Fly Fisherman In Paradise Millstream - Mpumalanga - South Africa
Words & Pictures by Gareth Roocroft (Fish The Sea)
Since I was very young I have had the privilege
and opportunity to Fly Fish at one of the best Fly Fishing resorts in
South Africa -
Millstream Farm. I caught my first ever fish at this location aged
9. It was a 400 gram
Rainbow
Trout caught on a Yellow Humpey that had seen better days. Since
then I have managed to land many fish that have brought me happy
memories including a 2.4 kilogram Rainbow Trout in Lake Tintern on a
R.A.B. This article however is about my birthday weekend visit in July
2011, this was to be my most successful
Fly Fishing
trip in terms of numbers of fish caught, enjoy!
My
family, my girlfriend and I travelled to Millstream Farm on Friday the
22nd of July after getting off work early at 1pm. When we arrived I was
greeted by a 1.2kilogram and a 500 gram Rainbow Trout recently caught by
my cousin. This got me excited and I unpacked the car and set up my Sage
5 weight Fly Rod with sinking line and 2.1 kilogram tippet. Being the
spawning season I tied on an Orange Dragonfly Nymph and walked to the
weir "Rainbow's Lie" I was going to fish at. According to all the
anglers I spoke to it had been a tough day and I saw 3 fish come out the
entire weekend, except for mine, but more about that later. I casted and
let my line sink right to the bottom, after a few quick strips I had a
knock and I was on with a fish! I was very happy and full of adrenaline
as I landed the 500 gram Rainbow Trout. After loosing a fish 5 minutes
after this one had been landed, I hooked into, landed and safely
released another beautiful Rainbow Trout. After a few fishermen seeing
how much action I had in such a short space of time the weir started to
become overcrowded with people casting all over the place... So I moved
down to one of my favourite fishing waters "Walker Water". I used the
same technique that worked in the previous weir. Let the line sink and
strip fast. I landed another 3 Rainbow Trout in 30 minutes before the
cold chased me away to the warmth of the cottage.
The
next day I was up at 5.30am, it was pitch dark outside and freezing but
I headed back to Walker Water and casted out my Orange Dragon Nymph,
which had lost it's gold ribbing and one eye at this stage... I decided
to have a few casts to see if it would still produce any fish... On my
third cast I had a fish on, my first for the morning and to my delight
it was a beautiful Rainbow Trout cock fish of about 300 grams, it had a
goldish tinge to it and was in it's full spawn colours. I then quickly
landed two hens of about 500 grams and by that stage the dragon nymph
had fallen apart and the weir had become quiet. I then tried numerous
other patterns and colours as I had no more Dragon Nymphs in my fly box
and then I eventually found the pattern, an orange Zonker! I caught 2
Rainbows in 3 casts and then decided it was time for breakfast. I had
already caught 10 Rainbow Trout in 2 sessions of fishing and I was so
happy. I ate my breakfast quickly, got a bit of heartburn but headed
straight back to the water. I proceeded to get another 8 fish during the
day all Rainbow Trout and between 500 grams and 1 kilogram, what a day's
fishing!
Sunday
the 24th of July was my birthday and I was on the water at 7.30am where
I managed to get some more fish, 4 before I went to the cottage for
breakfast. So my total tally for the weekend ended up on 22 Rainbow
Trout between 300 grams and 1 kilogram, of which 6 were kept and all the
others safely released, but the most exciting part of the weekend was
about to happen, 1 hour before we were scheduled to leave. I heard of
some Trout spawning in shallow water in one of the Trophy Dam's: Lake
Crystabel. I did not get any hook ups but the Trout were following any
fly I presented towards the bank. It was heart pumping stuff. There must
have been about 25 fish in the area and my heart stopped when I casted
at a 1 kg Rainbow Trout started stripping and out of the deeper water
came a Brown Trout Cock that must have been in the 3 kilogram range,
unbelievable stuff, it just goes to show that catching fish might not
always be the favourite part of your angling trip!
