On the last day of our stay the competition between hook and fish seemed to have become a little unfair with the pendulum having clearly swung in favour of the fly fishermen. We both needed a somewhat stiffer challenge and the Sabie river provided just that.
the upper, being mostly wild. I certainly favoured the latter where the trout seemed less risk averse but then one’s approach mattered more. The only pearl of wisdom I have to share is not to spend too much time prospecting waters where you can’t see the trout as they are probably not there! A long -tapered leader with strike indicator was successful, when drifted and the flies were all submerged variations with little or no surface activity seen. Sabie Trout Club welcomes the day fisher and at R150 this is good value for money with around 8km of water to fish. I fully recommend Sabie Trout Club and with my favourite streams on the slopes near Lydenburg no longer being open to the likes of ‘Joe Fisher’, then using Gunyatoo as a base makes perfect sense!
The day was a complete success, talking fly fishing with like- minded folk and then testing our skills on the water itself. I was soon into a fish but having been cajoled into catching hungry, still water trout for most of the week; I was indeed caught off guard by the might of the strike and cunningness of the quarry. So ,the fish was lost before the fight had even begun! Needless to say, I did land one much later in the early evening but it was smaller and I was left to rue the earlier spoiled attempt. I had seen Ryan cast a more than cursory glance at my rudimentary fishing kit and his face took on a look of something between utter disgust and pure sympathy. I therefore fully understood his earlier offer to loan me his rods and flies as the baton was truly being passed to me and the reputation of the river was reliant on me; in catching a goliath.
For the purist, there is also small mountain stream fishing which can be arranged through FOSAF. One thing, I would caution on though is to leave the river during day-light as Sabie is littered with potholes that can be quite damaging if hit at any speed. It is not about whether you will hit a pothole; it is rather a choice of which one you’d prefer!
To be fair the river was low and I was using borrowed kit but two takes in two hours was really a moderate effort on my side, with only one trout being landed. The river is interesting with the lower part cleared and Return to contents
“Will I return?” “Do fish swim?” 71
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