FLY ONLY - the ultimate test!
Our next guests were Len and Juliet from Tanzania (East Africa) and Archie and Barbara from Kansas USA. This foursome were fly only and so offer the toughest test of the fishing down here. We had teamed them up with our top guide, Ian Cuevas, so we were confident that they were in knowledgeable and skilled hands, in the face of difficult conditions.
Fortunately, they proved to be very good anglers and although the permit were elusive, they caught bonefish and tarpon on fly. Monkey River grudgingly conceded some late tarpon as dusk was descending, to add a little extra to the day. Curiously the early morning sessions in the river did not produce. We concluded that this was a tide issue. A rising tide at dusk appeared to be the best time.
Just like our previous guests, Len and Archie found the bonefish uncharacteristically uncooperative and catches were by our standards, low. This is the end of the tourist season and it may be that the fish are getting wary when rods start waving around out on the flats. Both Len and Archie had several shots at permit, but as is the nature of this most elusive of fish, chances were brief and few.
The ‘gummy” fly which Dell had first shown to us seems to be a particularly good bet especially for tarpon. Archie also had these, in a thin tiny baitfish shape, and a fuller more rounded version which Ian thought (correctly as it turned out) would be a better match for river fishing. Len promptly jumped three tarpon on one, and landed the fourth, all in the space of an hour or so.
So what was our conclusion? Well nowhere in this world has fishing that can be turned on (or off) like a tap. However good the fishing, however huge the shoals, however beautiful the surroundings, there will always be times when things just don’t go right. The last three weeks have been like that. Unstable weather has without a doubt played a big part. Len kindly invited me to join him one afternoon and I could see just how difficult it was to present a fly in the crosswinds we had, particularly casting right into partially submerged wild cane along the river’s edge. Only a really good caster could manage that-Len did!
I suppose you could say that this just adds to the desire to come back and try again, a feeling we anglers all get from time to time. No sooner are you off the water than you are thinking about the next time.Still as Sue remarked as we said goodbye to our last visitors, a month which included three new records, two Grand slams, plus a number of fly caught firsts for guests cannot be called poor in anyone’s language. Maybe we expect too much from the fish lurking in their watery world below the silvery surface.