunting through your waders, vest or pack for those loose spools. Dropped your nippers on the hike in? Not to worry, the Headgate also features a built in cutting blade for ultimate convenience. The Headgate tippet dispenser is made from anodized aerospace aluminium and can hold up 7 tippet spools.
Well known Dullstroom fly fisher, Alan Hatton, asks me how I protect my camera gear on-stream
There was a time when I carried two big DSLR cameras and at least three lenses in the backpack of my fly vest. I now limit myself to one DSLR, with maybe two lenses, a wide angle (say 10 -22 mm) and a tele-zoom (say 24- 105 mm). Each I house in a soft, wrap-up, waterproof container. There are hundreds on the market.
The danger with fly fishing and cameras comes when you’re wading with a camera in your hand. That’s a lottery and, yes, most of us have dunked serious gear at one time or another and ended up trying to dry stuff in a turned off, pre-heated oven.
Heart-in-the-mouth stuff. Attempting wet camera and lens resuscitation
Now I carry one SLR, and on difficult to wade, or deep and slippery rivers, I often keep it in a Ewa Marine Perspex underwater housing.
Ewa Marine in action with a Canon DSLR and wide angle lens
That way I lose all the wading angst and can also get good underwater or half-in, half-out shots if I want them.
This sort of shot is well nigh impossible with waterproof compacts
But a good waterproof compact is probably the way most anglers will want to go these days. I now have the Olympus Tough TG-3, a digital compact that has full protection against water, sand and accidental dropping and has GPS and a bright f/2 lens. The only real drawback is half-in, half-out shots are extremely difficult to get with this kind of compact and if you’re fishing from a float-tube and drop it in deep water it’s gone. I’d suggest keeping it attached to your tube by a lanyard.
But I now prefer this option to choosing a compact that needs a special under water housing, because although they give you a better chance at getting half-in, half-out shots, they’re expensive and frankly it’s never easy to operate a compact through a hard housing. Far better is to get a soft, Ewa Marine for your compact. Being made of pliable and transparent material it’s a lot easier to operate the camera dials. But, again, they’re not cheap.
Jan Korrubel, KZN fly guide reports
With a week of blisteringly warm weather, the stillwater fishing has almost come to a standstill. Surface water temperatures are reported to be sitting at 21deg.C and above, which is not good for the trout if practising catch and release. Although conditions were tough, there were still some fish to be had last Sunday: Roger Baert (visiting the country briefly), along with Andrew Fowler and a mate, made their way to a Kamberg stillwater and caught only one fish of approx. 1kg / 2.25lbs between the three of them.
Roger Baert on a Kamberg stillwater
And Jannie Eloff fishing a Dargle stillwater caught a fish on a San Juan Worm and when cleaning the fish, found it full of...you guessed it, bloodworms!
Bloodworms galore
Judging by the picture of the bloodworm on Jannie’s rod grip, the chenille San Juan Worm was a deadly match!
Terry Andrews found himself on a Kamberg Stillwater at early hours yesterday, and landed a 14 inch / 35cm brown trout on a Papa Roach dragonfly pattern, before fleeing as the heat arrived.
Terry Andrews on a Kamberg stillwater (above) and his brown trout below
Some anglers have been looking to other species for their fix. My good friend Sven Turner started introducing his young son Ryan to the gentle art by practising on bass, and then today, Sven landed a good size carp of 4kg / 9lbs on a large Red-eye Damsel pattern.
Sven’s 4kg carp
Reports are that Sterkfontein has been producing the goods of late. Roger Baert wound up his return trip to South Africa there this week and when I called him today, he reported that while they had a slow start, they were catching fish. The lads from FlyBru (Matt Gorlei, Nick van Rensburg and Craig Richardson – all former SA Junior teammates) were also up there recently and put together this great video clip appropriately titled ‘Banana Fever’ – watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT6uDza56ys.
While we have had no rains this week, the rivers are apparently still looking good. Graeme Pitt and Matt Gorlei were both on the Bushman’s River this weekend and both reported some good fishing from inside the Reserve at Giant’s Castle. That is forecast to change this week. The Norwegian weather site is predicting rain from tomorrow and through the week, with some 50mm for Giant’s Castle on Tuesday. Anybody for some white water rafting this week perhaps?
While we wait for the waters to settle again, Andrew Fowler, author of Trutta Blog, released a fine video clip this week on our summer stream fishing ‘ Summer Streams, Summer Dreams’. Watch it here : http://truttablog.com/2015/01/19/mid-summer-stream-fishing/
All fly anglers in the Pietermaritzburg area are welcome to join in on an informal pub and grub evening at The Old Main Brewery (formerly Crossways Inn), Hilton, tomorrow night. The gatherings take place on the last Monday of every month, simply a social get together to catch up with friends and tell tall tales. Roger Baert will joining us tomorrow, so pop in and say hullo!
