Author: Warren Prior

[caption id="attachment_180" align="alignright" width="200"] Warren Prior's Rainbow Trout[/caption]On Sunday I got up at the usual 5am, packed my fishing kit, and met Shaun in the basement. We headed for Colmonell, stopping for the mandatory cup of coffee at the Bean Cafe. By 7am we were kitted up and on the water. There was a fair amount of activity around us in the shallows, and I could see it was sizeable Rainbows, so things were looking good. At around 8am I pulled out my best Rainbow of the year, a hen fish weighing in at 2,6kg. Shaun quickly informed me that I was cheating as I'd used the infamous Mrs Simpson. This of course was all biterness as he had none in his box. Shortly after that I pulled out a…

[caption id="attachment_174" align="alignleft" width="200"] Warren Prior Casting[/caption] For the second week in a row Sharon was working, which meant that I had the pink slip to go out and do some fishing. Western's girlfriend also had plans, so for the second week in a row he joined me. I arrived at the water at around 7am after complicating the process of getting there. Western was running again so he was going to join me at around 10am. The good news was that I'd remembered the key this time, and so I could actually do some fishing instead of sitting around in the car. There was another club member there setting up his tube so we had a quick chat while we kitted up, and then we both hit the water.…

[caption id="attachment_171" align="alignright" width="225"] Warren Prior With A Colmonell Rainbow[/caption] So after a long fishing layoff I finally made it back to the water. On Saturday morning I woke up at 5am, packed the car, and was on the road by 5:30. Just over an hour later I pulled up to the gate at Colmonell. FAIL! I'd forgotten my gate key. Luckily for me Western was following me up, so I gave him a call and then started the wait. Then it was time to keep myself occupied...I taped up my leg and kitted out 2 fly rods. This took me all of half an hour so I whipped out the camera and took a few misty photos. This killed another 30 minutes so I made a few phone calls.…

[caption id="attachment_164" align="alignright" width="300"] Underwater Trout[/caption] After fishing Mavela last week and only landing one, I decided I needed to give it another try. Bruce and I drove up early to find very different conditions to those Nick and I had fished last weekend. It was overcast, and there was a strong wind blowing, making casting from the bank difficult. Due to the ripple on the water we also couldn't see the fish like Nick and I could previously. Bruce had brought his tube, and after setting it up he got into the water and I headed off down the bank. A couple of hours of tough fishing for me produced nothing. Although I did have two big hits which I somehow missed. Bruce did have more luck in the…

[caption id="attachment_160" align="alignright" width="225"] Warren With A Small Rainbow[/caption] Since joining the NFFC about a month ago I hadn't had a chance to fish any of the club waters. Thankfully I put an end to this over the weekend. On Sunday morning I picked up Nick Nortje (I write his full name since he likes it popping up in Google) and we headed to Mavela, one of the club waters. We arrived at around 7am and were on the water by half past seven. Mavela is a largish body of water with good clarity. It is relatively shallow (as far as I could see) with a lot of weed beds. All in all it looked like a great spot for trout. While tackling up we noticed a lot of activity…