From: 02/01/2015
To: 02/28/2015
Type of Water: Freshwater
Species: Brown trout
My Grandfather used to give up drinking liquor for one month of the year. He did it to prove (to himself and anyone who cared) that he was not dependant on the stuff.
Of course he was ragged mercilessly for choosing the shortest month of the year. I think he was smart!
I effectively gave up fly fishing for trout for one month this year. Yes: it was the shortest month. It made perfect sense. It started out hot as hell. We had bluebell days with not a cloud in the sky, and temperatures way over 30 degrees C (even in the highlands). One got to the end of each day feeling exhausted, no matter how little you did, and then tossed and turned in a sweaty bed all night.
If you think this sounds decidedly 'un-trouty', you are spot on. I was hearing horror stories of water at twenty five degre View more...My Grandfather used to give up drinking liquor for one month of the year. He did it to prove (to himself and anyone who cared) that he was not dependant on the stuff.
Of course he was ragged mercilessly for choosing the shortest month of the year. I think he was smart!
I effectively gave up fly fishing for trout for one month this year. Yes: it was the shortest month. It made perfect sense. It started out hot as hell. We had bluebell days with not a cloud in the sky, and temperatures way over 30 degrees C (even in the highlands). One got to the end of each day feeling exhausted, no matter how little you did, and then tossed and turned in a sweaty bed all night.
If you think this sounds decidedly 'un-trouty', you are spot on. I was hearing horror stories of water at twenty five degrees C. (In reality, I have never encountered water at this temperature at depth in a lake. 22 degrees is more realistic as an average high, but perhaps it did get to that in the shallows where my mate dangled his thermometer).
Hot, hot , hot.
I will confess that the latter half of the month saw a lot of cloud cover, but for a good long while that was almost worse: the heat got trapped in this giant greenhouse. It was humid as hell and I felt smothered enough to stay away from the trout for the whole month.
To be fair, I was probably a bit of a wimp. Some guys did get out and have some fair fishing. I heard of some good results on a private stillwater in the Dargle. NFFC members often booked and then cancelled though. The returns showed a scattering of blank days, with the inevitable one that stands out with a fish over twenty inches, or 3 trout caught inside of an hour.
I ignored those and stayed away. The chances are the fish they returned never made it.
By month's end though, it had cooled right down. Last week was actually half decent, and talk was that the water was down at 19 degrees in places. We had some rain. Ruan Human got a great Brown from the Bushmans.It was picking up. On the last day of the month I caved in and booked to fish the Umgeni.
But the river Gods saw me coming. I had a migraine of note that day, and also got a message that the water was dirty, so I cancelled. I made it through February!
But now it is March. This is a different story. I have already fished in March. It was GREAT! We had some cold drizzly weather over the week-end and yesterday, and Highmoor's water temperature is at 17 degrees! The fish are on the prod there, as well as in the Bushmans. The rain has been good, but it has dirtied the rivers. Give it a few days. Let them settle down and clear. And then hit it. Autumn is on its way. The next three months are where it is at here in the Midlands.
Go, go go......
