My First Trout

So over the July holidays we had the honour of spending a few nights at Alpine Heath in the Drakensberg. What an awesome place, highly recommended to anyone wanting to visit the Berg.

Sadly I left my rods at home, not knowing there were Dams stocked with Trout in the Hotel grounds. Luckily for me the hotel hired out fly rods at a very reasonable rate. I decided to try my hand at fly fishing, but sadly the Tackle was so badly kept (Possible due to kids mainly using them), that trying to fly cast was almost impossible. So instead I found a length of line with a Bass weight and Hook attached.

In an attempt to make a plan I spooled the line onto the fly reel, and using the hook from one of the Flies I bought, I made up a trace with the weight from the Bass tackle. Not long after I was able to cast by unwinding the line from the spool and then casting the trace into the water with the unwound line going through the guides and into the water. It was quite tricky but I was soon getting distance into the Dam. Now what do I use for Bait???

Needless to say my son soon found out that the fish in the dam were eating the pieces of bread he had thrown into the dam. A quick run up to the Hotel, and I soon returned with some bread. Sticking that onto the hook, I casted and after 2 casts I felt the tug. Strike!, Fish ON! I managed to land my first Trout ever! It might not have been on a conventional fly method, but it worked none the less. So now I can tick a Trout off my bucket list.

We ended up landing close on to 15 Trout over 2 sessions at the dam. My son enjoyed fighting them as well.