G-Form knee pads
Sharland Urquhart brought this product to my attention. Her husband, Gavin, a keen mountain biker, uses them. For anglers who like to kneel on rocks when casting they could be a very useful piece of gear.
Loomis for sale
Loomis NRX 5-wt 9ft 4pc fly rod for sale. It is new, only been lawn-cast.
Label is still on the grip.
Price: R6 500 excluding delivery costs.
Contact Ryan Bradfield 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.
Mungo Poore fishes the Mooi in KZN
Says Mungo:
I always enjoyed reading your stories about fishing the Mooi River in your earlier books. In particular your chapter about the Best Day you ever had on the river at Glenfern.
I visited Hemyock on Monday. I can’t imagine a more pastoral setting to a river in this country. Unusually for January the river was running full and clear.
Hemyock on the Mooi River
I struggled for the first hour, but soon discovered the right combination of depth and fly. It's not necessarily an easy section, and requires a particular approach. But once you've got it, the fish just keep coming. Pulled in a fair brace of fish over 14 inches. All in excellent condition.
A fair brace of browns
The Mooi is in prime character at the moment. At one point I slid my fly into a deep hole and got stuck into one brown so fierce it circuited the pool twice in a state of great rage. I pulled into it, and it had that solid feel you get from a large dam fish.
I lowered my rod tip to take the pressure off for fear of losing it. At that point the line stopped moving, and I recovered my fly which had somehow been stuck fast to a rock at the bottom. Quite how the fish achieved this feat I don't know. It's was clearly over a kilogram, and I've been keeping the location of the pool a secret for now.
Termites!?
Emil Visagé writes:
I live in Somerset West on the Boskloof Eco Estate where we have a 2,5 ha dam. I started stocking this dam three years ago and took out four large 3kg plus largemouth bass. Many tilapia reside as fodder.
I had a great time last year when a swarm of flying termites crazed the stocked trout. I caught many and released all but one, gill hooked. Its stomach content was 480 flying termites and 12 other aquatics!
Spot the snake!
Herman Potgieter says:
Some photos of fishing the Rifelspruit in the Eastern Cape Highlands.
A rainbow taken on Ed Herbst’s simulid nymph imitation
Can you spot the snake in the first image? It is clear in the second.
A Rinkhals (Hemachatus haemachatus), a venom spitting snake closely related to the cobra family
(The full story of this day and others up in the Rhodes area were published on my website this week per kind favour of local guide, Tony Kietzman.
See http://www.tomsutcliffe.co.za/fly-fishing/friend-s-articles/item/989-rhodes-fly-fishing-outings-over-the-last-month.html )
Quotes of the week
Nick Lyons on drag:
If you saw a piece of steak moving unnaturally on your plate, would you eat it?
Nick Lyons on stream lore:
The river is nothing like the city. It has its own laws and you must learn some of them before you will catch any trout on a fly. Bless it for not being like the city!
Both these quotes are from Nick Lyons’s book Confessions of a Fly Fishing Addict.
From Dave Walker in Rhodes speaking for the Wild Trout Association
I have finally completed the 2015 edition of the WTA guidebook. In case anyone would like a copy I will e-mail it to them for the princely sum of R200 paid to the WTA. It has grown into a 162 page, 134 MB monster, but as a PDF, it’s a mere 48 MB! Contact me 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.
Apart from that, the rivers around Rhodes are running well and in mint condition at present with good flow and clarity. The dearth of winter snow-melt together with a massive flood in the Bokspruit and Riflespruit catchments has had an impact on the number of trout in these streams i.e. very few small fish and fewer bigger fish, but in great condition, there being less mouths feeding on the insect chain. The millions of small fish seen during the years prior to 2013 were the bane of fly fisherman’s lives. Festival catch returns from 2001 to 2014 show that an astonishing 51% of the catches were trout of 150mm or less. Of the balance, 46% were between 151 and 350mm and 3% were from 351mm upwards.
‘Challenging’ seems to be the buzz word to describe fishing at the moment. I’m looking forward to processing the catch returns for the 2015 festival to see the variance to previous years!
Unusual images
In this the second in the three part series on unusual fly fishing images I took on Highland Lodge as the theme. The lodge is a series of lakes on adjoining farms between the towns of Molteno and Dordrect in the Eastern Cape. We have fished the place on and off for the past 10 years, mainly in mid-winter, but that’s another story.
Tom Sutcliffe
