Riverside

[schloshd1]

Hi guys, just a quick report from my trip to Riverside. A big thanks to those who suggested it

I arrived yesterday around lunch time and was welcomed by the owner Pieter Moller and his giant of a dog, Digger. I was shown to the Huntsman Cottage where I would spend the night and was given the rundown re available water to fish etc.

I was quickly unpacked and on the water. There is 6km of stream availble, although I did not fish even remotely that much of it, as well as 3 stillwaters.
The weather was overcast which made spotting fish, with my limited abilities, next to impossible. I fished the section from the entrance up and picked up a good few browns between 6-10 inches, all on numphs.

As it started to get dark, for shits and giggles, I switched to an intermediate line and a woolybugger and swung that through the riffles and runs on the way back down. I had fish of all sizes, some not much bigger than the fly trying to nail it, although not one of them stuck.

I was up early this morning and was greeted by a heavy mist. This time I walked down stream from the entrance and fished back up. As the sun came out, I started to spot a few fish and although they were very skittish I landed a few.

Towards the end of the morning as I was about ready to pack up and leave, I saw a little fish at the head of a small pool and was about to have a go at it. A shape at the tail of the pool caught my eye and at first I thought that it couldn't possibly be what I thought it was as it was around 3 times bigger than anything else I'd seen or caught. I kept looking at it and after a little while picked up some movement. I got into a better position downstream of it. My first cast was good but my flies were totally ignored. Next cast, same thing. This went on for around 20 minutes, with several fly changes and tippet adjustments and resting the water between them. The fish did not even acknowledge my flies.
Eventually I took the "when all else fails, tie on a woolybugger" approach. That failed too:tongue:

Completely defeated I put down the rod and got out the camera and snuck a bit closer to take few snaps of the fish.

Feeling like I'd accomplished at least something by getting a pic of it, I packed up and headed back to Jhb.

Thanks again to the guys who suggested the venue, I had an awesome time, caught more than enough fish to be happy and will definitely be heading back there soon.

Here are a few random snaps, spot the fish in the 2nd last pic:smile:

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[muddler]

Great report & congrats on the fish. Beautiful photos too.

[dlampert]

Great report and pics Andrew! Heading that way in 2 weeks time for business and a bit of fishing!

[schloshd1]

Great report & congrats on the fish. Beautiful photos too.

Thanks Mike! I'm really glad that you suggested it. Give me a ring if you are around on Sunday and feel like hitting the Vaal.

Great report and pics Andrew! Heading that way in 2 weeks time for business and a bit of fishing!

Thanks D, I'm sure that you're going to have a blast!

[gkieser]

Awesome! Thanks for the report!

[firephish]

lovely photographs, looks fantastic!

[E.T.]

Bit of a mediocre effort for someone with heaps of talent.....

Jokes aside. You did very good with the little time you had.
It's considered a cardinal sin to cast a Wooly Bugger in those streams.
Next time if the big ones don't want to bite, consider conventional tackle with a Florou Mieliebom and some earthworms on a non return slider. Sorry, I just couldn't resist:biggrin:

[WazzyP]

Awesome report of a great venue. Well done.