Equipment Outfitters

Ants, which play an important part in the diet of trout, occur in every terrestrial ecosystem except in Antarctica. Because they forage for food in bankside vegetation they are easily blown into the water where they form an abundant food source for trout. When falls of flying ants occur on streams and lakes (this is not common) trout will usually feed selectively on them to the exclusion of all else, making for particularly frustrating fishing. While most anglers encounter ants at some point while fishing, and despite the fact that ant imitations often fool wary fish that may shun better-known and more widely used flies, almost all fly-fishers neglect the role of the ant in fly-fishing. Fly- fishers will find that it pays to carry a selection of bothwinged and non-winged ant varieties. These tiny imitations may save the day when fish begin to take ants that are trapped helplessly in the film. The best falls of the winged ants occur on hot, humid days, either during or after a spell of rain, whereas the terrestrial ants encountered along streambanks can be found on the water during any warm month of the year, especially when strong winds are blowing. Read the rest of this entry »

Most still water fly-fishers have fished damselfly nymph imitations, and patterns such as Hugh Huntley’s Red-Eyed Damsel are firm favourites in many fly-boxes. However, few anglers use the adult form of this abundant insect even though it can produce some spectacular action, particularly on days when the weather may seem too hot for enjoyable fishing.

Adult damselflies are easily distinguished from dragonflies by the attitude of their wings when they are at rest. Damselflies hold their wings folded together over the top of their abdomens, while dragonflies hold their wings at right angles to their abdomens. In addition, damselflies are not as large and robust as dragonflies, and are more likely to find themselves on the water, particularly during strong winds. Once on the water, they are unable to escape and are easy prey for an opportunistic trout on the lookout for a high- calorie meal. This usually occurs during the warmer months of the year when adults can be seen flitting over the water’s surface as they deposit their eggs. Read the rest of this entry »

Most South African anglers consider the Woolly Bugger to be a stillwater pattern. My confidence in this pattern as a producer of trout in stillwaters is such that I reserve an entire fly-box exclusively for Woolly Buggers in various colour and size combinations. While I suspect that the Woolly Bugger is also capable of producing some very large trout from the slower-moving pools on the lower sections of many of our rivers, I prefer fishing in the riffles, glides and runs and so cannot testify to the pattern’s effectiveness in these waters.

The Woolly Bugger is extremely versatile and can be used as both a suggestive and an attractor pattern. I fish it as a suggestive imitation in subdued tones during most of the year (alongside other great producers such as dragonfly and damselfly nymph imitations) and as a streamer pattern tied in bright colours during the winter months‘ spawning season, when trout often aggressively attack the pattern. Read the rest of this entry »

East Griqualand is reowned for producing oversized trout, and Stiggs Cathcart’s beautiful lake, Belmont, is no exception. When anglers first began fishing this lake several seasons ago it was producing wild, powerful rainbow trout which averaged over eight pounds. The evening before I tested the waters, one of my companions, Roland Walker, landed the smallest-ever fish from the lake, a trout of four pounds which cartwheeled over the water just as the last rays of sunlight left the valley; the largest fish ever taken, almost twelve pounds, had fallen to the rod of well- known angler Mark Yelland. I shivered with anticipation as I paddled out into the clear, winter water of the lake, that tested a frigid seven degrees Celsius on my thermometer. The lake was heavily weeded in its shallower margins, making them almost impossible to fish with a fly. A broad channel snaked through the weed in lazy bends, a reminder of the old riverbed that had once cut through the now flooded valley floor. It was in this channel that the majority of the fish had been taken, and as I finned towards this wide passage in the weed, I considered my chances of landing one of the lake’s leviathans. Read the rest of this entry »