2nd Trip LM to Chrisvd's waters

[Monster]

Awesome trip Korrie!

[Korrie]

There is a fine line between getting refusals and broken off on the tippet section. For me, I would rather get broken off on a slightly thinner tippet, than a refusal because of too thick tippet. If I did fish thicker, I might not have had any takes.
Fishing in clear mountain streams for trout, we see the difference between 6 x and 7x.
The water clarity was according to me good. Although the viz was from the top between 15 and 20cm, it was not the muddy water, but more the fine sediment. From a fish's point of view, I presume it will be great.
The biggest learning curve for me was the way Chris and Klaas approach and fish for LM.
It demistified a lot of the rumours, smoke and mirrors in terms of approach etc.

Any person who says a very good LM weekend is up to 30 fish, sure knows what he is doing. Some guys are happy to catch 3 a year. I am listening more to the guys who catch 30 on a very good weekend. (he did emphasize, NOT EVERY WEEKEND)

I am definitely looking forward to my next trip, fishing with them.

[Korrie]

These 2 photos illustrates the difference in the river.
The one is downstream from the bridge at the wall, when the water is low.
You can notice where the "wet" mark is when it is high.
The other photo shows the river when it is HIGH and pumping.

[Korrie]

Here is the photos (sorry)

[chrisvd]

I just want to clarify one thing, 30 in a weekend happened only once and we were a couple of friends fishing. What I can agree with is that Klaas is definitely one of the better LM hunters around. He has a great way of passing on his knowledge as well.

Andre, it's not really the norm, just bad luck I suppose. With my break off, the problem was that my leader (bonefish leader) and/or tippet got stuck between rocks twice and I did not replace it. I guess that it had been damaged and that caused the break of. Korries broke on the take, which sometimes happen with light tippet and Klaas lost his in structure, he fished close to submerged trees and it just got tangled.

The missed takes I put down to the clarity issues, I think the fish uses all it's senses to pick up the fly, but at close quarters they just bite the tail etc. That is my theory in any case.

[chrisvd]

Thanx for mentioning this again Chris; very noble...

But it will be a STRAFDOP!

Maybe you should consider a different brand of tippet Or release the drag on the reel a bit...

Just kidding - Christo and myself are on our way to today's Largie hunt on PRIVATE WATER, hold thumbs.

Ha ha, you guys really deserve a couple of Largies, I hope you have some success! Give my regards to Christo.

[Gerrit Viljoen]

The missed takes I put down to the clarity issues, I think the fish uses all it's senses to pick up the fly, but at close quarters they just bite the tail etc. That is my theory in any case.

Spot on tjom,gebeur moer baie.

[Korrie]

after some thought and some of the post I started wondering.
After seeing the size of some of the escaping baitfish, I wonder if the LM maybe "hit" the bait fish to stun it, (missed takes) and then look for it.

It might be good if you miss the take, to leave the fly, maybe sligthly twitch it in the same spot. The LM might turn around, looking for the stunned, injured baitfish. just an idea.

[Rendier]

Thanks for the post Korrie. Graham looks in good health. Send my regards next time you see him

[chrisvd]

after some thought and some of the post I started wondering.
After seeing the size of some of the escaping baitfish, I wonder if the LM maybe "hit" the bait fish to stun it, (missed takes) and then look for it.

It might be good if you miss the take, to leave the fly, maybe sligthly twitch it in the same spot. The LM might turn around, looking for the stunned, injured baitfish. just an idea.

I don't think they stun them intentionally (I think they go for the kill and miss them), but I agree with your idea to keep the fly in the feeding zone as a stunned baitfish. I think this is exactly what happened to your largie that became my largie.