Some fishy pics

FAOL Community Fly Anglers Online
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Well with temperatures here in Cape Town yesterday being 38C (100.4F) up to 44C (111.2F) in some places it is pretty much a done deal in terms of fishing our rivers for the next while. I am getting some serious withdrawal symptoms though and will have to revert to catching some bass:o:p to make up for the lack of some trout fishing.

I have been staring at these photos the last while to remind me what i can be doing instead of sitting at work in this heat.

My fishing partner practising catch and release on himself on our last trip.:lol:

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nice pics, wow thats hot, i have a fire going here.

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I also have to tell you guys about a really weird thing that happened to us on our last trip.

My fishing partner and I was standing on some high rocks chatting and watching the water in front of us. I was just casting blindly in front of me, more for practice, and shot out a very long cast to the head of the pool. My fly landed and quite in expectantly a fish took it. I had no control over the line as I striked, and had the fish on for a few second as I frantically tried to get all the extra line under control. I felt the line go slack as the fish came of and muttered some choice words like " Ohh poofy" or something similar:p and started to reel the line back in.

My fishing partner at this stage ask me why I am talking so nasty to the fish as it was still on. I looked up to see the fish “running” on the water. I started to once again frantically hauling in the line and the fish just kept on coming. I eventually ended up with the bare fly hanging from my rod tip, but the fish just kept on coming.

To make this clear the fish looked exactly like someone was hauling it in. It was half out the water lying on its side. :confused: I looked over at my buddy, thinking that he also hooked a fish and was pulling a prank on me. He was however also staring at the fish with his mouth hanging open.

The fish passed between the two of us (still on top of the water), made a 90 degree turn around a bush and “jumped” onto dry land where it flopped around for a few seconds and then flopped back into the water to casually swim off.

We both just stood there staring for a while until my buddy mentioned that that was one seriously Pee’d of fish. This made us both starting to laugh and put a funny spin on things.

I just couldn’t shake a funny feeling though, as it looked exactly like someone was hauling in a fish. As we moved up to the next section I kept on looking over my shoulder into the bushes, because I was convinced that someone was pulling a prank on us.

Anyway, it was the weirdest thing I have ever seen while out fishing.

Chatting to some of the older guys later about this, they mentioned that on that section of river many years ago an old man disappeared there and was never found. Some of the older guys also mentioned that there was for years some stories going about of anglers seeing someone fishing in front of them, but when approached, the person would quickly walk away into the bushes and disappear.

Now I am not one that believes in ghosts and such, but it is kind of nice thinking that maybe the old man is still fishing his favorite beat and decided to join us on that day.

If it was him at least he landed a beauty on that particular day.

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:shock: that is wild

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Dodododo, Dodododo, doodledooo, do, do! You are now entering the ‘Twilight Zone’…:cool:
Great story and pics.

Kelly.

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I too enjoyed your pictures – and story – but you can keep that heat!

I think there may be a connection to the old man who disappeared and your flying fish, since I had a somewhat similar unexplainable experience myself on a river a number of years ago…

I was fishing alone for steelhead in an isolated section of a large western river late in the Fall when I had clambored down a steep rocky bank and broke my way through some thick cedars and sage to get to the tailout of a large, deep pool that I wanted to fish. When I burst out of that dense thicket along the river’s edge, I saw a beautiful young woman perched on a rock well out in the river. Her head was tilted backwards and she was facing upstream and looking directly into the sun, and her long dark brown hair almost touched the water off the side of the rock. I could not fathom how she had made her way so far out into the river, which at that point was both deep, fast and dangerous.

I’m sure we both must have blushed a bit, neither expecting to see another in this particular section of the river, and we never exchanged more than a glance at each other before I decided that I should go back into the bush and make my way farther upstream to fish, and leave her alone to enjoy the sun and solitude.

When I got perhaps 100 yards upstream I waded a couple steps from shore and made my first cast. This was not the type water that I would have normally fished, or expected a steelhead to hold, and I was very surprised when almost immediately a large fish struck and headed toward the middle of the river with my fly in its jaw! One jump, then two, and the fish was off. It was gone almost as quickly as it was hooked.

When I collected my thoughts and breath, I looked downstream to see if my new found friend had seen the action. But the rock where she had been sitting only a few minutes before was now bare. She was gone. Where, I have no idea. A mermaid perhaps? Or the goddess of the river? I wonder about her to this day, and believe that it was she who directed me up the river to where I hooked that majestic steelhead. I’ll never know for sure.

There is much more to fishing than catching fish. Sometimes it is mysteries such as these that keeps us returning to the river, seeking answers.

John

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Suddenly 15 degrees F doesn’t seem so bad…

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wow…thats a great story…wasnt sure how it was gonna end…call Ghost Hunters Internation…any funny shadows or orbs in pictures?