A few friends and our families headed to Underberg for a relaxing weekend at KarMichael B&B, located on the outskirts of Himeville. This of course meant that we were within spitting distance of the UHTFC waters; a temptation too good to resist.
Alan warned us that many of the waters had inverted thanks to the first cold snap after a warm summer. Apparently the waters were muddy and fishing was slow. It was an ominous sign but certainly not enough to stop us from wetting a line.
So after a relaxing first day we were up early on the Friday morning for a quick session before the Sharks game at 11am. We opted to fish Trelevans 4 with Rory and I fishing off a boat while Jared headed out on his tube. Thankfully the water wasn’t too murky and amazingly I got into my first fish on just my third cast. It was a beautiful rainbow weighing in at 2kgs, and was caught on the standard olive green woolly bugger.
Sadly after that things went quiet and we fished hard for no reward. That said, Jared missed one while taking a smoke break and I missed another while stripping in to leave for the rugga.
That evening Jared and I had another short session, this time at Finelands. Sadly we arrived a little late and only realised how dirty the water was after we launched our tubes. None the less we fished for an hour and a half as the sun dipped below the mountains and the temperature dropped. Neither of us picked up a fish but the water did come alive as darkness fell.
Since we had our families with us (or perhaps due to the hangovers) we relaxed the next morning, enjoying croquet on the lawns and tea and cake at main house. As a Baha Boy I almost felt guilty not living out of a tent and surviving only on rum and our catches.
Full of cake and rearing to go we headed out for an afternoon session at Lake Ringstead. We were pleased to find cleaner water, a slight ripple on the surface, and what looked like near perfect conditions. Jared and I headed out on our float tubes while Rory manned a boat alone.
Shortly after launching I got into a 1.5kg rainbow trout on a small woolly bugger. My screams of delight were cut short however by Rory’s screams. As it turned out the boat he had chosen was infested with red ants which had found their way into his delicate places. Ouch!
A little later Jared hooked into what must’ve been a beast of a fish. It ran for the horizon, stripping backing off his reel at an incredible pace, until his line went limp. Reeling in revealed his tippet (which I had lent to him) had snapped. Later that evening long conversations were had around whether the borrowed tippet or fisherman was at fault. I’m sticking to my story that it was the fisherman…
After that our time on the water was quiet. I lost a small fish while the sun lit up the sky with oranges. But other than that the fishing remained tough, as it had been all weekend. On the up side we’d remember to pack the cooler box in the boat with Rory, so it wasn’t all bad.
By far my toughest trip to Underberg in 2 years. On the up side I managed to pick up a few fish in trying conditions, and the accommodation was amazing. Hopefully Jared will drag me back soon to hunt down the beast lurking in Ringstead.