Equipment Outfitters

Because the spinners fall to the water’s surface and become trapped there with wings outstretched, trout have ample time in which to ingest them,feeding in a leisurely fashion while cruising in long rise paths. The mostprolonged sequence of rises to thesespinners that I have seen was a series offifteen at Hopewell, a large lake in EastGriqualand. Other anglers I have spokento have had similar experiences duringhatches of these mayflies. It is easy to understand why American anglers call these fish `gulpers’, since they often gulp down several spinners in one mouthful. Trout do not inspect each insect during these gluttonous feeding sprees, since their window of vision is extremely small at such shallow depths. However, any dry fly that does not resemble the adult in size and shape will usually be rejected outright, particularly if the pattern is a high-floating one. Read the rest of this entry »

The Zonker, a baitfish imitation, is one of my favourite streamer patterns and has accounted for someof my largest stillwater trout. When trout begin to concentrate on small baitfish in the shallows, the action can be fast and furious, with strikes that leave the angler shaking with excitement. The Zonker is a superb searching pattern, especially during winter when trout aggressively hit streamer and attractor patterns, and it is also a good fly to choose when trout are visibly chasing minnows.

The Zonker was invented by Dan Byford of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and is one of the most realistic yet suggestive baitfish imitations available. It demands a fair deal of patience during tying and can prove a tricky patternto tie properly, particularly for novices. As with all patterns, the only way the fly can be mastered is to tie several, until all the problems associated with its tying are overcome. 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 »