Blog (Page 6)...

April Fools Fishing - 1st April 2012

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 enough to fish and then kitted up and headed to the beach. The surf was huge thanks to the previous days howling winds but thankfully the pouring rain did not seem to have discoloured the water.

At first we headed south scouting various rocky gullies and ledges before realising that this was a lost cause. Eventually we settled on a small bay and began fishing the surf. Sadly, less than 10 minutes later, a bait fisherman started kitting up behind us which essentially made the bay unfishable due to rods, lines and his presence.

We then headed back to the main beach, and launch area, where we tried fishing in the heavy shore break for a while. This too was a lost cause but we gave it a bash anyway having driven all the way down.

Entertainment was provided by a boat trying to launch through the huge surf. After making it through the shore break we watched the skipper battle for around 30 minutes to get through the backline. Eventually even this got boring so we packed up our kit and headed for the Scottburgh Wimpy to enjoy a cooked breakfast.

Yes, we caught no fish, but on the up side it was a spectacular morning. The air was crisp and I got to test out my new Columbia Raintech jacket. Although it wasn't raining it kept me warm amidst a chilly wind and, even more impressively, didn’t cause me to overheat once the sun rose and the wind died down. I'm hugely impressed.

A Tough Day At Granchester - 24th March 2012

The weekend started for the Baha Boys at 4:30am on Saturday morning as I climbed out of bed and packed the final few items for a fishing trip to the Berg. The summer humidity seemed to be breaking and we'd decided to give Granchester a go to find out whether the trout fishing was improving.

Nick picked me up at 5am and we started the 100 odd kilometre drive to Granchester, stopping for the usual cup of steaming coffee. When we pulled up next to the dam the conditions were difficult to read. It was partly cloudy and there was a stiff breeze creating a strong ripple on the surface of the water. The dam itself was completely full and the water was slightly murky. The water was however still close to 20 degrees.

After blowing up the tubes we kicked out onto the dam and battled the wind for a three hour morning session. Fishing was tough with neither of us having any luck no matter what we tried.

Ever determined not to blank we strategised over a few hotdogs for first lunch and then got back onto the water. It's always difficult going out for the second session after a very bleak first session. None the less I kept plugging away and tried my few remaining tricks, sadly to no avail.

Then the most amazing thing happened; the south easterly wind died and the water went still for around 5 minutes. The wind then switched 180 degrees to a north westerly and slowly picked up. It was at this exact point that Nick hooked into a nice sized rainbow. It measured in at exactly 1kg but Nick, to this day, does not believe my scale despite testing it on a 2 litre bottle of Coke.

As for the wind switch and the fish...was this a coincidence? I'm not so sure. The wind then switched back to a south easterly and we didn't sniff another fish that day.

At around 2pm we called it quits and headed for the Notties pub for a quick draught beer before heading home.

Human Rights Domination - 21st March 2012

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 and sadly both blanked in the end.

In fact, at one point I looked down the beach and saw Nick standing half way up the beach casting onto the sand. I guess that could explain why he didn't catch.

Fishing was of course followed by the mandatory R20 breakfast at Wimpy before calling it a day and heading home. It was 10am and the rest of the world was only just getting out of bed.

Nick's Day Of Domination - 17th March 2012

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 to Nick, I landed not even one fish. I guess we all have off days?!

The water was incredibly warm (28 degrees to be precise) so when we got back to the car we spent half an hour or so testing out the tipping point of our float tubes. Having often heard nasty stories of just how easily they flip, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to form our own opinions and to assess the real danger.

With one of us at the ready to free the other we set about testing Nick's Xplorer Journey and my Fishcat Deluxe.

We did manage to flip both tubes forwards, backwards and sideways, with forwards being by far the easiest of the directions. That said, it would be nearly impossible to do any of these by accident. In fact, tipping the tubes took a large amount of effort. The tubes also tipped incredibly slowly so there was plenty of time to notice what was happening and to correct it.

Since our initial tests were done without stripping aprons (for safety reasons), we manned up and repeated the tests with the aprons on. We were concerned that the bar on the Xplorer may trap the fishermen in the tube one flipped. This was far from the truth and we had absolutely no difficulty getting out of the tube once it had overturned.

Our next test was to see whether one was able to get back onto the tube in the middle of the dam. Both tubes were easy enough to climb back onto without touching the bottom. It did however take a little effort and older people may struggle a little with this. The Xplorer was slightly easier to climb onto which I think was due to the harder foam seat rather than the inflatable seat in the Fishcat.

It is worth stating that these tests were done with fins on but without waders. This could make a difference since waders may lower mobility slightly.

Feeling content with our results we packed away our kit and headed home.

A Tough Morning's Trout Fishing - 10th March 2012

Rest is for the wicked and so I dragged myself out of bed at 5am on Saturday morning and headed for the Midlands. Sadly I'd been unable to find a fishing partner but this did little to deter my enthusiasm. In fact, if anything, I was more enthusiastic as I prefer the odd trip alone on the water. It removes any competition and allows me to focus on experimenting with new techniques and flies which I otherwise may not risk (with someone breathing down my neck).

