The weather this past week was not so kind to us with the first days having sea breezes screwing up the flats fishing and the
associated low atmospheric pressure keeping the fishes deep and off the chew to a certain extent.
Fishing is fishing is fishing but it sure bums us out when the catch rate goes from brilliant to just good or OK. On the rare
occasions that this occurs the anglers are none the wiser if they have not been before and think this is normal fishing and
great, because they are catching fish. It is only us who know they could be catching more or bigger fish and it is only us
that feels any disappointment. Over the evening meal the group were a little shocked and surprised to hear me confess that
what they were experiencing was about 40% of our normal rate of catch. Even so we still enjoyed some great fishing with
some memorable catches through out the week just past as the flowing captioned photographs will show.
We, that live in the northern latitudes of this continent are all to soon lulled into the belief that there are only two
seasons, the dry and the wet, not so for those like myself who care to study of the moods of the tropics.
I by no means have a handle on it nor do I profess to have. It's way to complicated for this little duck. As an example
and just a small part of this equation is the little known fact (that any one who consults tidal predictions for the Cape
will see) that spring and neaps do not always coincide with the moons and quarters respectively. This October month had
springs with a tide variance of 2.9 metres on the first quarter of the 3rd, neaps of as little as 600mm on the days either
side of the full moon 10th and springs with 2.5 metres of run on the last quarter of the 18th…go figure this.
The south easterly trades are starting to become less frequent now and the afternoon rising air mass from the heated land sucks
in a sea breezes as regular as clock work with the changing tide.
I am a firm believer of not "over thinking" this side of the fishing equation but rather putting my reliance into effort... "he who
puts in the most effort gets the best results" along with my standard answer of, "first available opportunity" to the often asked
question of "when is the best time to go fishing are what I base my fishing preamble on.
A capture that was most gratifying for me to witness, Richard with a great
GT, caught spin casting from the beach. The hooks of his metal slice were all but straightened out when I grabbed the fished
tail off the beach after a torrid battle.
Barras are moving into the lower estuaries to start breading and the season on taking them is closed. They were
plentiful for those who went after them and some monsters were lost.
Ken with a nice specimen from a session "up the creek"
Couples really get a blast from these trips and the Galls somehow seem to do just a little better than there men folk lately.
Carol and Gib (left) with a Monster mackeral Carol caught, and Des and Jackie with a Tuna Jackie caught.
Eddie Bosomworth of new Zealand needs no introduction to many in the world of flyfishing. He so impressed my guides with his
fly casting abilities they dubbed him "The Jedi Master". The picture above with the skiffs in the background is from a session
where all 6 skiffs were in an area the size of half a football field with schools of Goldens (like above), GT's and Tunas just
seemingly appearing out of know where over a period of a couple of hours to do battle with the anglers. There was also
a giant manta ray that made several appearances and some large sharks that strangely did not bother our fighting fish.
Fritz with the Aussie answer to bone fish, the giant herring or lady fish,
there aint much better sport on fly.
Fly fishing for Goldens brings a smile to everyone face. Mike from the USA left and Ted, a first time saltfly angler with a
couple of "bread and butter" fly rod targets.
Stephan, a well travelled popper caster from France with a nice Queenie.
Look out for his photo with other popper conquests after our first Barrier reef trip he is joining us on in December. Man,
I love my dedicated twice a year clients, and the list is growing.Previous Fishing Trip Reports:
