Autumn Trout Fishing - Dullstroom

As the Yellowfishing season abates, the Trout fly fishing in South Africa is picking up. This is the beauty of Flyfishing. There is a species for every season, hence our finned quarry is always willing.

Recently Mark Courtiade and myself were invited down to Dullstroom to fish all the waters that Mavungana Flyfishing has to offer.

To avoid traffic from Johannesburg on Good Friday, we departed at 4:30 am into the fog. At 8:00 am we arrived and were familiarized with all the aspects of the Mavungana Dullstroom shop. We were supplied with a hot cup of filter coffee by Rose, the local Fly-tyer and entertained by the eccentric stories of Jim, the local Scotsman, characteristically smoking his pipe.

Once we had acquainted ourselves with the shop and set up a couple of starter kit combos, tactics, advice and opinions from the very competent staff in the shop was exchanged and we were ready to fish the waters, we rigged up our 5wt rods and set out into the fog.

Our first destination was a farm 7km's out of Dullstroom called La Verpa, consisting of 3 well stocked dams, crystal clear waters with amazing structure and is entirely catch and release. The fog was so thick that we missed the turnoff in the poor visibility: perfect weather for trout fishing.

La Verpa

Upon arrival, my companion and I were bursting for some Fly Fishing action. As we walked closer to the middle dam, we were greeted with an unbelievable scene: Trout were rising everywhere, a hatch of midges was in full swing, and we could barely see the other side of the 1ha dams.

We rigged up with floating lines, long leaders and fly patterns that had months before been carefully tied in preparation for the time we could get back onto the water again.

The trout were cruising in water less than a foot in depth, sipping midge emergers just below the surface. Carefully sneaking up to the edge of the water, I made a short cast into the small bay, along the margin to intercept a feeding trout.

I had opted for 3 fly rig, consisting of a #8, hopper-like pattern; tied with a uni-bobber: a tiny plastic ball with an air pocket inside tied directly on to the hook. This makes your terrestrial pattern practically unsinkable. Using an adapted New-Zealand style rig: a 4 ft length of 5lb

fluorocarbon tippet is tied to a #16 Epoxy buzzer: a versatile midge pattern that is deadly in clear water. I attached another 4ft of tippet with a #16 San Juan worm, a "blood worm" imitation that can fool even the largest trophy trout.

(Picture - Tripple Fly Rig)

Mark had opted to fish along the margins of the dam wall with an old favorite, the Red Eyed Damsel suspended under a large, bushy looking D.D.D that he used as an indicator. A triumphant shout of "Inside!" Was the indication that the first trout of the day had been hooked. The footage below shows the weather conditions like as he was landing his trout.

A well conditioned trout of around 2lb was landed and carefully released, barb less hooks are always a good idea, less surface area means better penetration into the mouth of the fish, and are much easier to remove from an earlobe, it also damages the fish less when the hooks are barb less, a barb with "drill" a hole into the trout's soft mouth as it fights, and eventually, if the fight is long enough, the hole could lead to the hook popping out.

A trout that had been patrolling the margins was feeding in a straight line along the bank, sipping the hapless emergers out of the surface film, a short cast presented the flies about 5 feet ahead of the trout and on queue, it confidently ate the Epoxy midge and pulled the hopper under. A short fight ensued, it was hooked in the corner of the mouth, and the pretty little rainbow was released and swam off strongly. We found that the trout are incredibly strong and vital at this time of year, the temperature is in their optimum range and the recent rain has oxygenated the water nicely.

We decided to prospect the lower dam, known for its trophy trout. The water on the lower dam seemed even clearer than the middle dam, by now a stiff breeze was blowing, we could see trout rising in the wind line, where the ripple meets flat water.

Trout love structure. physical elements like weed beds, reeds, channels and submerged tree stumps. Transitional structure like shade from clouds, wind and discoloured water also play a large role in trout movement and location during the day.

We could see that there was still some dragon and damselflies active in the margins. I opted for a floating line with a 14ft leader, 6lb fluorocarbon tippet and a dual fly rig consisting of a #8 Papa Roach, a brilliant dragonfly imitation with plenty of 'triggers' such as the large, black plastic eyes, rubber legs, a zonker strip, and a "heart" of holo dubbing which can pull trout in from a distance. Attached to the Papa Roach was a 6ft section of 5lb flourocarbon with a #16 Olive Gold Ribbed Hares Ear (G.R.H.E) A great generic mayfly nymph imitation.

A long cast with the wind helped to unfurl the long leader and the flies landed on the wind line. Almost instantly the Papa Roach was engulfed before it could sink below the surface. A powerful run into the backing with multiple jumps enforced the theory of the energized trout in the foul weather. A beautiful Rainbow Trout of 5lb was landed and revived before swimming away strongly in the icy, crystal clear water.

Six more Rainbows followed the first, all of them eating the Papa Roach, Mark was having similar success on a Pancora Wooly Bugger, a fly specially designed to bring out the aggression of trout. A slow, jerky hand twist retrieve seemed to be the order of the day, they were smashing the Roach as it approached the wind line.

The fog was still thick and a light drizzle, combined with the wind made the weather pretty crappy, but it seems the worse the weather, the better the fishing. If the barometric pressure remains stable, good fishing can be had in all weather. One exception is lightning, walking around with a 9ft long graphite conductor in your hand is not advisable, if you are caught in a lightning storm, drop your rod and get to safety.

La Verpa is a brilliant fly fishing destination, floating lines with long leaders (9-18ft) is advisable, along with small nymphs and a slow hand-twist retrieve should get you into some lively rainbows in the clear water. The rates are R150 per angler for a full day, dawn till dusk. Strictly catch and release, bookings can be made at Mavungana Flyfishing in Dullstroom.

The shop in Dullstroom - 013 254 0270