So after all the rain the previous week we were a little nervous to see how the fishing would be this week. The weather forecast showed that it has cleared up but when we drove up the Mafika Lisiui Pass, which by the way is the catchment area for our river, on our way to Katse we could see signs of heavy rain the last couple days. Wet roads, loads of cloud still around and water seeping out all over the place.
None the less, we would still try our best!
I was joined this week by a group of guys who’s been best mates since school days so regardless of how good or bad the fishing was going to be, the atmosphere in camp would still be good.
The first session on Thursday afternoon we got treated to quite an impressive thunder storm but what stood out was the colors of the clouds, bright orange with hints of purple coming through, breathtaking to say the least. We still managed some fish even though the water was a little off color and still high after all the rain of the last couple days.
The first full day we fished the pools below camp as the water was still quite strong and off colored. Allan and Dave stuck to the home pool while Vossie and Wayne walked with TF Guide Yuri Jansen a little lower down. The guys managed some fish on a dry-dropper rig and some fish on the famous Gangnam Style fly as well but the majority was on the dropper! Little soft hackle nymphs, biots nymps and Hare&Copper nymphs plus the gurdle bug in orange seemed to be the go to flies for the day.
Wayne punished the fish in the tail of the one pool, by swinging the gurdle bug right into their faces and almost like forcing them to eat it! The best thing about this fly is that it pushed the fish’s buttons so much that they smash it with force like you can not imagine! Anything less than 4X and you playing with fire. Everyone had a ball and by nightfall the guys were chuffed plus we got treated to Dave Wood’s campfire guitar performance, definitely something to experience at least once in your life time haha
Day two got put on hold by a rising river that went up in a matter of minutes! While we were having breakfast it came up about a foot so we got our Jvices out and decided to whip out some flies instead while we waited to see what the river had in store for us. Luckily it calmed down very quickly and by 11:00 or so we headed back out, same strategy as the day before, focus on the pools as the runs and pocket water sections were still a tad to fast to fish!
It started off slowly with the odd rise here and there but 20min later it was like someone just flipped a switch and the fish came on hard! Taking dries like it was going out of fashion. Between Dave, Allan and Wayne they must have landed about 30 fish on dry! One thing that definitely stood out this session was Allan’s double up. On a dry dropper rig he got a nice 41cm yellow on the dry and same time on the dropper he had a small rainbow trout. Quite an unique catch!
We retreated back to camp at around 15:00 as the storms clouds rolled in showed us an epic display of lightning hitting all the surround mountains.
The morning of departure we had a quick fish and Wayne managed a PB 52cm Yellow which was also the trips biggest fish and ended his trip on high no doubt!
Be sure to check in soon for another update from Lesotho
Till next time
Mark and Yuri
Tourette Fishing Lesotho Guides Team
