Another fish which stands out for me was not in fact mine, but that of a client.
It was in 2003, and right in the middle of the 1st of the 2-year drought we had in Rhodes. Fishing spots were far-and-few, and I was forced to look for water on the other side of Naude's Nek the day before he arrived (22 Decs2003). Me & the missus spent the night down in the Luzi Valley on on of our farms on that side. That Luzi still flowed, but nothing spectacular. That morning we hiked back out of the valley, and no sooner did we get back to the shed, when ominous clouds gathered overhead. 10 minutes later the mother of all storms broke out, and hail came pelting down. This lasted about 30 minutes, and the Luzi turned chocolate within 20 minutes after that. No fishing there then!
We met Chris Nezar in Rhodes on our way back to, and shared the good and bad news with him. Rain at least meant flowing rivers, but nothing for the next 2 days at least. So, we headed of to a stillwater in Barkly East the next day, hoping for a good start to his trip. Arriving at the stillwater just outside Barkly, that was in a terrible state - overgrown with weed (
but not according to the farmer before we set out ). Trying to salvage the day, I phoned a farmer close to town who has some some water on the Langkloof - a river renowned for large rainbows. The Langkloof was by no means running, but still clear (
no storms in Barkly).
We rigged up (
I suggested going light - #3 for the clear and calm water conditions), and set off. At the 1st pool we stalked, I saw the white flash of a trout's mouth opening as it fed on nymphs. I only saw that head, and the rest of the fish was hidden on the shadow of an everhanging crack-willow. "Good fish" I whispered to Chris, estimating it in the region of 19". We devised a method of attack - since there was virtually no fly, fishing upstream would no doubt line & spook the fish in the flat water conditions - so, downstream it was.
I suggested to #16 ZAK, on 6X (
totally acceptable for a 19" rainbow). Chris eased into the water upstream of where the rainbow still fed lazily. He had to make a roll-cast, as the crack-willows behind him made back-casting impossible. A tough cast in anyone's book. After 5 or 6 attempts to get the fly close enough to the fish to make a fairly natural downstream drift, the trout cruised forward to inspect the fly. From my spotting position for Chris high on the opposite bank I nearly sh#t myself as the fish came out of the shadow - it never seemed to end!! Bigger than 19" I thought, but never mentioned it to Chris. The big rainbow looked at the fly, but turned away at the last second and slid back into the shadows - no wonder it grew that big - clever bugger!!
Chris made another couple of attempts to get the fly into the right area, but could not - tough cast as mentioned.
We decided to rest the fish in case we spooked it, and headed upstream in search of some other pools to fish. Chris caught a nice 16" 'bow in the pool just above, but his thoughts were still on the bigger fish down below. We had some lunch on the banks, and talked about tactics on how to entice the bigger fish. We looked through our fly boxes, and Chris took out the most unlikely fly - a Pancorra Woolly Bugger. And a big one too. Well, if he had confidence in the fly, then why not I thought!!
So, back down to the big 'bow. Roll-casting that big fly on 6X and a #3 rod was a mission, but once again, after a couple of casts Chris got the fly in the zone. The fish once again slid out of the shadows, and I whispered to Chris (
me sitting on the same raised bank) to give it 2 small strips, just to get the fish to react. And what a reaction!!!
The fish shot forward and grabbed the fly. Chris struck, and "Het hom, het hom!!!!" broke the tense silence.
Chris fought the fish extremely well, given that he only had 6X on! When he finally slid the net under the fish and raised it out of the water, neither of us could believe the size of the 'bow! It was much bigger than I guessed, and Chris was shocked, since he still thought it was 19" the whole time. They say a picture tells a 1000 words, so here's a couple of words to take the story further ...
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