Diamond River Outfitters and Stream and Sea hosted our annual tour to the Eastern Cape Highlands from the 31 March to the 20th April. The trip seems to take 3 years to arrive and 5 minutes to do, there is no length of time that is too long in this magical place.

Three weeks before we arrived in the highlands, we had uncomfortable calls with the farmers we are hosted with, telling us that the rivers are all very low and that it doesn’t look good for the 3 weeks we had planned. We have build up a great network of landowners in the region, so that planning began for some low water expeditions into the bigger lower reaches of the Kraai and the deeper sections in the canyons of some lesser known rivers. This seemed like a carbon copy of the previous year where we were rescued 3 days before our guests arrived by some memorable rain!

Nature is unpredictable and we quickly went from low water planning to high water planning in the space of 2 weeks. Rain, rain and more rain! We arrived a few days before our guests to scout and check out some new waters for the following seasons. Luck seemed to be on our side but later seemed to be an in-house assassin!

Week 1 began on the Sterkspruit at the spectacular destination at Branksome. The Sterkspruit was running at its fishable limit and dirty. We had a few casts on the first afternoon and managed a few fingerling trout, and two Yellows. Things looked good for the next few days and we had high hopes of the river improving over the two days……it didn’t. The rain arrived and poured down heavily for hours through the night. We woke up to an angry river and some seriously snotty roads. The only thing we could do was go up. We fished the Rifle and found some fish way up high in extremely fast water, tough conditions but everyone got fish and a good old traditional RAB was a winner in the fast pockets.

The following day we managed to get up to Gateshead and found some spectacular looking water, with very few fish, surprisingly. A common theme throughout the region was lower fish numbers that the prior seasons. It was a conundrum that caused us great frustration over the next 3 weeks of fishing.

We moved on from the Bell River Catchment onto the Karringmelk which had also received torrential rain. The river was unfishable to the highest point we were able to fish it. Phones were out and plans were made! We headed off to a new still water that had some promise of big hungry fish and it didnt disappoint. Johan caught a beauty off the weed beds that showed the potential of this lake for future trips.

The rest of the week we spent exploring high water to see what we could find. We managed to find fish in most places and also no fish where we were certain we would. Even in the same river one pool would produce a handful of fish and the next 5 didn’t seem to have any life in them at all. All in all it was a memorable trip with lots of adventure and firsts. 12 year old Christian caught his first fish in his life and on fly non the less! It was clear he had been bitten badly by the fishing bug, a new member has joined the club.

Week two began where week 1 had ended at the Karringmelk. The water conditions had improved slightly but the water was still almost dangerous. In 3 days on the Karringmelk, we finally managed to wet a line!

The first afternoon was promising, producing decent numbers of fish and the first rising fish we had seen in a week. The next day however proved to be a conundrum again. We fished up the higher portions on the farm for 3-4km and landed a sum total of two fish! Something had definitely gone awry in the system.

After a frustrating few days on the Karringmelk where we traveled hours daily to the Diepspruit valley to find fish, we eventually moved onto the Diepspruit at Pitlochrie, the only river that consistently produced fish over the prior few days.

The water was looking much better and the gorges were fishable. We headed down the river and found some incredible flush runs stacked with rainbows. We had finally found some good, consistent fishing!

After the storms the Diepspruit came came down and we went on the hunt for clean water again and we found a magical place in the process. Tucked up in a towering sandstone valley is the Willow. A stream of tiny proportions but immense beauty. Winding its way up a thickly wooded valley of Acacia, Poplars and Oaks, giving a yellow and orange dappled light into dark passages. The stream was filled with fat and feisty rainbows, hiding in the shadows but giving themselves away wherever a fly intercepted their lie.

The third week arrived with more rain, we managed to squeeze in another stint in the gorges but were eventually pushed out by some heavy storms and lightening. We had some decent fishing in the bad weather though with some beautiful fish coming to the net. We moved onto some local still waters to escape the brown soup that was the river system in the area and had some fun with some serious rainbows coming to hand.

We moved back to the Sterkspruit at Branksome and found some more Milo. Undeterred we made the monstrous trek to Lochness, one of the highest stillwaters in the country for wild spawned, chunky rainbows in some of the most spectacular scenery. We had incredible weather up there for a change and managed a bunch of really good fish from the bank and the float tubes.

for the last couple of days we fished the Upper rifle and Bokspruit which produced some incredible fishing and proved to be a spectacular end to our 3 weeks in this wholesome place.

This was by no means an easy season in the Highlands, but it did show that there is always water to fish no matter the conditions and also that these are wild systems. The days of a hundred fish per angler are never certain and when it happens its something to burn into your memory.

As they say, this isn’t the same river, and you are not the same man.