Midmar Bass Bashing

Midmar Bass Bashing

Bass, Fly Fishing, Fresh Water, Trip Report
[caption id="attachment_888" align="alignleft" width="300"] Launching At Midmar[/caption] Amazingly it had been 8 years since Nick and I last visited (and camped) at Midmar Dam in the Kzn Midlands. Yes, it's not as scenic as the mountains and bass are not as fondly thought of as trout by most fly fisherman; but we're not most fly fisherman! So when a long weekend popped up just before Christmas we packed the vehicles, hitched the boat, and took the families up to Midmar for a relaxing weekend with a "little" fly fishing. We arrived at around 6pm on Friday evening which left us just enough light to pitch the tents and get camp ready before darkness fell. Then the beers came out, the fire was lit, and we began the usual discussions of…
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Inanda Dam Bass Bashing

Inanda Dam Bass Bashing

Bass, Fly Fishing, Fresh Water
[caption id="attachment_590" align="alignright" width="300"] Warren With A Bass[/caption]After a rather interesting DFT demo by Marco Breschi, our club’s bass expert, I had a chat with him and we decided to head down to Inanda Dam on Sunday morning for a little bass fishing (on fly of course). With my newly tied strip leech in hand, Nick picked me up, we met Marco at the gate, and we headed down to the dam. Our first mistake was arriving at 5am only to be told that the gate only opens at 6am. We must thank Nick for this great piece of planning, so if you ever happen to run into him please be sure to rough him up a little. None the less we put the time to good use by pumping…
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Glengarry

Glengarry

Bass, Fly Fishing, Fresh Water, Trip Report, Trout
[caption id="attachment_438" align="aligncenter" width="900"] The Little Mooi At Glengarry, Kamberg[/caption] Things got off to a ropey start when Sharon woke up sick at 3am. "This can’t be good," the fisherman in me thought. Thankfully after taking a few pills she climbed back into bed and we managed to doze for another hour or so until we climbed out of bed at 4:30am. [caption id="attachment_435" align="alignleft" width="300"] The Priors On The Bushmans River[/caption] We packed the car slowly but Sharon seemed to be feeling a little better so I kept cautiously quiet. Just after 5am we pulled out of the complex and finally started our long weekend away. Our first stop was of course the BP garage for freshly brewed coffee before setting our sights on Giants Castle and, more importantly,…
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Nick’s Day Of Domination

Nick’s Day Of Domination

Bass, Fly Fishing, Fresh Water
[caption id="attachment_416" align="alignleft" width="300"] Nick Testing Float Tubes[/caption] The weekend got off to a good start with a morning's fishing at Inanda Dam. Nick picked me up and, after a quick stop at McDonalds, we headed for the water where we met up with Gavin and a mate of his. Things got off to a very interesting start when we spotted a spear fisherman in a full camo wetsuit. Strange? Or was it just us? Now slightly worried about our legs dangling in the water we pumped up our float tubes and made our way out into the water to start nailing those bass. Nick had a great session and landed 4 largemouth bass on a home tied woolly bugger. I must've been doing something wrong since, despite fishing close…
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The New Baha Vessel

The New Baha Vessel

Bass, Fly Fishing, Fresh Water
[caption id="attachment_390" align="alignright" width="300"] A Tiny Largemouth Bass[/caption] Sunday started off with a little admin as I helped Nick patch up a few holes on his newly acquired boat. This was of course all worth it as we hooked it up to the Jeep and headed down to Inanda Dam to make sure it didn't sink. This did of course mean that we packed the fly rods and planned to nail a few bass in the process. When we arrived at the gate at around 11:30 we could hardly believe the queue. Yes, it was a beautiful day, but the queue was ridiculous. It must've taken us around half an hour to just get through the gate and then we had to worry about finding a free slipway. With the…
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Shongweni Dam Fail

Shongweni Dam Fail

Bass, Fly Fishing, Fresh Water
[caption id="attachment_387" align="alignleft" width="300"] Shongweni Dam, Kzn[/caption] For the first fishing trip of the year Nick and I found ourselves at Shongweni Dam. Personally I would've preferred Inanda but the general consensus was that Shongweni would be far less busy on the second day of the year. Sharon and I arrived first, just before 9am, and were greeted by hordes of people. Never have I seen the dam quite so busy. Thankfully we were just early enough to secure the last decent picnic spot with both shade and a braai. Nick and Tazz arrived shortly after us and, after setting up, Nick and I were on soon on the water. There was a buzz of activity on the surface but sadly it wasn't from fish. There were kids swimming in…
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Inanda Dam Bass Bashing

Inanda Dam Bass Bashing

Bass, Fly Fishing, Fresh Water
[caption id="attachment_290" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Nick Fly Fishing Inanda Dam[/caption] Since Nick was working on Sunday we decided to have a fish on Saturday morning. Rather than head to the berg we tried something new and headed down to Inanda dam to bash some bass. Nick picked me up at 7am which was a nice change from the normal 5am, however in retrospect this may have been a little late as the temperature in the valley climbed to a sweltering 38 degrees. We pumped up the tubes and were in the water by 8am. Nick quickly got into his first fish of the day, a small largemouth Bass taken on a flipper. I had started with an intermediate line and after Nick missed a few more takes I opted to switch…
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Exploring Inanda Dam

Bass, Fly Fishing, Fresh Water
This week I decided I'd explore some of the local water, rather than hitting the salt. So when Saturday morning arrived I grabbed my 5 weight, and headed down to Inanada Dam to try and pick up a few Bass. I'd fished the dam once before with Nick, and we'd managed to pull out a few Bass, so I figured I had a good starting point. WRONG! Since the dam is now full (and clearly wasn't when we last fished it), the area we'd been successful in was now completely underwater. I didn't let this deter me, and headed off on foot into the unknown. There was a bit of a path, but it got more vague the farther I went. Eventually I was just bashing my way through the…
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