Rainbow trout / Injasuthi stream.

Decided to try my luck this past Sunday, on the Injasuthi stream in the Injasuthi Nature Reserve, part of the Drakensberg wilderness area. The Injasuthi stream was stocked with rainbow trout more than a hundred years ago, so all the fish that you might catch here are wild trout. All the original rainbow trout ova came from the Kamloops area in Canada.

Well I'm almost starting to believe that I might still become a fly fisher one day, I managed to land four fish, loose several, and miss numerous takes.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

The road approaching the camp at Injasuthi. There are seventeen 6 sleeper chalets, two that sleep 8, and several camp sites, there are also several caves that can be booked further into the mountains. This area is favourite hiking and mountain climbing venue.

Injasuthi peaks visible in the gap, height about 3000m. 

Final approach to the camp, the bridge in the middle foreground crosses the stream shown below.

One of the dozens of tributaries that flow into the Injasuthi river. The water here is safe to drink as is, needs no purification, is ice cold and absolutely delicious. These small streams also hold trout, small stream fly fishers dream. 

The Injasuthi stream above, after a long drought reduced to a trickle. As unbelievable as it looks there a fish in that unlikely looking water. My first strike occurred just out of picture, upstream, in a pocket not much bigger than a kitchen sink.

Above first rainbow of the day, caught in the middle reaches of the pool below. What made it more enjoyable is that I caught it on a 2 weight, T F O, Finesse series rod, that I made up myself, from a blank, etc., ordered from J Stokard in the US. The fly was a #14 RAB that I tied a few days earlier. This was the first time that I'd used a RAB dry fly and I was most impressed. Lands like a feather and almost seems to dance on the water.

Tail end of the pool. Had several fish rise to my fly here, but turn away at the last second, them I noticed that the last bit of the 5x tippet was visible on the surface. Treated it with my home made degreaser, (Fullers earth mixed with dish washing liquid), problem over.

Same pool as above, but upstream. All the fish were holding in the main current against the far bank.

Second rainbow of the day, the RAB can still be seen in it's lip. This fish fought until it was quite exhausted. Took me a while to revive it and eventually swam away vigorously.

Third fish of the day. All the fish in pictures I see on other blogs seem to pose decorously for their picture, mine refuse to keep still, they flap and flop about, unwilling to pose. This one was in the middle of a flap as you can see.

I caught a fourth rainbow of about 3 inches, this little fish tried to bluff me he was a tuna. 

To really enjoy the fishing here one needs to spend several days exploring the stream, there are many kilometers of fishable water, not counting the tributaries, so you need to camp there. Next project is to get a nice reliable tent, (sleeping bag and inflatable mattress I have), just a few other bits and pieces of camping equipment needed. 

I have camped at Injasuthi twice in the past, both times I was rained out by torrential rain.