Gunyatoo Trout Farm and Guest Lodge - Andrew Allman

GUNYATOO TROUT FARM AND GUEST LODGE

by Andrew Allman

By Hook or By Crook!

I had previously travelled the Long Tom Pass in Mpumalanga but never before had I approached it whilst driving very slowly from a wind- swept gravel road and marvelling at the panoramic scenery unfolding, behind me. And, at no other time had I been more grateful for the incessant and monotone directions of ‘Miss Garmin’, than on my most recent visit to Sabie where I visited Gunyatoo Trout which sits in the Rhenosterhoek valley, positioned somewhere between Lydenburg and Sabie on the ‘ander- kant’ of Long Tom Pass.

That afternoon, my fishing buddy, Chris and I had left Gunyatoo Trout and travelled up the less populated side of the mountain to the top of the pass before travelling down the tarmacadam and into Sabie for some river fly fishing at Sabie Trout Club. There we were met by Ryan Connolly, a fly fisher of note and after a quick recce of the river, he left us alone to meander the river, whilst he returned to work. Having become totally engrossed in our enthralling activity, and losing track of time, we left Sabie in the dark

for our return trip; where- after the mist enveloped our passage making vision most difficult and so we had to rely almost solely on the early warnings of our digital companion and route finder.

I was a guest of Gunyatoo Trout at the bequest of Debbie Connolly mother of the aforementioned Ryan and matriarch to an outdoor- loving family including her husband Bob and another three daughters. Debbie and her one daughter Carey, together with Carey’s husband Keith have a vision and this is their story so far...

Gunyatoo takes it’s name from the aboriginal word for home, ‘Gunya’, where the expectation is that guests may find their Gunya-too or ‘home from home’ in the tranquillity of the beautiful mountains, lush green plantations and flowing waters.

The farm was first settled in 1872 and the lodge was built in 1900 with many add-ons over the following years. There are vestiges of the past all carefully preserved in the buildings and even a rose tree stands proudly near the swimming pool; at 120 years old it is blooming beautiful!

Today the house has been converted into a lodge with 5 suites and there are also 4 separate cottages. Debbie has a flatlet in the lodge which she shares with Bob and so is never very far away from it all. Debbie runs the lodge and cooks up her culinary delights, whilst Bob still has his job in Forestry. Previously the 25ha property lent itself mainly to the trout production business and in it’s ‘hey- day’ the raceway below the two dams nearest the main house were stocked brim-full with growing trout. There were also abundant trout to be found in the three trout dams and bass was stocked in the other. The river was fast flowing and brown trout thrived. It was paradise unrivalled!

Sadly, those days were brought to a bitter end when crooks entered the property whilst the family were away and netted and then removed the entire stock of trout ,taking with them 3 years of potential trout production income. The state of Nels river sadly deteriorated and there was little in the way of funding to repair the damaged weir and keep the river clear.

The financial blow was a severe set- back for the family and Bob and Debbie decided to pack up and move to Indonesia for 12 years. All trout work on the property therefore ceased during that period of inactivity and things on the farm went into a state of disrepair.

The family have returned and with determination have begun to implement a plan to take Gunyatoo back to it’s former glory. The lodge and cottages are operating and the surrounds are looking stunning. The bramble around the two smallest dams has been mostly cleared and the dams restocked with trout varying in size from 350g to 1.5kg, with most averaging around the 800g mark. The water clarity has returned to it’s previous excellence and the next phase involves work on the trophy dam and clearing up the river. The raceway will be resurrected with a mix of trout being added

New activities have been introduced such as the laying out of mountain bike routes and hiking trails cleared; there are those walks with traversing access over neighbouring lands including one hike to a nearby waterfall. I am told eels reside in the pool below the said waterfall but I was reluctant to clamber on down to the pond for fear of not being able to return to the upper ridge as my recurring knee problems prefer terra firma, on the level. The tried and tested homely service has prevailed and guests are back with rave reviews on the food and lodgings.

Aside from the activities on it’s doorstep the lodge and cottages are suitable as a base for exploration along the Panorama route, trips to tourist sites such as Kruger, Pilgrims rest and Sudwala Caves and of course the river fishing in the area.

Chris and I were asked to review the fishing experience at Gunyatoo within the ambits of catch and release and using barbless hooks. Initially the takes were few and far between but as we learnt the local tactics, so the catches increased, although most were relatively small and in the region of a pound or so. My feeling is that for the weekend warrior, there will be no shortage of fun with the much favoured woolly being a sure bet.

Gunyatoo does not allow ‘Day Visitors’ and facilities are exclusively for Guests.

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 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.

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 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!

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!

“Will I return?”