The Kokstad Fly fishing Club held their annual fundraising trout festival at the end of April, officially marking the start of the winter trout festival season.

Marius Jonker and his team once again hosted another great festival.  The event was sold out, with 20 teams of 4 anglers fishing a selection of 24 club and private dams in the beautiful greater Kokstad area. The farmers graciously opened their farms to the club to explore their private waters and to help raise funds to restock theses dams each year.

April was a wet month in both the KZN Midlands and East Griqualand. The dams were full, which was certainly welcomed, but the excessive rain left most of the dams dirty or discolored, making for a tough weekend of fishing.  They fact that the area had not yet had their frost may have also added to the challenging angling conditions.  Regardless of these challenges the teams were keen to get onto the water to test their skills and enjoy time with mates on the dam.  We couldn’t have asked for better weather on both days; with cool mornings, warm sunny midday and a light wind making for perfect fishing conditions, all we needed was the fish to play along…

Some Dams performed better than others as usual, East Hebron and Dorset (both club waters) producing the most fish. Saturday sessions overall resulted in 220 fish being caught and safely released. Sunday saw only 111 fish reported, possibly a result of the previous days rod pressure. The anglers are encouraged to practice safe fish handling by keeping fish wet when recording their length and by using catch and release gutters which were provided by the club.

Saturday at 6pm the last session ended, and we returned to the club to hand in our score cards. Back at the Kokstad Club the drinks were flowing and the braai’s were lit as Marius and his team calculated the results to see which team would take top honors for 2025 and which team or person would win the booby prize for a mishap or poor performance. Team Dusty Fries took top position with 43 fish, followed by EG Comorants in second place with 33 fish.  Although the fishing was tough there were still 9 fish of over 60cm caught and released with the longest fish of 66cm.

The 2025 Kokstad festival was another great gathering of like-minded fly fishers and we were fortunate to have explored the amazing stillwaters of East Griqualand. Thanks again to the Kokstad Fly fishing Club.

A week later, The Underberg-Himeville Trout Fishing Club hosted their Annual River Festival.  This event is one of the few events that are not framed as a competition, with emphasis on social fishing and camaraderie;  a true festival. There are no prizes for the biggest or most fish. It is purely an opportunity for anglers to experience the amazing rivers that the UHTFC has to offer.

We gathered at the Balam Café on the banks of the Umzimkhulu river for registration, beat allocations and some refreshments.  The anglers enjoyed a bit of banter and drinks as they compared their beats before heading back for the night in preparation for an early start.

The water level, flow and clarity were all perfect. A drastic change to the previous weekend’s event in Kokstad. The anglers hit the water early in the morning with the hope of landing a few wild river fish. As the day passed, we quickly realized we had our work cut out for us.  The fish were proving to be elusive on our stretch of river. Jono managed a fish in the first few hours, but then it went quiet.  We saw some beasts in a few deep pools, but they were unfortunately not interested. They had seen this movie before. Possibly pre-spawn behavior thanks to the sudden cold snap, they were just not interested, regardless of the many changed in flies, tactics, drifts and approaches, it was just simply not happening today…

We later learned that particular stretch of river had had a lot of rod pressure over the few weeks prior, and after consulting the rod register, we saw 340 odd anglers had hit those beats that month. That explained a lot. It was still an amazing day out, giving us the opportunity to do some in-the-field product development, and recharge the batteries with fresh Drakensberg air and some truly awe-inspiring views.

At the end of Day 1, we gathered at a new spot called Charlie’s Brew for a few craft beers and a meal to compare our days fishing. It seemed most teams had a similar day’s result and not for a lack of trying. That’s fishing I suppose.

Day two saw a short morning’s session on another scenic Underberg river beat, before meeting for the closing ceremony and a delicious Lamb curry around Isabella Dam. It seemed not much had changed from the previous days with only a few fish caught.   The weekend closed with Rhett and his team thanking all the anglers. Then onto to prize givings, with anglers randomly selected from a hat to select an item from the prize table plus each angler  walked away with a R250 Xplorer Gift voucher on top of the prize. .  We thank the UHTFC for sharing their beautiful rivers with us and for hosting another successful festival!