We were joined this week by a mixed group of anglers from South Africa, Ireland, and the USA. The guys were eager to hit both rivers on fly & conventional, but the river gods had other ideas in store for us. A big flush of cold dirty water came down the Ruhudji and forced both anglers and guides to dig really deep and focus hard on their plan B’s & C’s.
The fishing was hard from the get go, but David and John led the charge catching some ndungu(see blog post: https://africanwaters.net/distichodus-petersii-ndungu-on-fly/), as well as njuju (dash tailed barbs), the latter being a baitfish much loved and preyed upon by the tigerfish. David was working really hard, hoping to get a yellowfish to eat his flies fished over the shallow sandbanks, but kept getting stolen by the “trophy” sized baitfish.
In the Kasingo rapids on the Mnyera things looked a bit better. Bites were few and far between but some bigger fish were landed, but most still lost. A common theme we came to terms with this week was the sudden adrenalin spikes and cheering once a big fish was hooked, only to be met with silence once a leader parted or hooks pulled. Fishing is a funny game, sometimes you can’t do anything wrong, but then other times everything is stacked against you and the fish keep winning time after time. I guess that’s why we keep doing it, just for that day when the stars might just line up
Let’s hope next week we will have better fortune.
Until next time.
Greg
