We arrive at wriggleswade at about 6 in the morning with the hopes of catching a few nice bass on fly, the weathers not that great with a steady stiff breeze forming little waves on the surface of the dam. We head straight for the jetty and after a fruitless session decided to work our way up towards the slipway.
At about 9 with dampened spirits and a heavy hangover threatening to call our trip short a bass succumbed to my efforts and after a short tough battle was boga gripped, photographed and gently released to fight another day.A short while later my bud was into his fish of the day and after avoiding the boga for a few minutes was landed (note to self: buy a net !) then photographed and also gently released. A while later we conceded defeat and made our way back to the bakkie.
My Bass of the day:
My buddy’s Bass of the day…
On the way back to the bakkie we came up with the idea of shooting through to Gubu… just "up the road", to check it out as we’re planning a trip there soon. On the way to Stutterheim a quick browse of the Internet gave us the exact directions and we were on our way. After a terrible dirt road that carried on forever ( phone screen failed to reveal"the worst road" fine print on the map) we arrived at the bailiffs house and after enquiring about fees reluctantly paid the R60 each.
The scenery at Gubu can simply be described as beautiful: surrounded by mountains, pine forests and crystal clear waters, scenery that can be likened to a Canadian park.We made our way off road to the spot suggested by the Bailiff and spent the rest of the afternoon getting in touch with our trout basics with the only fish landed thus far being a small stockie. Under approaching darkness fish activity was high and after my bud lost a nice fish and a couple of missed takes i finally got a solid hookup: a nice little rainbow that took a few meters of line and a good tussle for its size.
My Rainbow Trout:
some Gubu scenery:
...on the fly... 