Having spent the morning stocking some of the club waters Sharon and I decided to spend the night at the Kamberg Nature Reserve. We drove through the gate at 12am and I immediately became aware of the storm clouds which were already forming overhead. Worried that I wouldn’t be able to fish later that day I cut a deal with Sharon which allowed me to fish while she unpacked the car.
I fished the usual spots around Erskine for about 30 minutes with no luck. It was midday in summer and I wasn’t expecting a lot so I continued fishing while enjoy the pair of Crested Eagles nesting in a nearby tree. It was at this point that I noticed a few stockies shoaling in the far corner of the dam. I made my way over there, put in a cast, and was immediately into a fish. It wasn’t a large fish but in the midday heat a fish is a fish.
I continued fishing the corner, catching on almost every cast, until Sharon arrived a few minutes later. Realising we were sitting on a gold mine I passed her the rod and relaxed on the bank with a beer while she wet her appetite for fly fishing. Although she couldn’t cast far she landed 5 fish within the hour, and lost equally as many due to the barbless hook.
Eventually, after we’d landed 17 fish between us, we called it a day and headed over to the weir next to the hatchery for a swim and a picnic. From there we headed back to the unit for a shower and to relax while a mild storm passed overhead.
For dinner we enjoyed a quiet braai while chatting to a few of the people around us about their day’s fishing. Amazingly none of them had caught anything and were in awe of our small achievement.
On Saturday morning I headed down to the water at around 7am. Sharon’s arm was a little stiff and opted to relax in the chalet instead. When I got to the water’s edge I headed for my corner only to discover that one of the fishermen I’d chatted to the previous evening had poached it. Grrrr!
I gracefully moved off and fished a few of my other favourite spots around the dam. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I landed a few larger fish (in the 1kg range) as opposed to the small stockies of the day before.
After I’d picked up 6 larger rainbow trout the other fisherman moved off and I reclaimed my spot for a little stockie bashing. In the next hour I landed 10 (possibly more as I was battling to keep count) small rainbows.
So 16 fish and 2 hours later I called it a day and we started the trip home.