I’ve been told that I can be stubborn… downright difficult at times, and it’s true I’m as stubborn as they come. I have always danced to my own tune and done so with conviction. I wish I could say that this attitude has forever served me well but I’d be lying.
A stubborn angler on the bank
My pig-headedness stems from my proclivity for going against the grain and me trying to always be, the proverbial square peg. Maybe the music I was listening to as an angsty teenager is to blame, maybe I was just born with the personality of a Lesotho mule? Whatever it is I have always done things differently and in my unique way.
The same stubbornness and rebellious nature are true for my preferences in fishing and I’ve noticed over the years that many anglers walk a similar path. I’m not talking about the purists, they are a whole different breed, and there are things I’ve done with a fly rod that can never be considered pure. I’m referring to the anglers who part from the conventional, the proven and successful, flies, techniques and tackle to walk their own path and figure out their way of doing things. Once you start going down that path it’s very hard to get back on the straight and narrow.
Recently, I spent a couple of days fishing with Jeremy Rochester at Zingela Lodge on the Tugela river and we were hunting for Yellowfish, the Natal variant. In the weeks leading up to the trip, I was dedicating quite a bit of time on the Natal Yellows or Scaly as we like to call them, trying different techniques and flies to catch them. I’ve always preferred the technique of swinging flies for Yellows whether it be for the ones with the large mouths or the ones with smaller mouths and big appetites and was using this technique more and more in our KZN rivers.
Natal Yellowfish caught on a dragonfly nymph.
I also started to experiment with bigger flies, fishing them in the slower moving pools over sand and gravel. A burrowing dragon proved to be very successful in these situations and over a few outings became my go-to fly and technique for quality shark finned yellows.
This visit was to be my very first to the Tugela and rumor had it that large specimens patrolled its banks. I was oozing with confidence, I had a big fish catching fly and technique in my arsenal, those Tugela beasts were in trouble.
As soon as we arrived at the river’s edge my confidence took a delicate dent. The river was high, a bit discolored, and flowing quite strong, not what I would call ideal conditions for the fishing I had in mind. I started with some nymphs on a long leader casting fairly long lines in the head and tail of the pools and had a few fish commit to the tried and tested making my first session a good one to start with. The next day I strapped on my dragon pattern marched to the tail of the nearest pool I could find and proceeded to swing some bugs through the water column. I’ll spare you the boring details and skip to the part where I had surrendered half my fly box to the mighty Tugela, leaving me with zero dragon nymph patterns and no fish to show for it.
After my embarrassing defeat, I met up with Jeremy, secretly hoping that he at least shared some of the struggles for the day but even from a distance I could see from his characteristic smile that he caught fish. I could hear the words “happy days’ ringing in my mind. Now normally I celebrate with my mates when they catch good fish, and catching good fish was exactly what he did, but I was a little jealous and decided to tag along with Jerr to see where and how he was catching these fish.
Jeremy Rochester with a solid Tugela Scaly
I followed Jeremy down to a run with a strong flow where he previously landed two good sized fish in succession. He tied on a standard yellowfish nymphing rig with a heavy control fly and a lighter nymph pattern… then he pulled out some sort of crochet kit and a big fluffy green ball of hair that looked like it was harvested from the nether regions of the Incredible Hulk.
I’m out Jerr, I mumbled and walked my holier than though arse downstream to create some space between myself and the atrocities that were occurring up current. I made sure to keep Jeremy and his indicator in view though, which wasn’t hard, that thing lit up the whole Tugela valley. The indicator was spending more time under the water than it was above, as he proceeded to “klap” the fish. You’ll never catch me fishing with a “poeliesman” is what I kept telling myself trying to ease the pain of blanking. As you can tell I had sour grapes, enough to make Dlamini Zuma issue a ban.
Remember I said I wasn’t a purist? Well, I’m not and I firmly believe that every angler chooses his poison, and when you spend your own time, effort, and money, you fish the way you bloody want to. The thing is we were on assignment and there on someone else’s time and buck, Jeremy wasn’t necessarily fishing the way he wanted to but we needed to film fishing shows and he has logged enough hours on this river to know which techniques to fish in what conditions to get the job done.
That night at camp, trying to drown my sorrows, I decided to give in and stop being the bloody-minded angler that I am. We headed out the next morning at dawn. Jeremy gave me a quick crash course on rigging the radioactive yarn on my leader and off I went a mix of tungsten and feathers drifting under an indicator. It didn’t take long for the indicator to disappear and the first scaly to make it into the net, four more followed soon after and we wrapped up the second show and got back to the lodge in time for brunch. I’ll be the first to admit, I had fun during the short morning session indicator nymphing and caught quality fish in quick succession with this very effective method. Would I go out and get myself an indicator rig for future trips…? Probably not.
a healthy Scaly from the Tugela system
The one thing I can say is that I learned a valuable lesson on bending my own rules and fishing out of my comfort zone to use tactics and techniques that are proven, fish catchers. In my angling journey, I’m discovering that you don’t always have to prove a point, sometimes it helps to not overthink it and have some fun while you’re out on the water. At the end of the day, we call ourselves fisherman and all we are trying to do is catch a fish…
Area Fishing: South Africa
Discipline: Freshwater Fly
Species Targeted: Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, Smallmouth Yellowfish, Largemouth Yellowfish, Natal Scaly, Tigerfish, Bass, Carp
Rhuan grew up in a fishing family and being raised on the banks of the Vaal River he spent many hours targeting anything that swims. He started out as a lure angler fishing with his father in local bass circuits and money trails. He caught his first Yellowfish on fly in the Vaal River and has been hooked on fly fishing ever since. Nowadays Rhuan spends his time in the KZN midlands fishing the pristine trout waters in the area and every now and then he visits his home waters of the mighty Vaal River.
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