The Trout Of The Highveld – A Report On A Recent Millstream Trip

Myself and my girlfriend Aimee recently went on a trip to Millstream, 3kms before Dullstroom. It was a great privilege to visit this place once again, possibly for the last time too...

Rainbow Trout fly fishing millstream south africaWe arrived at Millstream late afternoon on Thursday, and we quickly setup and headed to the weir called My Beauty... A few casts produced nothing, so I changed to an orange woolly bugger in the low light conditions, and first cast, I was hit hard and landed a nice little Rainbow. There was plenty of wildlife around and we were able to see a Cape Clawless Otter and plenty of scrub hares throughout the late afternoon session!

Beautiful Rainbow Trout on a woolly buggerThe next morning we were up before sunrise and proceeded to cast every fly known to man up until 11am with no success. We then headed up to the upper weirs, namely Canterbury Pond and Ferreira's Find and then fished again at My Beauty. We had good success at these 3 dams and all our fish were caught on an Olive Woolly Bugger. Aimee got 3 fish between 500 and 600 grams and I got 5 fish around about the 400 gram mark, including 2 cock fish. And that was the day... Lots of walking and lots of casts for a few fish, better than nothing of course! We also saw Common Duiker, Grey Rhebok, Dassies and a Giant Kingfisher throughout the day... Surrounding by the beauty of nature, the 8 fish were in truth, a bonus!

Afternoon Rainbow Trout caught deepSaturday, the wind was howling and it was very cold... The Olive Woolly Bugger struck again as I got 3 fish: 300, 400 and 600 grams... Aimee got a 400 gram Hen... We managed to watch a Long Crested Eagle for a long time, and then it was off to the recreation centre to watch the Currie Cup.

Rainbow Trout in DullstroomSunday came along, and we decided to fish one of the trophy catch and release dams, Solitary Reaper. I struggled, but Aimee did really well, catching 2 beautiful fish of 1.4 and 1.6 kgs respectively. She caught them on a GRHE fished drifting in the wind, on 5lb tippet! They were both amazing fish in great condition, and the 1.6kg Rainbow was a PB for her... There was a swan on the dam (An escapee from a neighbouring farm) and there was a pair of Fish Eagles calling nonstop throughout our session here. We also saw a Slender Mongoose, very cool creatures. The wind chased us back down to the weirs and Aimee was onto the fish again, this time on the dry fly... She missed one and then next cast she hooked a fish of about 500 grams on the White Wulff. I eventually managed 3 fish on the Olive Woolly Bugger... Another tough day in paradise.

Nice size Rainbow TroutOur last day of angling was tough, VERY tough... Once again all sorts of methods were tried and explored. I got 3 more fish on an Olive Red Eye Damsel, Olive Fritz and Black Woolly Bugger. The birding on this day was amazing! Two new bird species that I have never seen before and they are not very common either! We saw an African Rail and a Little Bittern, was awesome! All in all it was a fun trip with lots of fish caught in a beautiful area. If you have never fished this part of the World, it is a must!

Here is the summary of the fish we caught: