Flyfishing report: Trout - Kwa-Zulu Natal Midlands

A friend of mine reported very slow fishing on the middle Mooi, as well as up at Painsacre farm on a Mkhomazi tributary.  Similarly, at the start of the season, three anglers, of which I was one, blanked on the Bushmans, and another two blanked on the uMngeni. That was in the first week of September.

The flip side is that two anglers did well on the Bushmans on opening day, and two anglers got a handful of Browns on the uMngeni last weekend, including an 18-inch fish. So, it is not all gloom and doom. Some of the fish came to small, heavy nymphs thrown into deep spots and tight against the banks and undercuts. Other fish responded to more meaty woolly buggers and the like, but in similar lies.

River levels have been low, as can be expected before any spring runoff, but unless you were going right up into the headwaters, flows were definitely not dire. Water level drop was probably averted a little by the widespread 20mm or so of rain received in late August. One farmer remarked that the river flows pre-spring rain have been the best he has seen in 12 years.

It has been fairly dry since then....until today. As I write (17 Sept), we have had about an inch of rainfall (25mm) with more widespread rain predicted overnight and tomorrow. It is also cold, with more snow predicted, although this time only on the high berg, since in the midlands air temperatures are 4 or 5 degrees warmer than they are when we see lower snow.

Water temperatures have been quite variable. Over the last 10 days I have measured as low as 14 degrees and as high as 19 degrees, but safe to say that this range spans the so-called ideal of 16 degrees rather well. 

I suspect rivers will be blown out this weekend as the late winter road dust etc gets washed into this first spring flush of flow, but as soon as it settles down, we should be in for some good river conditions. The much feared el nino does not seem to have reared its head yet, but I do think it is too early to celebrate that. Some pundits think that our rainfall might not be affected all that much, but that we are in for more heat.  Time will tell whether they shone their crystal balls adequately.

A little tip from the riverbank.  A number of fish tempted from the pools (only some were hooked), were found about half an inch from the edge, hiding under sticks and grass, and were lured out with very soft footfalls, a slow and sneaky approach, a rod tip poked just over the edge, and about half the leader out of the end eye.  That sort of stuff can be pretty exciting!

Tight lines (or could it just be tippets?) 

A brown from the Chestnuts section of the uMngeni.

Chestnuts beat on the uMngeni.