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For the third weekend in a row Nick and I headed down to Inanda Dam to do some fly fishing. This time however our plan was to focus on the filming of the trip rather than the fishing, in the hope of putting together a short video of Inanda Dam and the bass opportunities it offers. Sadly the conditions weren't in our favour. Initially there was no wind and the water was like glass. It was also extremely hot and as such the bigger fish seemed to have moved into deeper water. With the focus of our video being on surface action we continued fishing with poppers despite the conditions being against us. Despite the tough conditions we managed to produce a few small fish on the surface. That said…

[caption id="attachment_1715" align="alignright" width="225"] Warren Prior's best bass on fly[/caption] For the second week in a row we headed down to Inanda Dam to target bass. Conditions were close to ideal thanks to the warm water, a decent cloud cover, and a slight breeze creating a gentle ripple on the surface. Nick was convinced that he'd been at a disadvantage on previous trips due to the onerous task of skippering the Baha vessel. I therefore took control of the wheel for this outing and decided to head towards the dam wall for the morning's fishing. My first choice of venue yielded no fish (although Nick did miss one) which left me a little nervous in my new captain's hat. Thankfully my second choice proved rather fruitful and we landed several…

[caption id="attachment_1692" align="alignleft" width="300"] Fly fishing for lost rods[/caption] With Inanda fast becoming our most fished venue we decided to head down with a new objective in mind...to cover more water. We therefore left the float tubes at home and hitched up the boat, ready to explore the uncharted nooks and crannies of the dam (well, for us anyway). We launched the boat at 6am and were soon flying across the dam, sulking that neither of us had bothered to pack breakfast. Thankfully our hunger pangs were quickly forgotten as we pulled into our first bay. While Nick was still navigating the boat into our drift I threw out my popper and got straight into a fish. The water was murky with a lot of algae on the surface. It…

[caption id="attachment_1642" align="alignright" width="300"] Yet another largemouth bass[/caption] Bass seem to be topping the todo list of late. I guess it's because they're close to home and great fun to fish for on the surface. So on Sunday we headed back down to Inanda Dam to have another go at the good old largemouth. I got down at 5:45 only to (once again) discover that the gate only opens at 6am. Rather than standing around I put this time to good use and inflated my tube and kitted up my rod. That way when the gate opened I was ready to go and was on the water within 5 minutes. This proved to be a good move as I picked up 3 fish within 15 minutes of kicking out. After…

[caption id="attachment_1623" align="alignright" width="300"] Warren with a bass at Inanda Dam[/caption] After a slow weekend of fishing at Midmar we decided to head down to Inanda Dam to get back into some decent largemouth bass. With Nick driving it meant a lazy 6am start which resulted in us arriving at the gate at roughly 6:30am. I whipped out my Wild Card, it was swiped, and we were let in. While driving to our fishing spot I took a look at my slip and noticed that my card had expired several months before. Clearly they don't check the slips. Free entry for the win! After inflating the tubes we kicked out onto the water which was as smooth as glass. The sun was already bright and I was unsure as to how…

[caption id="attachment_1459" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Warren Prior with a nice large-mouth bass[/caption] A big Xplorer sale meant that Nick and I ended up with a few extra fly rods that needed to be tested. For me the rod I wanted to put through its paces was a new Guide II 7 weight which was to become my bass (and possibly salt water) rod. We had originally planned a salt water outing down the south coast as we also had a few new 9 weights. However wind and high seas dictated our decision and we eventually opted to head down to Inanda Dam for some bass bashing. We arrived at Inanda in a slight drizzle, sucked down the remainder of our coffee, and then peeled the plastic off the new rods. The water…