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10Mar 2012 by Warren Prior No Comments
A Tough Mornings Trout Fishing

A Tough Mornings Trout Fishing

Fly Fishing, Fresh Water, Trout
[caption id="attachment_413" align="alignright" width="225"] Jeep Reflections[/caption]Rest is for the wicked and so I dragged myself out of bed at 5am on Saturday morning and headed for the Midlands. Sadly I'd been unable to find a fishing partner but this did little to deter my enthusiasm. In fact, if anything, I was more enthusiastic as I prefer the odd trip alone on the water. It removes any competition and allows me to focus on experimenting with new techniques and flies which I otherwise may not risk (with someone breathing down my neck). I pulled into the water at around 6:30am and was fishing by 7am. Sadly conditions were far from ideal. In a slight miscalculation I'd opted to fish one of our closer club waters rather than drive for another hour…
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02Mar 2012 by Warren Prior No Comments
Post Work Fishing

Post Work Fishing

Fly Fishing, Salt Water
[caption id="attachment_410" align="alignleft" width="300"] A Nice Wave Garrick At Casino Beach[/caption] Having recently discovered my new, favourite salt water location I decided to give it a bash after work. Nick was unfortunately busy so I headed over with Sharon who did a little gambling while I fished the surf. I was concerned that the beach would be crowded with joggers, walkers and other people (in the afternoon), making it unfishable with a fly line. I was however pleasantly surprised at just how empty the beach was. And I was even more surprised when I got into a nice largespot pompano on my 3rd cast. Things improved from their as I fished my way up and down the beach, using an orange ruffy, landing fish after fish. Species included were wave…
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26Feb 2012 by Warren Prior No Comments
Friends Of Baha At Vidal

Friends Of Baha At Vidal

Fly Fishing, Salt Water
[caption id="attachment_404" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Kings And Queens At Vidal[/caption] On arrival on Friday evening we were disappointed to see that the zone between shore break right out to backline was brown with water from southern river mouths. Did not even attempt to fish. Miraculously, the following morning was much better. Whilst the water was murky, it had cleaned up considerably, helped by the north easterly wind change. I focussed my fishing in one area, namely where the diagonal rock outcrop meets the beach. the landward, protected side of this rock formation forms a funnel during high tide that kingfish and other gamefish use to concentrate baitfish. The sight of schools of small baitfish being smashed near to ones feet was a little distracting. Anyway, I was not too successful in…
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25Feb 2012 by Warren Prior No Comments
Durban Harbour Day

Durban Harbour Day

Fly Fishing, Salt Water
[caption id="attachment_407" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Different Species From The Durban Harbour[/caption]Nick and I, never defeated, found ourselves back in the Durban harbour on Saturday morning. Rather than wade the banks (again) we'd opted to fish off of the newly acquired boat in the hope of picking up some pickhandle barracuda in the silt canal. I picked up Nick at around 8:30am after he'd played a little Bakers (now KFC) cricket with his nephew. After a quick stop at the Kingfisher to pick up a rod section we launched the boat at 10am and headed for the silt canal. Immediately there was some excitement with a lot of small kingies smashing bait fish in the shallows. We threw a few flies at them and got hit once or twice, but we were…
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21Feb 2012 by Warren Prior No Comments
Pre-Work Surf Bashing

Pre-Work Surf Bashing

Fly Fishing, Salt Water
[caption id="attachment_401" align="alignleft" width="300"] Southern Pompano[/caption] Ever eager to wet a fly line Nick and I dragged ourselves from bed long before work and met at Casino Beach. It was 5am and the sun was yet to rise. Sadly the water was a little higher than we'd anticipated from tidal charts but since we were already there we were committed. Slowly we began fishing our way up the beach focusing on the sand banks and deeper channels where we knew the fish would gather. Things were far from ideal but we pushed on. Thankfully the tide was pulling and 45 minutes later conditions were far more favourable. Nick was the first to get into a pre-work fish landing a small largespot pompano on an orange charlie. I followed this up…
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19Feb 2012 by Warren Prior No Comments

Harbour Hell

Fly Fishing, Salt Water
As we all know things very often don't go according to plan when fishing, and this weekend was no exception. A friend of ours from Finland, Simon, was out in South Africa visiting family and doing a little fly fishing in the process. And since he was fishing the harbour on both Saturday and Sunday morning we planned to meet him down there to nail some fish in the bay. On Saturday morning it was just me who braved the drizzle, got into the car, and drove down to a very wet harbour. Simon had decided to give it a miss but there were a few other fly fishermen targeting the banks. I pulled on my booties, waded out to great them, and after a quick chat learned that nobody…
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04Feb 2012 by Warren Prior No Comments
Smashing The Surf

Smashing The Surf

Fly Fishing, Salt Water, Video
Nick picked me up at 4am and Saturday morning and we headed for Suncoast Casino where we were meeting a few of the guys from the Durban Fly Tyers club. At 5am we were on Casino Beach but hadn't spotted any other fly fisherman. Undeterred we started flicking a fly while waiting for the others. Graeme arrived shortly after 5am and we had a chat to him about the club and how many people we could expect at the upcoming meetings. Since no one else seemed to be arriving we began fishing our way up the beach. The sun was just rising over the horizon with a few scattered clouds in the air. The air was fresh and the water was warm and amazingly clean. Soon I'd had a small…
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15Jan 2012 by Warren Prior No Comments
The New Baha Vessel

The New Baha Vessel

Bass, Fly Fishing, Fresh Water
[caption id="attachment_390" align="alignright" width="300"] A Tiny Largemouth Bass[/caption] Sunday started off with a little admin as I helped Nick patch up a few holes on his newly acquired boat. This was of course all worth it as we hooked it up to the Jeep and headed down to Inanda Dam to make sure it didn't sink. This did of course mean that we packed the fly rods and planned to nail a few bass in the process. When we arrived at the gate at around 11:30 we could hardly believe the queue. Yes, it was a beautiful day, but the queue was ridiculous. It must've taken us around half an hour to just get through the gate and then we had to worry about finding a free slipway. With the…
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02Jan 2012 by Warren Prior No Comments
Shongweni Dam Fail

Shongweni Dam Fail

Bass, Fly Fishing, Fresh Water
[caption id="attachment_387" align="alignleft" width="300"] Shongweni Dam, Kzn[/caption] For the first fishing trip of the year Nick and I found ourselves at Shongweni Dam. Personally I would've preferred Inanda but the general consensus was that Shongweni would be far less busy on the second day of the year. Sharon and I arrived first, just before 9am, and were greeted by hordes of people. Never have I seen the dam quite so busy. Thankfully we were just early enough to secure the last decent picnic spot with both shade and a braai. Nick and Tazz arrived shortly after us and, after setting up, Nick and I were on soon on the water. There was a buzz of activity on the surface but sadly it wasn't from fish. There were kids swimming in…
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