Jaen
Last time I fished Machado it was in the river at the caravan park a few years ago in May or June. The taking fly then was a Cat's Whiskers with silver beads for eyes, a big thing. Of course I didn't have any and nobody offered. I still got a few on dragonfly nymphs, olive and brown ones with red eyes. The fish seemed to prefer bigger flies, the water was a bit green. We also fished deep. We did not get any takes on the grey Machadodorp flies.
This time of year in other waters, dams and slow flowing rivers, I've had success with Orange Whiskey Marabous and Orange Deaths. I have a theory that it aggrevates the hens and that they bite it just to get it away from them or the eggs.
The one fly I've always caught fish on, from rainbows in the Malibamatso river in Lesotho, to dams and rivers in Machado, yellows in Sterkfontein and in the Tugela river, is an Olive Flashback Nymph (with or without a bead).
I remember one misty morning in Machado, the swallows were nesting under the roadbridge and were swooping in over our heads to get to their nests. An elderly gentleman with a heavy accent (Scottish, Irish or Welsh, I'm not sure) came walking towards me where I was crouching on the bank, he didn't see me. As he walked under the bridge a couple of swallows dove right past his head, he had a huge "skrik" and fell over on his back. As he got up and brushed the grass from his clothes I heard him cursing "Yarra fooken berds!!!". I nearly peed myself, he however failed to see the humour in the situation. Maybe that's why nobody offered me a Cat's Whisker.....
