From hero to zero. Thats what it felt like when we arrived back from Katse in camp after collecting the new guests.
A complete opposite of what we experienced the last couple weeks!
One spectacular low pressure system moved into the area and rendered the river into a raging torrent of muddy water! Nonstop heavy rains, icy winds and snow on the high peaks, myself and fellow guide Kyle knew the writing was pretty much on the wall.
None the less the group was super motivated to give it a go anyway. You cant catch fish if you don’t have a line in the water right?
So we were joined by a group of four friends, Gerald, Terrance, Chris and Greg
Unfortunately with the state of the river and weather, the first afternoon was spent in the “mancave”, having a couple drinks, tying flies etc.
The first full day started of with the weather looking like it might clear so we decided to fish a beat quite high up the river with the hope of it cleaning up quickly. The water being a chilly 15 degrees C did not help our cause that much and by 11am the rain came down in buckets again and ended the day really early. Gerald managed to get one little rainbow trout on a biot beatis nymph fished behind a heavy Tungsten. Not bad going as the river was still in flood!
That night the river level went up some more with standing waves in front of camp and turned into an almost milo like color.
Early the next morning the river looked like it slowed down a little again but the temperature dropped to an even cooler 13 degrees C. We took a walk just below camp and came across a small mayfly hatch with some fish rising to the occasion. The guys capitalized fully and Terrence took the spoils with four yellowfish and 4 trout taken on Dry. Unfortunately this only lasted for about 20minutes and after that it was game over.
The heavens opened up on us again and ended the day really early.
Unfortunately weather is something you cant control and sometimes its in your favor and other times not, You win some and you loose some right? We looking forward to the guys returning next season and have a rematch so to speak.
Till next time
Mark & Kyle
Tourette Fishing Lesotho Guides team
