Arriving at the lodge, all that now stood between us and the water was a gaggle of feisty Lesotho geese.
Brani was sent in to chase them off which he did successfully, though I had to intervene to save one poor bird from the raging Slovakian (he later claimed the CDC on it looked pretty good…
... (just joking)..
After lunch we started by fishing the stream that runs next to the lodge, the Holohatsi. Fishing upstream we found it was running well and gin clear so dries was the order of the day. I almost immediately picked up a small rainbow on an elk hair caddis. After a few more missed takes the action died down and we moved to the prime water about 2km below the lodge. Here the same stream joins a bigger one to become the Malibamatso River, Katse dam’s main feeder river, 45km downstream.
Unfortunately my predictions of big Katse bruisers cruising up the Malibamatso turned out to be hopelessly wrong. The deep ominous pools were devoid of visible fish and ridiculously clear. After walking a few kilometres downstream we admitted defeat and dragged ourselves back to the lodge. As the light faded we found some consolation in a few tiny rising rainbows that fancied well-presented dry flies. That night we concluded over a cold Maluti or two that the rainbows were much higher up in the system than expected, probably due to the better than usual rainfall this year.
The Fishing
The next morning we chased our hunch all the way up the Holohatsi. Almost immediately things looked up as Brani started connecting with one hungry rainbow after another, picking up this fin perfect beauty next to the lodge.
Once I figured out how to connect with all the strikes I was getting, I also got admitted to dry fly heaven.
The rest of the day we fished up into the high Malutis past Thakabannas cattle post, picking up fish from almost every pool at will.