In January, the Durban Fly Tyers asked me to write an article for their monthly newsletter, The Bobbin. Having only recently started getting into the Australian fly fishing scene, I decided to write about my first taste of Aussie fly fishing.
My family and I recently headed out to Oberon in NSW, in the hope of finding some trout waters closer to home. While Lake Jindabyne and the Thredbo River were incredible venues, driving 7 hours to fish for trout is just too tall an ask for me to do frequently. So with that in mind, we left home after work on Friday, and started the 180km drive through the Blue Mountains, to Oberon. I was not initially impressed with our accomodation, the Jenolan Holiday Park, predominantly since it was located in the middle of town, under the clouds of steam billowing from the timber mill's stacks. That said, the cabins were comfortable, consisting of 2 bedrooms, a bathroom with a shower, and a small living area including an open plan…
My family and I recently spent a magical weekend at Turon Gates. Despite not being considered a top trout water, the Turon River is apparently stocked with around 7000 brown trout fry per year (according to unreliable sources). The river is better known for it's carp population, and also holds the odd bass. Despite poor fishing reports I was excited to get knee deep in a crystal clear stream, missing my home country rivers, like the Bushmans and the Pholela, In preparation for the trip, and at the advice of local fishermen, I invested in a pair gaiters to protect me from the various venomous creatures Australia has on offer, and bought a fresh supply of dries, nymphs, and other trout flies. A new trout net sadly eluded me. The…
Having hosted a very successful (inaugural) fly fishing festival in 2016, we (the UHTFC committee) decided to build on the event by hosting our second festival in 2017. We updated the format, extending the festival by a day to 2 days, and then threw in a formal dinner and braai. Although Neill and I were fishing in the festival, we were also partially responsible for putting the event together, and therefore had to do our due diligence. As such we drove up early on Friday morning and spent the day checking the condition of the festival waters, unlocking the various gates and boat houses, packing goodie bags, and setting up the evening venue. One of the waters was slightly off-colour, and we therefore removed it from the festival, otherwise all was looking good. With…
I was lucky enough to win a 5 day stay at Castleburn in last years Xplorer UHTFC Festival. After (accidentally) letting it expire I managed to get it extended by a month and took the family up for a much needed break. Having spent the weekend fishing the Boston Fly Fishing Festival this was intended to be a family trip. I did however manage to pack the fly rod and to sneak away for the odd hour here and there. And I'm certainly glad I did - the fishing was great. For the full (family) trip report please head over to my personal website. This blog post is going to be more focused on Castleburn's fly fishing, as well as any activities related to fishing. The Venue [caption id="attachment_2907" align="alignnone" width="1600"] Sunrise…
Arrival and Registration The 7th annual Boston Fly Fishing Festival was once again held on the weekend of the 16th June. And for the 5th year in a row this meant missing my wedding anniversary in favour of the event. Thankfully I have a forgiving wife, and had booked a week-long family holiday at Castleburn, and was therefore given the much needed pink slip. Baha Fly Fishing entered the same 2 teams of four as the previous year. The South coast team was once again made up of Dave, Dan, Andrew and Richard, while the Durban team consisted of Neill, Bruce, Keegan and myself. Now while I named the team's Baha North and Baha South, the South Coast boys had other plans. They arrived at the festival early and used…
I recently took the family to the Drakensberg in search of snow. Sadly our adventure was less successful than planned. Although there was an abundance of snow, all of it fell high in the mountains meaning we needed to make our way up Sani Pass to get it. So far so good. The problem however arose as we began to make our way up the bottom reaches of the pass and quickly discovered just how dangerous the pass had become. Our first clue should have been the various news reports we heard on the radio clearly stating that the top of the pass was closed. However we chose to ignore these in the hope that we could drive up the pass just far enough to get to the bottom of the…
This morning I returned to Granchester, one of the Natal Fly Fishing Club's most popular dams, after a 5 year break from the venue. A quick review of the blog reminded me that it had been a tough outing with Nick picking up the only fish (you can read the story here). I was hoping for better luck. The drive up proved to be spectacular with mist filling the valleys, while the golden sunrise highlighted the autumn hues of the surrounding trees. In fact the view was so spectacular that I even put my fishing on hold to stop and take a few photos. [caption id="attachment_2842" align="alignnone" width="1600"] A golden sunrise in the Natal Midlands[/caption] I arrived at the waters edge just after 7am. It was 4 degrees (Celcius) with…
