Virgin Advice

[chris williams]

I'd rather not think..

[nicholas]

I better catch a bl00dy fish now after all this great advice ,thanks again to all the guys on the forum for the advice,all i have to do is put it into practice

[smallstreams.co.za]

ONLY if the said virgin is not your teenage daughter!!!

LET'S NOT GO THERE AGAIN!!! PLZ!!!!!

[nicholas]

I better catch a bl00dy fish now after all this great advice ,thanks again to all the guys on the forum for the advice,all i have to do is put it into practice

Ok the advice you all gave was rubbish did not catch anything lost 2 but that does not count..........

Joking a side,had a great day cheers Rols for your help and patience,the head wind definetly did not help but i suppose thats all part of thr game (any advice on casting into head wind would be great)i thought the water was running extremly fast today or is that normal for hotel beat?

[Andre]

Oh dear......well at least you had a good time. If you think back to the nationals, take heart in the fact that you did little worse than some competitors on that beat. The hotel beat is somewhat unique in the sense that reading the water becomes so much more critical due to the shallow nature of the water. If you took a carefull look at the water, you would have noticed that the water flows through some deeper runs , which look slightly darker than the shallow runs. These deeper runs are like mini channels, and can often be only 6 inches deeper than the shallow runs and can be spotted by recognising different flow rates. this is where the fish are. positioning yourself directly in line with the current will aid in achieving a drag free drift. Mending line on the hotel beat is not always effective, due to the short casting you have to make, and the fact that over a width of a few meter, w you are getting many different flow rates. These fish are also quite spooky, so stealth is required. Hotel beat is perhaps not the best place to start, as it can really be quite frustrating, but if you can get it right, there are a lot of fish there.

[nicholas]

Oh dear......well at least you had a good time. If you think back to the nationals, take heart in the fact that you did little worse than some competitors on that beat. The hotel beat is somewhat unique in the sense that reading the water becomes so much more critical due to the shallow nature of the water. If you took a carefull look at the water, you would have noticed that the water flows through some deeper runs , which look slightly darker than the shallow runs. These deeper runs are like mini channels, and can often be only 6 inches deeper than the shallow runs and can be spotted by recognising different flow rates. this is where the fish are. positioning yourself directly in line with the current will aid in achieving a drag free drift. Mending line on the hotel beat is not always effective, due to the short casting you have to make, and the fact that over a width of a few meter, w you are getting many different flow rates. These fish are also quite spooky, so stealth is required. Hotel beat is perhaps not the best place to start, as it can really be quite frustrating, but if you can get it right, there are a lot of fish there.

Hi Andre welcomw back,awsome tiger fish....
Your comments make interesting reading Roland will bear me out hear,the water on saturday was flowing very fast and also we both commented that the water was very deep in places,the channel up the right hand side was shallow but one section was very deep,the channel up the left was deep with some shallow water just past the area where you get kids swimming.

The head wind made it difficult for a novice like me but for me the casting is stilll an issue i struggle to punch the line forward and i still end up with spaghetti line 3 out of 5.The buzz when you see the trout rushing for the fly is enough to keep me going back no matter if i catch a fish or not. Any tips on the casting and the head wind would be greatly apprecited. The advice the guys gave all makes perfect sense but putting that into practice well thats another thing

cheers

[Andre]

Fishing into a head wind can be a problem, as it means a north wester was comming through and that means a drop in barometric pressure. never a good thing to deal with on the streams. There are however things one can do, but the best would be to go with someone who can show you. I would be happy to do this, as would any number of others i am sure.