I once saw a blood lily (Scadoxus puniceus) high up in the fork of a yellowwood tree in the forest along the Poort Stream. When I saw it, peering up from the lush humid forest, with the sound of the rushing stream in my ears, it was lit in a patch of sunlight, such that the oranges and reds of the magnificent flower are still brandished in my memory.
We have a few of these plants in pots at home, and this morning I moved one from the cool, shady side of the house, into a spot around front where I imagined it would get a beneficial shaft of sunlight most mornings. Perhaps that will make it flower, because last year all we got was leaves.
As I heaved the pot around, my mind was on the Poort steam, and the main river down the valley from there. As I came around the corner of the house, my mind was coming around the corner just above Pine Tree pool. Of course Pine Tree pool no longer has that pesky invasive pine growing above it, but it does have Trout. I always struggle there though, because I haven’t mastered the drift. You are either on a high bank, or you are too close to the Trout, or you are fishing across a tongue of current. So it has become a frustrating place for me. But last season, the Viking got a fish in the pretty (and easy) run above.
I don’t think I had ever taken a fish there before. Either way, that piece of water has now entered the never-ending catalogue in my mind, of places not to skip. And that was where my mind was eyeing the bouncing current and deciding on a fly. All this of course, just over a week before opening day.
The thing is, that with snow and rain only 10 days back, and less than that until I get to fish my home river, plus blood lilies about to burst into flower…..let’s just say that spring is in the air. The evenings are still cool, I think because the water and the soil are still cool. And humidity hasn’t arrived, so on a hot day it is still cool in the shade. But as I went to close a window before bed last night, my nostrils were filled with the heavy scent of Jasmine. I don’t know of any river where I smell Jasmine in September, but I leave home with its lingering perfume when I go fishing in early September.
If I go as close as the uMngeni, the scent is still with me when I arrive at the water. The anticipation of arriving at the water had me nearly put that flowerpot down on my toe, but once it was in place I got to thinking about what fly I would tie on. I know I am jumping the gun, because I’ve got another week to think about fly choice, but you know how it is.
I have been having early season luck down on the frogwater with a fairly sizeable “Taddy Bugger” or an even bigger “Ja Ja”. The Taddy bugger is nothing too special. It is basically a short, stout Woolly bugger with a bead upfront which is either glass or plastic, but in any event doesn’t plunge the fly down into the logs on Chestnuts too quickly. The tail is very thick and dense, and has two strands of somewhat subtle Flashabou hidden inside it. I usually tie it in a #10 or #12.
I don’t know how good it is except to say that I took a few for mates at a lunch we had on Sunday, and one bloke pretended he had lost his one, so that he could get another. I took that as a compliment. I have of course also caught a lot of good fish on the thing, which is why I tied some up for the Boardermaster and other friends.
The Boardermaster has been bucking the trend and out fishing me at Chestnuts with the most delicate of emerger flies. This totally flies in the face my frogwater theory, which involves fish looking for post-winter calories. But I am sticking with it. To that end, last year (or was it the year before?), I came up with the Ja-Ja. You might argue that I had had too much jasmine scent, or perhaps something stronger, when I dreamt this thing up. It is not so much a fly as a notion. It goes like this: A big dangerous thing has been hiding in a tunnel in the river bank all winter, and on the 1st of September it ventures out from its lair to get involved in the river. A trout has been waiting for it, and even if the thing throws sticks at Colonel Trout, Ja Ja is going down. It’s big but not too heavy, on account of those same pesky logs I mentioned. I typically tie it black, and it has long jiggly legs. The back, and wing cover is of deer hair to slow the sink further (Neutral density perhaps, a-la Kaufmann, Andy Krajewski, Clayne Baker ) , and it has big eyes.
OK: It’s a dragonfly
But it’s the backstory that makes the pattern more than the insect it represents.
As I stand and admire the budding blood lily I can picture the Ja Ja dropping into the water at the base of the rocks at Krantz pool. And I can picture that big brown coming up for it, just before the fly reaches the logs. And I can picture all three pounds of thrashing fish at the end of a mid-range cast across the pool. But this time I will drop the angle of the rod quicker and put more pressure on, and the hook will stick.
Flower, dammit …flower.
One Response
The anticipation is palpable, Andrew!! Here’s to clean water and tight lines!!