Rhodes Area – Wonderland of Small Streams
16 SeriousFun@JFFC SEPT 2018
So eventually after trying to get a trip of sorts together – no kidding for 3 or 4 years, 2018 was going to be the year, also threatened a good few times, a date was finally set 29 th April to 6 th May!
Sunday 29 th April Butch fetches me, and we meet Leslie at Shane’s home. Trying to fit a weeks’ worth of kit for four lads is no mean feat. We squeezed most of it all in but had to leave two float tubes behind. Not too serious as we only had planned one day’s still water fishing at Loch Ness up at Tiffindell. On previous trips we fished Loch Ness from the bank but always dreamt of how much better it would be from a tube – not to be, maybe next time?
So we hit the road with first stop at Bloemfontein for breakfast then onto the N6 to just past Lady Grey – Lupela Lodge our first stop early afternoon.
Driving along the winding road next to the Karnemelkspruit on our way to the Lodge we all eagerly try to get a glimpse of the river to see the condition of the water, a sigh of relief - it looked fine, clear and flowing nicely.
After meeting up with Alf and hearing the latest about the floods & drought we unpacked and dumped our gear. We kitted up, filled with wild expectations for the late afternoon rise, the stream as noted was indeed invitingly clear and flowing well. We split up into pairs and set off, one group downstream and the other upstream. Fishing was not as easy as I expected, in fact I did not see many fish at all. A little way upstream I came upon a spot I thought worthy of a few casts, a slow tail out before a riffle into the next pool, right up against the bank with a gentle right curve. Oh wow,
this is small stream fishing! Tactical and challenging little accurate casts and watching the 8” rainbows sip and take your dry, got a couple or so fish, and called it a day my appetite satisfied – looking forward to what the morrow holds.
- Bron Maruszewski
LUPELA LODGE – Sunday & Monday