My friend Kyle came to pick me up at 4am one Saturday morning to get a good start to the day so we can get the most from this new area. Along the way we start talking and deciding what flies and rods to use for our expedition.
After an hours drive we reached our destination and started offloading his 3.5m rubber duck and my 7hp outboard motor into the river in the pitch black morning with nothing but little LED headlights.
After the motor and fuel tank were all setup we started rigging our rods. Myself with an old 8 weight rod with my uncle's wonderful Penn International reel and an intermediate line, a 5 weight redington rod and reel with a floating line.
Kyle had his 9 weight rod and reel with a intermediate line.
Still before dawn we decide to put on a few different colour clouser patterns to see which works best. Thank god we did because those fish were picky.
Kyle opted for a green clouser while i took the white and chartreuse pattern with incredibly different reactions from the fish. the little buggers wouldn't touch the green clouser but as soon as the white one got in the water you were sure there was going to be a fish on the other end of that rod.
Cast after cast the leerfish were taking to the white.
so kyle also opted for a similar patterned clouser and we were smacking them until we were too tired from the full day's expedition.
after that early morning session we are addicted to swartvlei and the abundance of leerfish and shad the wonderful river had to offer.
we try and go as often as possible but always on the lookout for the next BIG spot to catch some different species.
You won't be disappointed
