Feature
• By Ant Kaschula •
“Trout with Altitude”
Flyfishing Mount Kenya
For those with time and patience, this is what is possible - Andrew Nightingale with a 9 3/4lb Lake Ellis ‘submarine’.
In February this year I had a fantastic opportunity to climb Africa’s second highest mountain, Mount Kenya. One wouldn’t intuitively think that this would have much to do with fishing; however I’d heard several stories of glacial lakes on the mountain that offered some of the most challenging trout fishing on the continent.
A
ccording to the grape vine one of these lakes located just below the alpine zone was like a massive horizon swimming pool surrounded by towering cliffs and weird Giant Lobelias and Senecios. The fish in the lake were apparently hungry for anything thrown to them as few fishermen were interested in the two to three day hike to get to the lake. Even fewer fishermen were interested in lugging five to six days of food, warm clothing, waterproofs, sleeping bags, tents and fishing gear through rarefied air in the hope that the weather on the mountain would be kind to them and allow a day or two of fishing. The second lake, not as difficult to reach as the first was none the less only suitable for seriously committed fishermen as it also necessitated a full day’s drive up a diabolically bad road (if even passable at all) followed by a stiff four to five hour hike.
One could be forgiven for mistaking this for a loch in Scotland - Andrew Nightingale fishing the southern bank of Lake Ellis.
Rumour had it that this lake held rainbow trout of submarine proportions. Day in and day out from my office window located on a ranch at the foothills of the mountain I’d often look up and day dream about these places wondering when I might get the chance to fish them. It took sixteen months before the right time and mix of friends came together and the date was set to commence our trip on the 31st January to coincide with having the full moon for the night that we would summit the mountain. As the only keen fisherman in the group (but whose task it had been given to plan our route) I surreptitiously planned our route to not only pass by each of the above lakes but to also have sufficient “rest” time in order to fish them. After several months of planning, our team consisting of six porters loaded to the hilt with gear and provisions (ice axes
V o l . 19 # 2
P a g e 10