I got back last week Friday from a fishing trip that was in the planning for quire a while. Below is a short trip report. You will notice the lack of fishing pics, but most of the time I was by myself in the mountains and did, nt take to many fishy pics. The one’s I did take did,nt come out quite as good.
We(my wife and I) left Cape Town at 04:30 Am on Sunday 13 April for what was to be about a 18hour journey. After a 10 hour drive we stoped in Bloemfontein for the night to splitt the journey. We decided on a game farm, but it turned out that it was just a farm with a few tame bush buck that ran around. We were in bed early though, so it did’nt matter much. The next morning we set of for the last part of our yourney and after another 7 hours we finaly reached our first destination.
Lake Navarone.
Lake Navarone is situated in the Southern part of the Drakensberg mountain range(about a 2 hour trip from Durban) It was a stunning place with a huge damn and about 14km of river section that could be fished. I spent most of my time on the river section and was truly awsome to be in these mountains with absolutely no one else around. These streams were quite abit different than the small streams that I’m used to in the CApe and took getting abit used to. I only managed to land one fish on this river section. I got quite a number of fish in the damn, but I just dont enjoy still water fishing as much.
After 3 days we headed of to Springholm. Though this was my wife choice (supposed to take a break in the fishing ) I enjoyed it very much. The owner have two big dams and for the four days that we spent there I had it all to myself. I enjoy dry fly fishing the most and after catching a few fish on wet flies, I decided that I was going to go dry fly only. This place was ideal for this as every morning when I woke up at 5:30 Am the fish was rising all around the dam. I would just paddle out on my kick boat and cast to rising fish. I used mainly hopppers and DDD’s and whenever I got the flie in the fishes path it would be fish on. this was excelent for me, because I could fish my favourite method all the time.
Most of the fish were in the 1kg range and the biggest I landed was around 2.5kg’s, though there were alot bigger fish around. I was enjoying the dry flie fishing to much to bother with nymphs and wet flies though.
On our last day at Springholm it started to rain with quite a strong wind. The next day we woke up to this.
We then headed of the Giants Cup. This was where I wanted to be going all along as I have heard and read so much about this place before. Giants Cup is in the middle of the Umzimkulwana river deep in the drakensberg mountains. The farm has a huge damn in the middle of the river. The owner doesnt stock the damn at all and as he so aptly puts it " Its just a BIG pool in the middle of the river" This place is truly awe inspiring and my photos cant do it justice. I spent soem time on the damn but it was on the river where I wanted to be. We were very close to the snow now and all the run-off came down the river, which made it very cold wading, and I had to remind myself frequently to get out the river to get some feeling back in my legs. I spent many remarkable hours fishing on the river and could have spent many many more. I was once again only fishing with dry flies and caught enouth fish to satisfy me, though once again the bigger fish was there if I bothered to fish with nymphs. When we left Giants Cup I felt releaxed and at peace with the world. It was just so amazing to be in this beautifull part of our country.
Thw owner of Giants Cup is Wolf Avni and he is also a remarkable photographer. If you google his name you will come to some site’s of his pictures. Those pics will be able to tell more accurately how remarkable Giants Cup is.
All good things unfortunately come to an end and so it was another long 18 hour journey home, though this time there was no stopping over and it was eventualy a tired but well satisfied driver and his wife that returned to Cape Town. Now to plan the next trip ;-)…
That’s what I always think when morneb posts up a TR. I’d say it must not get the attention it deserves. But then again, I think most would rather have it that way.
If there were to be a fish-in there, I’d probably sell some organs to go to it…
Yet another place to add to my “places to see” list…
Absolutely beautiful!!! I’m glad you shared it with us!!
) I enjoyed it very much. The owner have two big dams and for the four days that we spent there I had it all to myself. I enjoy dry fly fishing the most and after catching a few fish on wet flies, I decided that I was going to go dry fly only. This place was ideal for this as every morning when I woke up at 5:30 Am the fish was rising all around the dam. I would just paddle out on my kick boat and cast to rising fish. I used mainly hopppers and DDD’s and whenever I got the flie in the fishes path it would be fish on. this was excelent for me, because I could fish my favourite method all the time.
