Saturday’s fishing saw the normal 4:30am alarm call followed by an attempted twosie. This of course never works, so after picking up Bruce and Nick at 5am, I was careful with the morning’s cup of coffee. We reached the dam at around 6:30am and were on the water by 7am.
Things really were looking good…the water wasn’t too warm, we had a good cloud cover with a little mist, and there was a ripple on the surface of the dam. Sadly this lasted all of 30 minutes before the sun beat away the clouds and the wind vanished without a trace. Before we knew it we were bobbing around on a piece of glass, in 30 degree heat, with very few little sign of any fish.
After having a big knock 20 minutes after getting into the water, everything went dead and we struggled for the next hour or two. And then, at 9am, Nick got into a fish. Calls of “Bahahaaaa” could be heard across the water alerting all to his success. I started kicking towards him while stripping in my line. And then…wham…I was on as well. So there we were, Nick and I side-by-side fighting two rainbow trout, and Bruce sulking on the other side of the dam.
We landed the two fish, took a couple of photos, and then fished our way back to the car for a quick snack. Bruce had unwittingly told us of how his father wouldn’t let him eat until he had caught a fish. This was to be his downfall and the mockery began as soon as he hit the bank.
We had two more sessions on the water without another sign of a fish. The second session had started very hopefully after we found a large damsel nymph in Nick’s trout’s mouth. We all tied on damsel patterns, but nothing.
After the day’s fishing we headed home stopping quickly at Colmonell to check out the condition of the water. And I must admit, it’s looking good. The water was only down by around a foot (far less than Mavela) and it was crystal clear with the usual weed beds looking promising. It really is sad that you’re not allowed tubes on this water as it produces some amazing fish from the small amount of fishable bank.
From Colmonell we stopped off at Dargle for a quick beer before heading to Nick’s place for a braai. The reason I mention this is that we had kept Nick’s fish for the pot (and some scientific research). While gutting the fish we discovered that the fish had been feeding on 2 main things, snails and dragon fly nymphs. The most surprising thing about this is that whenever we are at Mavela there are always large hatches of small white mayflies. I’ve often tried to imitate these with no success and clearly it’s because they don’t seem to feed on them much.
I guess it’s time to buy some snail patterns (or to tie them if I’m feeling brave).