24 SeriousFun@JFFC SEPT 2018
The afternoon was very much the same and even had us reach for our rain coats for 10 minutes.
Leslie got a few out below the Herders compound in very small pocket water, and another a further 100m upstream at the head of a pool, I was watching his cool casting from the far side, it’s always a treat to identify a lie and then announce that you are casting to it, both of us watching the fly land in great anticipation and the bow obligingly hitting the fly on its drift!
Leaving Gateshead Thursday morning, we had pre-booked our beats, Hillbury, on the lower Bokspruit on the way to Rhodes, once again teamed up in pairs for a shorter days outing as arrived late morning.
Shane & I took the lower beat whilst Leslie & Butch the middle & upper beats which include a bit of the Riflespruit, this time we walked the beat downstream stopping to fish the good looking spots then made our way back upstream again to the starting point.
At one of the first big pools against the rock faced bank a little way down the beat before the stream opens up into riffles and open water Shane landed possibly the biggest bow caught on the trip – only drawback on a nymph, but a real nice stream fish.
Wandering down the beat for the first time I saw a bit of activity fish splashing in the heads of runs, lots of knocks but they were not interested in a smaller flies, they insisted on a #16 para-Adams, anyway where the head was about a meter deep we caught them quite regularly and at the pool at the end of the beat before we turned back had some real fun for over half an hour, fish eagerly taking the #16 para-Adams.
Hillbury Thursday 3rd May