Reflecting on the season as it draws to a close I realise that I like many others, have complained of a mixed bag, limited fishing outings mainly as a result of the rains in KZN and lots of it, floods and high water. But, in my case I have been fortunate that those few windows of opportunity I have had have been standout trips, the hike with the Brigg boys to Pillar Cave, the five days in the Eastern Cape Highlands and yesterdays outing in the fine company of Grant Visser and Jan Korrubel to the Injisuthi, the place of the well fed dog after an absence of nearly 3 years.
We picked up Jan in Howick, a stop to grab a coffee at the Windmill outside Notties and managed to survive the torturous negotiation of the organ displacing pot-holed last 30km section of road to Injisuthi – I have never seen it so bad, in fact it is in a shocking state of disrepair. But, we made it finally after leaving Westville some three and a half hours earlier – thanks to Grant’s driving skills and his seemingly indestructible Nissan bakkie.
It was a day where all the boxes were ticked, perfect weather, the mountain landscape bathed in the soft autumn light showing off its splendour, the stream was full, quick, clear and cold. The wild rainbows were hungry, heavily spotted, fat and beautiful in their pre-spawning hues of silver, green, pink and blue. There were many of them, mostly small around 6 to 8 inches with a couple closer to 10 and one I was lucky to deceive on my final cast, a shade under 13 inches. One of the best I have had from the upper stretches of this water where size doesn’t matter – the perfect small stream for light line, dry fly, up close and fine presentations.
We left Injisuthi with smiles on faces and that feeling of having had an elegant sufficiency.
Call of the Stream 