Equipment Outfitters

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 »

During emergences of these Tricorythidae mayflies trout become extremely selective to the naturals, both in the nymphal and spinner form. I usually rely on a small nymph imitation during the emergence of the mayflies and a simple spinner imitation during the spinner falls in order to fool trout which gulp the naturals in the surface film. This is exciting fishing, but for the neophyte fly-fisher unaccustomed to fishing small nymphs and spinner imitations in the surface film, both the emergences and the spinner falls can lead to great frustration.

Prior to the spinner fall of these tiny mayflies, however, trout feed selectively on the emerging nymphs both in the intermediate water layers, as the nymphs make their way to the surface, and at the surface. This is often when trout can be seen bulging just below the surface, ignoring traditional patterns. Small nymphal imitations from #16 to #18 can be extremely effective but are not infallible. When the visibly bulging trout are gulping nymphs or spinners in the surface film yet still refuse suitable imitations, the White Death alone will, for some inexplicable reason, still take trout. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »