During a recent trip to the Bend my mate Dave and I decided to head out to try a new water. Admittedly I was initially a little upset that we weren’t fishing the Mooi River, seeing as the season had just opened, but looking back this was the best decision we could have made. The river was still very thin after all, while the brown trout we discovered were fat and happy.
After loading up the Ark we took a short drive to our new location X and launched the boat. Dave handed me a paddle and proceeded to tell me tales of woe about a biking accident, a plate in his shoulder, and his new inability to paddle. In his defence he did take 3 strokes before lowering his paddling and letting me do the rest.
It was cold, with a chilly wind pushing across the water, and was drizzling on and off. Not deterred we picked our first drift and got down to prospecting the new water. It was a poorly chosen drift and we didn’t get so much as a touch as we crossed the water. However as we approached the far bank and as I was getting ready to paddle us to our next location, I connected with a fish. It felt solid and gave a good account of itself all the way to the net where we discovered it was a beautiful brown trout of around 1.5kgs.
With the Adrenalin now flowing we worked our way around the water trying various new spots. I managed to land 3 nice brown trout while Dave was having less luck. Trying to help out I lent him a fly similar to the one I was using, and suddenly things changed. Almost immediately he connected with a fish which he strangely lost. He quickly threw another cast in the same direction hoping to get a second chance, while I warned him to check his fly. He pulled it in and low and behold the hook had snapped…something Nick will find humorous as it’s happened to him on numerous occasions when borrowing flies from me.
With lunch approaching we called it a day and headed home to the families, with Dave mumbling in my ear about his lost fish and my jinxed fly.
The following day we gave the same water another try, this time in what were beautiful conditions for us humans – sunny skies and warm weather. Sadly the trout disagreed as I only managed to land one fish in a solid two hour session. Dave was again unlucky missing another fish which again looked to be solidly on. Thankfully this time it wasn’t on a borrowed fly.
Now I patiently sit and await my next invite, hoping Dave still needs me to paddle him around.