I pulled into the water at around 6:30am and was fishing by 7am. Sadly conditions were far from ideal. In a slight miscalculation I'd opted to fish one of our closer club waters rather than drive for another hour into the Berg. At the time this seemed like a good idea as I was both worried about rain in the Berg (which there was) as well as not feeling like driving a few hours by myself.

As a result I found myself fishing very warm, very murky, very weedy water. The warm water was a problem but the murky water meant I was relatively well hidden from the fish. The weed on the other hand would be useful in winter by providing shelter and food for the fish, but under these conditions it posed a few problems as I was fishing deep (and hence in it).

Not to be deterred by this I began experimenting with smaller flies, fishing deeper, and almost statically. It was tough going but thankfully I was rewarded for my perseverance when I landed a small rainbow trout at around 11am.

Knowing things were far from perfect I breathed a sigh of relief, packed up my kit, and headed home to spend some time on the squash courts. After a quick lunch I headed for the club where Sharon planned to meet me later. She was out dress shopping with her mom and sister, hence my extra freedom.

Post Work Fly Fishing - 2nd March 2012

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 garrick, shad and thornfish.

An hour later, when Sharon joined me on the beach, I'd landed 8 fish in beautiful conditions. Clearly this location fishes especially well in the evening on a low tide. I'll most certainly be back there after work for another evening fish.

Durban Harbour Day - 25th February 2012

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 targeting the big boys and our hooks were perhaps a little large for these juveniles.

When things calmed down in the shallows we drifted the drop off on the canal but it was perhaps a little late in the day for the barracuda. I got lucky while fishing with my favoured orange crazy charlie and picked up a small cape moony under one of the channel buoys. Although not a great fighter it's always exciting to land a new species.

With our parking expiring at 1pm (the meter wouldn't accept any more money) we headed back to the slipway to feed the meter. It was only when I was trying to load more money into the machine that I realised the reason it would only let me pay until 1pm was the parking was free after that. FAIL!

Taking advantage of the situation I popped into the Fish Cafe and grabbed us a few beers before heading out again.

The tide was pushing in fast and we spent the next few hours drifting over the centre banks hoping to pick up a Grunter or two. Sadly this was not to be. I did manage to land a pair of sand gurnards and lose a small east coast sole, but other than that things were quite.

Nick in the meantime was struggling with his floating line (geared for those pickhandle) and decided to swing things in his favour. As such he added a delicious mud prawn (which we'd pumped for Grunter fishing on Sunday) to his fly and threw it over the edge of the boat. Almost instantly his line went tight and he pulled out the most incredible little puffer fish. It wasn't the normal blassie and we had great fun mocking it before throwing it back into the water.

We had a few other highlights while drifting the bank; firstly we saw two huge rays which may be worth scouting for with a fly in the future. Secondly we risked a short swim while drifting the banks (in hopefully shark free water). And finally it’s worth mentioning that the water was crystal clear at low tide but became instantly murky as we neared high tide. It then switched back to clear as soon as the tide started pulling again. Weird but useful to know.

By now it was nearing 4pm and we were hoping the game fish may come back on. We revved up the engines and headed for the silt canal and the mangroves. The water was alive with fish and no matter where you looked mullet could be seen leaping from the water. We gave the mangroves a short try before heading back to our silt canal drift.

It was in the silt canal that Nick hooked into what seemed to be a decent sized kingie. Sadly, amidst his exuberance, he made the fatal mistake of trying to force the fish onto the reel prematurely. As the fish swam towards the boat Nick tried to reel in the slack line on the deck whilst still maintaining pressure on the fish. As you can imagine this didn't work too well and he allowed the fish some slack. The kingie immediately took advantage of this and spat the hook, leaving Nick somewhat annoyed (to put it lightly).

Sadly that was to be the last fish of the day. We headed back to the centre banks in search of springer and tried for a few kingies near the yacht club, but we had little luck. Not a bad day at all but a lot of work for a few fish. Time will however ultimately be rewarded. And it's a real pity about the lost kingie.

Baha Friends At Vidal - 25th + 26th February 2012

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 connecting with anything of note. It was interesting that I did catch a small immature needlescale queenfish......a new species for me. I returned this spiky character quickly and soon afterwards picked up the bigeye kingfish which was small but very spirited in it's fight. Caught many hand-sized three spot pompano and quite a big black tail which I failed to photograph. All caught on clousers ranging from white to chartreuse...sizes 2 to 2/0.

Got to fish the next morning but for some reason the fish were not feeding.

- By Matt Erasmus

Pre Work Surf Bashing - 21st February 2012

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 with a small southern pompano taken on a similar fly.

Amazingly I had false hooked my fish through the nostrils. This seems to be a fact that Nick will never let me forget...well...until he does it I'm sure.

By 6:30am we had landed our fish, packed up our kit and were on our way to our respective offices. Isn't it great living in a place where you can land a pompano before work? Certainly worth the 4:30am alarm.

Harbour Hell - 18th + 19th February 2012

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 had caught any fish. The rain was still pushing and the wind had also picked up.

