Fly Fishing Archives - Page 6 of 23

10Apr 2016 by Warren Prior No Comments

Back To The Harbour

[caption id="attachment_2543" align="alignright" width="225"] Leo with a nice gurnard[/caption] It's been a while since I've fly fished the harbour. In fact, according to this blog, the last time was back in January 2013 when we got some nice pompano and kingies. News was that it was fishing well so Keegan, Leo, Amy and I headed down for a quick flick. Spring lows were at around midday so we arrived at the harbour at 10:30am. The not uncommon first challenge was that Leo forgot his basket. This was (relatively) easily solved by lurking behind the restaurants and hunting down an old beer crate. This combined with a piece of soggy harbour rope made a great stripping basket and we were back in action. We started fishing near the concrete block and I quickly…

14Feb 2016 by Warren Prior No Comments

The Valentine’s Day Curse (Umzimkulu River Lodge Trip Report)

Fly Fishing, Fresh Water, Trip Report, Trout

Being Valentine's weekend granny was kind enough to offer to look after Emma so that Sharon and I could get away for a weekend of solitude. Since this opportunity presents itself so rarely we decided to kill several birds with one stone by organising a relaxing, hiking, romantic, fishing weekend away. As nonsensical as that sounds we found the perfect venue in the Umzimkulu River Lodge, located 22kms outside of Underberg. We had a little hiccup getting there as we made use of Google Maps rather than following the sign I'd seen on so many occasions. This saw us taking the second Coleford road rather than the first and then left us guessing when we crossed the Umzimkulu with no lodge in sight. After driving backwards and forwards for ten minutes…

12Feb 2016 by Warren Prior No Comments

A Quick Casino Outing

Fly Fishing, Salt Water

At one stage Casino beach was probably my most fished venue, being en route to work and close to home. However for some reason this seems to have come to an end and I've barely fished this stretch over the last couple of years. It's never produced large fish, but I've picked up a variety of species here from wavies to African pompano, and shad to thornfish. Even the odd garrick has been known to come out. And since it's sometimes just about getting out there Neill and I decided to have a quick pre-work flick in the waves. Fishing was tough as it was spring highs and the water was dirty from recent rains. Despite this we put in an hour or two and were rewarded with a few small…

07Feb 2016 by Warren Prior No Comments

A Low Inanda Dam In My Xplorer Journey Deluxe

Bass, Fly Fishing, Fresh Water

For many years my wife's watched my vibrant blue Fishcat Deluxe fade into something she deemed unworthy of floating on a dam. To right this wrong she gifted me with a brand new Xplorer Journey Deluxe for my birthday and Christmas presents. At first I was torn, not wanting to discard my still buoyant Fishcat, however curiosity soon got the better of me and I decided to give it a try at my local bass dam, Inanda. After convincing my wife that Emma would love a morning of sun, water and open spaces we climbed into the car and headed for the dam. So far all was on track. There was a short queue at the gate but it didn't take long and soon I'd setup a small picnic spot for…

26Sep 2015 by Warren Prior No Comments

Over Overlining Fly Rods

Fly Fishing, Salt Water

While there may be occasions where overlining a fly rod is a worthwhile endeavour, this isn't always the case. I recently made the mistake of packing my gear far too quickly for a family trip to Ifafa beach. While the wife wasn't watching I grabbed my rod, reel, and flybox, and hid them cunningly in the back of the car. I should however mention that when fishing the salt I often bounce between a 5 weight and a 9 weight rod, depending on my target species and the conditions. This chain of events led to a very interesting experience. One evening, when Emma was relaxed and Sharon was enjoying a glass of wine, I grabbed my rod and headed down to the beach to try for a few shad, or whatever…

06Sep 2015 by Warren Prior No Comments

The New Location X

Fly Fishing, Fresh Water, Trout

During a recent trip to the Bend my mate Dave and I decided to head out to try a new water. Admittedly I was initially a little upset that we weren't fishing the Mooi River, seeing as the season had just opened, but looking back this was the best decision we could have made. The river was still very thin after all, while the brown trout we discovered were fat and happy. After loading up the Ark we took a short drive to our new location X and launched the boat. Dave handed me a paddle and proceeded to tell me tales of woe about a biking accident, a plate in his shoulder, and his new inability to paddle. In his defence he did take 3 strokes before lowering his paddling and letting me do…

16Aug 2015 by Warren Prior No Comments

Back To Underberg

Fly Fishing, Fresh Water, Trip Report, Trout

Craving some trout fishing, Neill was kind enough to put together another boys weekend to trout mecca known as Underberg. I put in for a full day's leave on Friday (rather than the usual half day) in the hope of getting in a full day's fishing. Sadly this was not to be as Neill got stuck with customers which temporarily delayed our departure. Add to this that my car's fuel warning light had come on, and that Neill's car had battled to start the previous morning, and it was clear we weren't off to a great start. As it turned out Andrew and Richard weren't doing too much better, and we all arrived at Turner's Cottage at around 11am. Being close to midday I wasn't expecting much from the fishing, but it was great to…

10Aug 2015 by Warren Prior No Comments

A Tough Weekend At Kamberg

Fly Fishing, Fresh Water, Trout

[caption id="attachment_2466" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Fishing Erskine Dam, Kamberg[/caption] I recently spent a long weekend at the Kamberg Nature Reserve with my family. It's a beautiful venue and was once one of the most highly regarded fly fishing venue in Kzn. Sadly, since the hatchery closed, I've found the dam fishing to have declined, although they do claim to still stock them regularly. That said, it's still a great venue for beginners thanks primarily to the mowed banks making it an easy venue to fish compared to our many farm waters. And if you exclude the dams it still has a beautiful stretch of the Mooi river, which I was sadly unable to fish due to it being the closed season. Over the course of the weekend I only managed two short afternoon sessions of around…

06Jul 2015 by Warren Prior No Comments

Trout In The Sleet

Fly Fishing, Fresh Water, Trout

I recently decided to take the family on a mini adventure to a very cold Underberg. Snow was predicted and it's not often that it falls over the weekend in accessible locations. I was therefore going to make sure that my little girl got to build her very own version of Olaf (as a parent I now get to reference Frozen). Our snow hunting on the first day proved unsuccessful and at 2:30pm it was clear that we would have to wait for nightfall for snow. I therefore decided to shoot off to one of the UHTFC's dams for a quick fish. I dropped Sharon and Emma off at the hotel and promptly headed for Lake Isabella, at Alan's recommendation. Amazingly as I passed through Underberg the sunny skies darkened and the rain…

14Jun 2015 by Warren Prior No Comments

The Boston Fly Fishing Festival 2015

Event, Fly Fishing, Fresh Water, Trip Report, Trout

I can safely say that the Boston Fly Fishing Festival is by far my favourite festival. Yes, I will admit it's the only festival I fish regularly, but I'm utterly convinced this is irrelevant - it's just that good - and this year was no exception. Will I be back next year? Definitely, but I'll be packing a set of bolt cutters. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself, so let's start from the beginning. With Nick, a key Baha Boy and team member, having left SA for Australia I was forced to relook at Team Baha for the 2015 event. Neill and Bruce had both secured their places after dominating the 2014 festival, which meant there was just 1 space left to full. Coxy's mom might have prevented him from coming and Alan…

Category: Fly Fishing