From: 04/01/2015
To: 05/01/2015
Type of Water: Freshwater
Species: Rainbow trout, Brown trout
April has been marvelous here in the midlands. Glorious weather, and great trout fishing!
I have gone a little river crazy of late, so no first hand stillwater reports from me, but I can pass on some news that I have picked up on the grapevine. Firstly, Roxanne Stegen’s two fish from an NFFC water in the Kamberg simply have to make the headlines. Husband Wayne said something about “making a pig….”, but we will ignore that for now. 4.25 Kg and 3.5Kg Rainbows within an hour of each other. Well done Roxanne.
Elsewhere, I see a lot of 12 to 16 inch fish coming out of the stillwaters. Nothing to complain about, but only a scattering of bigger fish of 18 to 22 inches. I guess that is the way it goes. Some comments received indicate that the water has been quite warm. I will second View more...April has been marvelous here in the midlands. Glorious weather, and great trout fishing!
I have gone a little river crazy of late, so no first hand stillwater reports from me, but I can pass on some news that I have picked up on the grapevine. Firstly, Roxanne Stegen’s two fish from an NFFC water in the Kamberg simply have to make the headlines. Husband Wayne said something about “making a pig….”, but we will ignore that for now. 4.25 Kg and 3.5Kg Rainbows within an hour of each other. Well done Roxanne.
Elsewhere, I see a lot of 12 to 16 inch fish coming out of the stillwaters. Nothing to complain about, but only a scattering of bigger fish of 18 to 22 inches. I guess that is the way it goes. Some comments received indicate that the water has been quite warm. I will second that. Just yesterday on the Bushmans we measured 16.8 degrees water temperature, and the Umgeni was similar earlier in the week. Perhaps this warmer than expected, but very comfortable temperature nonetheless is what has given rise to the good river fishing.
It certainly has been good! I have heard numerous reports from both the Bushmans and the Umgeni, that the fishing has been great. I can only imagine that the Mooi and other rivers must be similar. The Umgeni for one, seems to be teeming with fish at present, which is encouraging. It is never an easy river to fish. Many sections are overrun with burrs and wattles and bramble, causing fishermen to avoid them. Let me tell you, getting some blackjacks in your socks is a small price to pay for the great fishing to be had. In terms of managing the dense bankside vegetation on this and any other river in autumn, when the thatch grass is at its tallest, here are my tips for what they are worth:
• Climb into the river. In this way your backcast is invariably going out over the water behind you as you wade and fish upstream, and not out over the grass on the side.
• Use a long rod. A 9 or even 10 ft rod gives you leverage to lift your line over obstacles, to throw mends over exposed sticks, and to raise a backcast high above you when you need it.
• Don’t be shy to fish a little heavier. A 2 wt requires a lot of false casting to get the line out. A 4 wt requires a lot less. Every false cast is another opportunity to hang up. A 4 wt will limit those “opportunities”, with surprisingly little sacrifice in delicacy.
• Embrace the unconventional: if you limit yourself to the perfect upstream cast and dead drift, you may find very little river that can be fished this way. Try downstream, where the vegetation calls for it. Try dangling, dapping and all other manner of things they don’t tell you in the books.
• On an open berg stream, you can walk and fish at will all day long. On an overgrown midlands river, perfect spots are not so common. Slow down, and approach each great spot (there may be a few as a dozen in a whole day), with the utmost stealth. Stand still, and fish them thoroughly and for longer. Not even your last cast should be a sloppy or careless one.
On the rivers I have found the Browns surprisingly receptive to a dry fly of late, and this applies when there is no hatch or rise in progress. Try the dry! RAB’s (big and bushy), hoppers of all descriptions, and a Puterbaugh caddis, have all produced results of late.
We have just a few weeks of river fishing left. Maybe those water temperatures have extended things by a week or so, but it will all be over (and frosty) very soon. But if the creeping around in the undergrowth is not your thing, the stillwaters are producing plenty of trout. So the choice is yours. Either way, it is a wonderful time of year, and the worst crime you could commit is to stay home and mow the lawn. Hell the lawn doesn’t need mowing more than once a fortnight at this time of year: take that as a sign.
See you out there!
