Tha dragon Bites

The mother-in-law & the dragon bites. The mother-in-law & the dragon bites. There’s an unavoidable time in a young mans life when weird & unusual things begin to occur. Usually coupled with vast amounts of alcohol, Mother Nature somehow cast’s her unavoidable spell & before we know it we find ourselves speaking alien words such as love, relationships & marriage. All is well in the beginning, we will go to great efforts in order to charm & present ourselves as worthy of a daughter’s hand. Once accepted, we will find ourselves with this thing called a slightly relieved ‘mother-in-law‘, although she will never admit this. Then, as the years pass & the children grow our relationship with this ‘mother in law’ begins to alter. At first the changes are subtle, almost unnoticeable & it is with this in mind I would like to share one of my angling experiences with you……Picture the scene. My wife, Daughter & I have just flown 13 hours & 5,617 miles to join her parents in Sunny South Africa for a very well deserved holiday. After a short connection from Johannesburg we find ourselves in the glorious town of White River. Situated approximately half way between Pretoria & Durban, White river is set in the heartland of fertile farming country on the border of the awesome Kruger national park. Prioritising our stay, the first thing I do is stop at the local bottle store, in order to stock up with beer. Four cases should do to begin with & as we drive home conversation turns to our itinerary. In addition to the wonderful Kruger park, we are to take a trip to Durban on the East coast, stopping off on the way for a few days at the spectacular drakensberg mountains, aptly named as they resemble the spine of a dragon.

The Drakensberg mountain range is situated along southeast coast of South Africa & these spectacular Mountains are a challenge for adventure seekers and a heaven for wildlife lovers. Extending from northeast to southwest for around 1,125 km, the Drakensberg is part of the Great Escarpment and the main watershed of South Africa.Dotted with exclusive hotels, lodges & Guest houses, popular activities include trekking, horse riding & mountain biking. However I had only been away for one day & already my mind was on fishing. Fortunately, situated close to my in-laws lodge is the darkensberg sun hotel, complete with its own dam stocked with trout, not perfect, but it would do.

So after a long day, we retired to bed, ready to get up bright & early as I had promised my daughter a morning at the poolside. It was around about mid-morning that the conversation turned to dinner & we decided that we would have a brai (bar-b-q in real language). I was becoming more & more eager to do a spot of fishing & so it was at this point that I suggested that perhaps we might have trout. That’s a good idea, came the replies, not without an underlying degree of sarcasm.Surefooted & with the bit between my teeth I set off, positive I could hire some tackle at the hotel.They had tackle alright, one knackered old rod & reel that looked like it was from the 50’s. I’ve used worse I thought & handed over the cash. Coupled with a handful of flies, a small net & a rucksack of beer I set off for the dam.The dam itself is idyllic & very picturesque. Basically one of the main streams running down the mountains has been blocked off to create a beautiful lake. Mostly shallow at about 6’, there are a few deeper areas running to 12’ at the dam end & it is here that there is a small bridge where the water overflows back into the stream. But more of that later.

It is crystal clear with a footpath running one side & naturally the other side is inaccessible because of thick undergrowth & trees. So it was with this in mind I figured a boat approach would allow me to cover more water. It was now about 11.30am & the day was beginning to warm up quickly, the lake water was becoming more & more tempting & I could have quite easily gone for a swim.I rowed out into the middle of the lake; set anchor with a big rock tied to a rope & proceeded to teach myself how to fly fish. This is a doddle, I will have a net full in next to no time, I thought. Well 2 hours later & probably the most hopeless attempt at fly fishing, I was knackered. Un be known to me, we had arrived after season & most of the trout had been caught previously from the guys during the season & it was without so much nibble, I was beginning to burn badly from the sun. Add to that the boat was made of aluminium & I could barely sit down, it was so hot. Undeterred I cracked open another beer & decided to persevere. Two hours later after covering just about all of the lake I had to concede, without so much as a sniff. Now at this point I was faced with a dilemma, what do I do? Head back empty handed to the delight of a slightly smug mother in law, or carry on? It was no good I just had to get a fish & it was with this I decided to scrap the lake & with a sense of desperation I headed for the stream. At the bridge there is a gate with a guard to the hotel grounds. A local coloured guy, I said hello & I offered him a beer, on a baking hot day, he eagerly accepted. After we had finished, I began a track downstream stopping off at various fishy looking rock pools, a few quick casts resulted in nothing so I moved on. Eventually after about half a mile I had to give up, & decided to return back to the bridge. I was very disappointed but it wasn’t all bad as I had enjoyed a beautiful track in stunning surroundings. As I approached the the bridge I noticed the guard had been joined by a couple of his mates. We all cracked open another beer & I explained to them what I was up to. It was then that one of the local guys guided me over to the bridge. As we looked over he pointed into the direction of some thick streamer type weed that I had been looking at earlier & in the shadows I could just make out a big old trout barely moving in the mild flow.At last, a fish, & very carefully I tried to lower a fly right on the trout’s nose, agonisingly however, the rod wasn’t long enough & it was just out of reach. So, desperately, I had to climb over the bridge & with one hand hold on, & with the other outstretched, I had another go. With a careful bit of manoeuvring I managed to present the fly, but unfortunately he wasn’t having any of it. However, rather that swim away, he just moved over slightly nonchalantly as if I was just an annoyance. Eventually my perseverance payed off as he instinctively had a go. The water erupted as he hit the bait & the hook was firmly imbedded.The next dilemma though was getting him out. I daren’t risk trying to pull him up over the bridge as I was sure the hook would pull or something disastrous like that, so it was a question of climbing back over the bridge then down the steep sloping side, through the undergrowth, down to a position where I could stretch out & net him. