 WINDY WEATHER AND WILY FISH — 2009 Ugie Ladies Flyfishing Festival — by Sheena Carnie
PICTURE the scene: Magnificent crested cranes performing courtship dances to one side of a picturesque dam, spring lambs gambolling in nearby pastures, weeping willow trees dancing gracefully at the water’s edge, three determined female flyfishers and one determined male guide dotted around the dam’s perimeter ...
The sun warmed our faces as the breeze gently rippled the water’s surface ... Well, okay, perhaps “breeze” is a bit of an understatement. It wasn’t quite a howling gale, but the strong, gusting wind did present a challenge to those of us fishing Isak Botha’s prize dam on day one of the 2009 Ugie Ladies Flyfishing Festival.
We had heard tell — and had even seen photographic evidence — of the monster fish that inhabit this dam, and although we had seen them cruising the shallows, so far we had only caught a few of their smaller cousins. However, the day was not yet done and the challenge remained ...
They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and these women were not about to let trophy trout get the better of them. Finally, on the last cast of the day, Thalia Thain had her revenge, and old Skewebek, one of the dam’s legends, fell for her offering. Isak was so excited that she’d caught one of the monsters that, much to Thalia’s distress, he insisted she keep the old fellow.
Day two of the event dawned gloriously sunny, with the ever-present wind factor still at our backs. This time our group — novice Charmaine Angelo, Thalia and I — had drawn Colin Moolman as a guide. I’m always thrilled when I hear we’ll be going out with Colin, because he knows and loves the rivers of the area which he’s been fishing his whole life, and takes his charges to some of the most beautiful mountain streams in the region.
I had warned Charmaine that she would need her walking boots, but on this occasion Colin was kind and didn’t take us to the back of beyond, but merely to Yonder. We were fishing on a beautiful stretch of river filled with skittish little rainbows who proved hard to hook, but not impossible.
Just when you thought there was no chance of hooking anything in a particular piece of water, you would feel a tug on the end of your line and a little silver creature would take to the air, splashing back down and thrashing the water in an effort to get rid of whetever was embedded in its lip. Charmaine was thrilled to catch her first river fish there, despite the fact that he got away just before the camera clicked.
And so we spent two glorious days in the fresh mountain air of the North Eastern Cape, leaving the stresses of city life far behind.
Read the full story in the December 2009/January 2010 issue of FLYFISHING. |
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