A cloud of super relaxed holiday vibes moved into camp on arrival of good friends and returning guests, Chris, Terrance, Greg, and Gerald. After the horrible weather these poor guys had last season(http://blog.tourettefishing.com/three-rivers-lesotho-yellowfish-group-7-30-jan-02-feb-2014/), they were sure to make the most of the picture perfect conditions that was predicted for this week.
Chris and Greg made themselves very comfortable on their veranda and kicked up their feet for the afternoon while Gerald and Terrance ventured down to the river for a late evening session. With the water being super skinny, the fishing was technical but very rewarding. Both of them landed a few good yellows on dry.
After the evening’s festivities, we were up to a very relaxed start on the first morning. With sunny skies and very little wind we all set about taking on Beat 1. By the end of the day everyone got stuck into the yellows. The water still being very skinny, there wasn’t much ROOM for error, but everyone did very well.
On day two, we headed to Beat no 2 for the day. The water dropped even more overnight and with the skinny conditions, the yellows were not moving in the running water between pools anymore. This made the day very challenging! By the time of sunset, the guys made the most of the low light and could manage to get very close to these wary yellows and managed to land some really nice fish.
On day 3(change over day), we said goodbye to Chris, Gerald, Terrance and Greg in the morning and welcomed the new guests Peter, Richard, Hannes, Gerhard, Pat, and Tom into camp that same evening.
After settling in and a quick briefing, we hit the water with some urgency as the weather report for the next afternoon did not look to promising. We covered a lot of water on the first afternoon as we still had very few fish moving around. Once a fish was spooked, the best thing to do in this skinny water was just to move on to the next pool. The fishing was not easy but it was a good opportunity for everyone to shake off the cobwebs and work on accuracy and presentation.
The following morning everyone was up bright and early. Maybe a little bit too early as the temperature dropped during the night, cooling the river down to a yellowfish sulking 14deg. We decided to split up for the day. Pat and Tom started on beat 3 while the rest of the group opted to fish the section around the Woolshed in the dam, with the hopes of landing a trophy trout.
With the low water temperature, it seemed that most of the fish in the river dropped back closer to the dam and it did not take long for the guys on Beat 3 to do the same. The predicted bad weather moved in quickly soon after and made the going very tough. The guys soldiered on through the rain though and managed to find a honey hole close to the start of Beat 1. By the end of the day, everyone (despite the weather) got their quota of yellows on dry. Special mention must go out to Pat though. Despite the conditions he managed to land a beautiful 21” rainbow trout on dry.
On the final day of the week we woke to sunny clear skies and a much needed couple extra inches in the river. With conditions looking more favourable , we packed some lunch and headed out for the whole day! The guys split up again, the same as the day before, with Pat and Tom heading to the second half of Beat 3 while the rest headed for the middle of beat 2.
Close to midday though the wind, that could only be described as ‘gale force’, came howling down the valley. This added and extra challenge to the already technical fishing. However, this made every fish that got landed very rewarding. Pat and Tom managed to crack the code and despite the conditions, managed some really nice fish in the super skinny waters on the sides of the river bringing the week to an exiting but tough end.
Till next time
Stuart and Pierre
