After the huge rains and antics of the previous trip, we were ecstatic to see some stable weather with not a single millimetre of rain forecast for the duration! We arrived to sunny skies and fantastic clarity, but a bit lower water conditions than we were expecting for Hernan Botes’s hosted week in camp.
The first evening at Madibeng was amazing with thousands of rises all around us! We managed to fool a few small yellows on dry and ended off with a behemoth catfish in the riffles, straightening the B10S trying to stop it digging deep into the weeds.

The weather was perfect, but the fish were no up in the shallows. We found fish in the deeper pools and the tail outs. When we found the fish however, it was pandemonium! We had double ups several times in the space of 20 minutes with the familiar sound of the zip of line coming off the water on the strike being celebrated with a smile and a whoop! The smallmouth fishing was on fire, but we bled on the drift. Of the 15 Largemouth caught over the three days, only one came on the drift, with most falling to the nymph and a fair number on the dry.

We had some special sightings of Cape Cobra, incredible bird life, and a plethora of plains game on the banks of he river.

Another trip for the books with Herman, Carlo and Dave who had the tenacity and skill to figure out the fish that are never predictable. 15 Largemouth and close to 200 Smallmouth were caught between three anglers over the three days on the water. Not a bad haul considering the fish were not playing along at all!