Colourful catch for Annetjie
The festival would not have been possible without the support of all the farmers who made their dams available.
Kokstad Fly Fishing Club hosted its 24th Flyfishing Festival recently. Some 72 flyfishermen took part in the festival.
One of these was Annetjie Strauss, who clinched second place in the women’s section with a 45cm rainbow trout.
First prize went to Chantal Joubert who landed a rainbow trout of 50cm.
The overall winner was Kyle Strachan, who waited for the last fishing session on Sunday afternoon to land a very nice rainbow trout of 69cm at Elandskop, pipping the rest of the field into first place.
The format was catch-and-release with anglers required to photograph their caught fish in a gutter against a ruler and then safely return it to the water.
Trout over 50cm in length could qualify for individual honors, as well as a cumulative team bag length for the team’s four longest trout caught per day.
The festivities started Friday evening at the Kokstad Club with the registration, briefing, and the allocation of dams.
Early Saturday morning vehicles carrying kick boats of all shapes and sizes could be seen heading out to the various dams to be fished.
The flyfishermen had the opportunity to test their prowess with the long stick on 21 dams, both club and private waters.
In total, 367 trout were caught and released during the two Saturday sessions.
Saturday evening saw some tired flyfishermen converging on the club to submit their catch returns.
Sunday morning saw another near perfect autumn day with excellent conditions for flyfishing.
Though fishing was tough in the morning, a total 375 trout was landed over the two sessions.
In total 742 trout were caught over the four sessions.
The quality of the fishing was good with 140 trout caught 50cm or longer, of which 25 trout were 60cm or longer.
Several entrants managed to land some new personal bests over the weekend.
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