MAURITIUS - Flyfishingtails

Fisherman’s Tails
The week of bad weather, towards the end of November, Yuri
experienced continued to prevail for the few days spent with
Mannejtie, Henri and Ruben.
Henri and Mannejtie are both relatively new to the sport of fly fishing,
and it was heavy hearts that they were greeted by strong winds,
and icy conditions, on this, their first trip to Sterkfontein.
Although the conditions were less than favourable, each session
yielded a couple shots at fish. With the water temperature dropping
as low as 16 degrees, in some areas, fish were reluctant to come to
the surface.
As in most fly fishing cases, the best strategy, was to go as light as
possible and as small as possible. We were sure we would have had
a higher catch return using wet flies, but the reward of taking a yellow
on a dry is definitely worth the sweat and tears, especially when
they are few and far between.
Though a number of different flies were tried, without a doubt the
best response was had on size 16, klinkhammers, in both olive and
black. Carefully presented, a few fish would rise to look at the fly,
but ultimately they refused to take the fly. In these circumstances,
success was achieved by ensuring that the fly was not moved, even
when the fish went as far as nudging the fly, after several refusals,
one would eventually commit and take the offering. The secret was
often to wait until there was enough competition to encourage one
of the fish to commit.
Although the three days weren’t the most explosive, they were
never the less extremely satisfying, in very trying conditions, to land
a handful of great fish.
There is no doubt that when the weather clears, and warms up,
with the surrounding landscape so waterlogged, there is going to
be some incredible insect explosions, and with them some great
fishing.
Source: www.tourettefishing.com
Sterkfontien Yellows in tough conditions
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Raquel with an 18 pound Mnyera Tiger Tigerfish
Mark Cowan and his wife Raquel along with their group, traveled
from the United States. Mark and Raquel own and run
Pescador Solatario, a fly fishing outfitter that specializes in
fishing the most remote destinations on the planet, and this is their
second trip in as many years to this wild fishery.
Having fished with Mark
before, both Rob and Leonard
were greatly looking forward
to spending a week with him
again.
Traveling with Mark and
Raquel, where Craig, Bill and
John all hailing from the USA.
The sixth rod was Bud, who
stayed on from the previous
group to fish back to back
weeks.
With the season drawing to a
close, there was much anticipation
regarding the fishing.
The previous week had seen
some incredible fishing, and
a huge number of massive
tigers. The first day spent on
the Mnyera certainly did not
disappoint. Mark and Raquel
Bud Callahan with a fish of a life time
had an absolutely magical
session and a number of great
fish around the 16 and 17
pound mark were landed, but
the most notable fish were a 22 pounder landed by Mark, along with
Raquel’s 18 pounder. The rest of the guests also faired well with a
tremendous number of 16 lb fish falling to natural brush patterns.
For more photos and to read the rest click here -
http://blog.tourettefishing.com/