30Jun 2012 by Warren Prior 2 Comments
Madagascar Fly Fishing

Madagascar Fly Fishing

Fly Fishing, Salt Water, Trip Report
I recently had the pleasure of travelling to the 8th continent, Madagascar, for my honeymoon. It went without question that my fly rods were the first items to be packed and I'm grateful to say that my wife didn't bat an eyelid. We flew into Antananarivo on a Tuesday with the temperature being a chilly 19 degrees when we landed. This left us a little concerned since neither of us had packed any warm clothes. Things then got off to a rocky start when our airport transfer didn't arrive and we were left to fend for ourselves in a foreign, non English speaking, country. After battling off hundreds of "taxi" drivers and locals trying to grab our bags we finally climbed into a car. Much to our horror our "taxi"…
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15Apr 2012 by Warren Prior No Comments
Cape Vidal

Cape Vidal

Fly Fishing, Salt Water, Trip Report
[caption id="attachment_452" align="alignleft" width="300"] Fly Fishing Reels[/caption] At 4am on Friday morning Nick pulled into the Plantations parking lot to pick me up for an epic long weekend at Cape Vidal. The Baha Boys had teamed up with the Durban Fly Tyers for a fly fishing trip that was certainly not to be forgotten. We vigorously packed the car and then headed for the garage at the first toll plaza on the N2. Despite it being so early we were oozing excitement and rearing to go. Just before 5am (the planned meeting time) we pulled into the garage and found ourselves a stool in the Steers where we ordered ourselves a steaming cup of coffee. Feeling a little peckish we also snuck in a small Steers burger which was quite…
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01Apr 2012 by Warren Prior No Comments
April Fools Fishing

April Fools Fishing

Fly Fishing, Salt Water
[caption id="attachment_427" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Rocky Bay Panorama[/caption] Sunday got off to an early start, even for me, when the alarm went off at 3:45am. After rubbing the sleep from my eyes I climbed into my car, started the engine, and cruised quietly towards Rocky Bay. On route I was treated to the most amazing shooting star right in front of the car. Quietly I prayed that this would be a good omen for the day's fishing. When I arrived at Rocky Bay it was still pitch black and Graeme was nowhere to be seen. Slowly the sun began peaking its head over the horizon and at around 5:20am, just as it was getting lighter, Graeme pulled in much to my relief. We chatted for a while until it was light…
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21Mar 2012 by Warren Prior No Comments
Human Rights Domination

Human Rights Domination

Fly Fishing, Salt Water
[caption id="attachment_419" align="alignright" width="300"] Nick fishing Casino Beach[/caption]If you ever studied science you'll know about potential energy. Well that's exactly what public holidays are...potential energy. All that needs to be done to them is to convert them into kinetic energy, which is exactly what Nick, Hayden and I did when we headed for the beach to do some salt water fly fishing. We arrived at around 6am and got straight to it, fishing the holes and shallows for largespot pompano. The structure of the beach had changed somewhat from the hurricane but the main holes were still there. Clearly it was my turn to dominate as I managed to land 5 pompano on my magical orange fly. Nick and Hayden on the other hand toiled for a couple of hours…
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02Mar 2012 by Warren Prior No Comments
Post Work Fishing

Post Work Fishing

Fly Fishing, Salt Water
[caption id="attachment_410" align="alignleft" width="300"] A Nice Wave Garrick At Casino Beach[/caption] Having recently discovered my new, favourite salt water location I decided to give it a bash after work. Nick was unfortunately busy so I headed over with Sharon who did a little gambling while I fished the surf. I was concerned that the beach would be crowded with joggers, walkers and other people (in the afternoon), making it unfishable with a fly line. I was however pleasantly surprised at just how empty the beach was. And I was even more surprised when I got into a nice largespot pompano on my 3rd cast. Things improved from their as I fished my way up and down the beach, using an orange ruffy, landing fish after fish. Species included were wave…
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26Feb 2012 by Warren Prior No Comments
Friends Of Baha At Vidal

Friends Of Baha At Vidal

Fly Fishing, Salt Water
[caption id="attachment_404" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Kings And Queens At Vidal[/caption] On arrival on Friday evening we were disappointed to see that the zone between shore break right out to backline was brown with water from southern river mouths. Did not even attempt to fish. Miraculously, the following morning was much better. Whilst the water was murky, it had cleaned up considerably, helped by the north easterly wind change. I focussed my fishing in one area, namely where the diagonal rock outcrop meets the beach. the landward, protected side of this rock formation forms a funnel during high tide that kingfish and other gamefish use to concentrate baitfish. The sight of schools of small baitfish being smashed near to ones feet was a little distracting. Anyway, I was not too successful in…
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25Feb 2012 by Warren Prior No Comments
Durban Harbour Day

Durban Harbour Day

Fly Fishing, Salt Water
[caption id="attachment_407" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Different Species From The Durban Harbour[/caption]Nick and I, never defeated, found ourselves back in the Durban harbour on Saturday morning. Rather than wade the banks (again) we'd opted to fish off of the newly acquired boat in the hope of picking up some pickhandle barracuda in the silt canal. I picked up Nick at around 8:30am after he'd played a little Bakers (now KFC) cricket with his nephew. After a quick stop at the Kingfisher to pick up a rod section we launched the boat at 10am and headed for the silt canal. Immediately there was some excitement with a lot of small kingies smashing bait fish in the shallows. We threw a few flies at them and got hit once or twice, but we were…
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21Feb 2012 by Warren Prior No Comments
Pre-Work Surf Bashing

Pre-Work Surf Bashing

Fly Fishing, Salt Water
[caption id="attachment_401" align="alignleft" width="300"] Southern Pompano[/caption] Ever eager to wet a fly line Nick and I dragged ourselves from bed long before work and met at Casino Beach. It was 5am and the sun was yet to rise. Sadly the water was a little higher than we'd anticipated from tidal charts but since we were already there we were committed. Slowly we began fishing our way up the beach focusing on the sand banks and deeper channels where we knew the fish would gather. Things were far from ideal but we pushed on. Thankfully the tide was pulling and 45 minutes later conditions were far more favourable. Nick was the first to get into a pre-work fish landing a small largespot pompano on an orange charlie. I followed this up…
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19Feb 2012 by Warren Prior No Comments

Harbour Hell

Fly Fishing, Salt Water
As we all know things very often don't go according to plan when fishing, and this weekend was no exception. A friend of ours from Finland, Simon, was out in South Africa visiting family and doing a little fly fishing in the process. And since he was fishing the harbour on both Saturday and Sunday morning we planned to meet him down there to nail some fish in the bay. On Saturday morning it was just me who braved the drizzle, got into the car, and drove down to a very wet harbour. Simon had decided to give it a miss but there were a few other fly fishermen targeting the banks. I pulled on my booties, waded out to great them, and after a quick chat learned that nobody…
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