Equipment Outfitters

In the dying rays of the afternoon sun, I watched as trout porpoised softly on the surface. A Suspender Midgehad produced several fish up to two pounds in size, and earlier a large fish had stitched my leader through a thick mat of floating weed, forcing me to paddle over to the growth to retrieve it. The fish had been working a hatch of tiny midge pupae in the surface film, providing several hours of exciting fishing.

As it began to get dark, a warm, gusting wind started to blow, effectively ending a superb afternoon’s fishing. My three companions, all of them from the Cape, had failed to capitalise on the frenzied surface action and between them had released only a few of the lake’s residents. It had been a learning experience for them, as the lakes of the Western Cape do not provide anything like the consistent surface action of those in KwaZulu-Natal.

When the wind began to blow consistently and my companions in their float tubes displayed their obvious intention to head for the bank and call it a day, I realised that the midge fishing was truly over. Read the rest of this entry »