I began working my way up and down the banks trying everything from a squid pattern to a small charlie. Sadly nothing bit and I was left fishless after an hour and a half of hard work in the rain. It's always sad leaving the banks without so much as a gurney but hey, these things happen.

The following morning I headed back down to the harbour, this time with Nick and Hayden. Graham was already on the banks and had apparently lost a small springer. Things were looking up.

Feeling a little more optimistic that the previous day we all started working the banks hard. Sadly Nick and I were left empty handed after close to three hours in the water. Hayden however landed his first salt water fish, a bartail flathead. Although far from ideal for Nick and I it's always great when someone lands their first fish. Go Hayden!

A tough weekend in the harbour with little success...but we'll be back to dominate!

Smashing The Surf - 4th February 2012

Nick picked me up at 4am and Saturday morning and we headed for Suncoast Casino where we were meeting a few of the guys from the Durban Fly Tyers club.

At 5am we were on Casino Beach but hadn't spotted any other fly fisherman. Undeterred we started flicking a fly while waiting for the others. Graeme arrived shortly after 5am and we had a chat to him about the club and how many people we could expect at the upcoming meetings. Since no one else seemed to be arriving we began fishing our way up the beach.

The sun was just rising over the horizon with a few scattered clouds in the air. The air was fresh and the water was warm and amazingly clean. Soon I'd had a small knock or two and was feeling rather optimistic.

After around half an hour I noticed Nick and Graeme chatting away on the beach. Eventually I succumbed to peer pressure headed over to see what was so interesting. While chatting to them I continued flicking a fly into the surf and then bam, I was on. Instantly both of them stopped chatting and began fishing once again. On the end of my line was a small Largespot Pompano.

At this point another DFT member joined us and the four of us continued fishing the surf. Within 15 minutes I was into my next fish, a Thornfish which, although normally annoying, was a new species for me so I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We fished for another 30 minutes or so and I landed one final pompano before heading over to the Suncoast Wimpy for a quick breakfast. It had been a great morning and I was especially pleased that all fish had been landed on a home tied fly.

From the Wimpy we headed to the Kingfisher to pick up a few supplies before stopping off at the harbour for a short scouting trip. Nick sadly hadn't picked up a fish in the morning session and was hoping the ever faithful Gurney would end his drought.

We fished the harbour for around an hour, wading the sandbanks, before deciding to call it a day. There did seem to be a lot of activity around us but sadly neither of us had any luck. None the less it had been a great morning's fishing and I headed home happily.

Inanda Dam On A GoPro - 29th January 2012

The New Baha Vessel - 15th January 2012

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 boat finally in the water and seemingly floating, we climbed aboard and headed out across the water at a huge 33km/hr. Although we're certainly not going to be winning any speed contests it all comes down to how many fish we produce, and things were looking good.

Our first issue turned out to be the wind which had suddenly picked up. Without a sneaker motor we were forced to anchor which was far from ideal. So after finding a semi protected bay we dropped the anchor and started flicking a fly. Sadly an hour passed and neither of us picked up a fish.

Satisfied now that the boat wasn't going to end up on the bottom of the dam we headed further from the launch site looking for another protected bay with more structure. We chose one close to the top of the dam and fished a few spots with no luck on the surface or sub surface.

It was now around 2 in the afternoon and the wind seemed to be switching. We headed over to the opposite bank and found a small, good looking bay. Nick kept the boat still while I casted out a small, orange woolly bugger. Immediately a handful of small fish attacked the fly aggressively with water splashing everywhere.

The fish didn't look like bass and I felt they may be small tilapea. As such I put on a #14 orange hotspot hoping to land my first ever tilapia on fly. I threw the hotspot in the direction of the fish and was immediately on. Amazingly it was a small largemouth bass.

We parked the boat, I gave Nick a hotspot, and we sat there bashing the small bass just for a little fun. I landed 13 fish and Nick, who had a 9 weight rod with him, struggled for his 3 due to the lack of feel of the bigger stick.

After we were satisfied we'd landed a few fish we carried on in search of larger quarry. In another bay Nick got into a decent largmouth fishing an epoxy minnow while I picked up another small fish or two on a bass bug.

Satisfied his boat had produced we called it a day and headed back to the slipway where we pulled out the boat and headed home. It had been a successful day on the water and we'd learned a few important lessons.

All in all a great weekend with good results on the new Baha vessel.

Shongweni Fail - 2nd January 2012

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 the warm water, paddlers flying around the dam up against the banks and fishermen casting mielie bombs everywhere.

We kicked over to the reedbeds along the opposite bank hoping to get away from the people but the odd paddler still shot past us, and usually between us and the structure rather than behind us. Grrrr!

None the less we continued fishing, Nick on the surface and myself sub surface, hoping for a little luck. Sadly it never came. An hour and a half later and we were both still fishless. Slowly we kicked our way back to the bank to have a little snack and to re-strategise.

Hunger pangs fed on a few good rolls we kicked back out, still unsure as to what to try next. We slowly worked our way through our fly boxes trying both deep and shallow water, structure, inlets and anything else we could think of; but again it was to no avail.

Eventually we headed back to the picnic sight and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing with friends. Not the best start to the year but still a good day out. Next time it will definitely be Inanda!