So with the dissapointment of missing Vidal still in the air I decided to join my parents for a weekend of fly fishing along with Mrs. Simpson.
We left after work on Friday and on the drive up to Millstream Farm, all sorts of tactics were running through my mind... 2 and a half hours later we arrived and I was still unsure of what tactics to employ
we unpacked and then Mrs Simpson and I headed down to the water with my Sage 5 weight, sinking line on my Abu reel and various Maxima tippets of different strengths, this is my absolute favourite outfit... I was thinking that similar tactics to when they spawn should be used so I put on a size 10 Olive Zonker and proceeded to fish the bottom in the reeds with a fast retrieve... We moved around a bit before we approached a very muddy weir called My Beauty, the weir was being fixed so now it was a stillwater system with very poor visibility... Perfect for the fast retrieve and flashy flies! First cast... Let it sink... Strip, Strip, Strip :ondad: and it happened the line started peeling out of my hands and after a minute or 2 there was a lovely 900 gram
in the net
then it was Mrs Simpsons turn and the same thing happened except her fish was about 1kg bigger than mine
... As it was gettin dark we stopped at a weir near the house and tried the same technique this time with an Orange Woolly Bugger and 4 casts produced 1 fish each both under or about 500 grams... Then it was back to the cottage to get some sleep for Saturday...
5am and the alarm went off, to my suprise it was already light outside and quite warm... I messed around in a few dams until I went back to My Beauty, and while Mrs Simpson was still asleep I landed 5 Rainbow Trout between 700 grams and 1.5 kilograms
all on the fast retrieve on the bottom all this in 45 minutes of fishing... I also saw 2 Wattled Cranes flying above, very rare birds and I felt privellaged after releasing some good fish before going to get some breakfast... As I looked back the weir looked like the banks of the Vaal Dam on a warm Summers day, 7 guys tring to fish the spot where I caught all the fish
...
After Breakfast we fished other weirs and dams with 2 bumps and decided to return to My Beauty where I got another 2 fish and Mrs Simpson got 1, this time on a white Fritz... A few good fish well over a kilo were long line released by us as well...
Then it was time to fish the Trophy Dam called Lake Crystabel, where I wanted a Brown Trout! Man the fish in this C&R dam were smart... The water was crystal clear and I literally stalked the Browns with every wet fly and method known to man... Nothing
We then moved onto a Dam called Tintern, where I caught my PB
of 2.4kgs many years back...
Spoke to a few of the guys and they hadnt caught anything the whole day, so you can imagine their disgust when I hooked a massive Rainbow on my 3rd cast with an Olive Woolly Bugger, it took me into my backing and as I could see the size of it after about 6 minutes she shook the fly with a beautiful jump 4 meters from landing her, was a huge Hen, maybe bigger than my PB
the same thing happened 10 minutes later, this time it was a smaller fish but I still wasnt impressed when the fly 'popped' once more
But then my luck changed and I caught and landed 2 beautiful Rainbow Hens in thje next 35 minutes both close to the 2kg mark
amazing fights
... Those were to be the biggest fish of the weekend...
After the sun had drained us so much we headed back to My Beauty and while Mrs Simpson got ready to go out, I got another 3 fish all close or over a kilogram, these fish were wild!!!!!!!!
2 came on the olive wooly bugger and 1 fish on an Orange Zonker with a size 2 hook
how the purists would frown upon me
That was it for the day and we went out for dinner.
The alarm went off again at 5am
and I went back to sleep before the heat woke me up, wow it was hot!
We prepared for one last session before we packed and left... Mrs Simpson and I both got 2 more Rainbows each on a size 14 Olive Woolly Bugger... We then were hot and tired and headed off... What an amazing weekend of action
it could not of gone any better! In total Mrs Simpson and I landed 21 fish, she got 5 and I got 16 and we long line releaswed another 5 nice fish as we got them close to the net...
The destroying fly was the Olive Woolly Bugger, but the orange and black versions did damage too as well as the Olive and Orange Zonker and White Fritz...
Lots of pictures to follow
stay tuned
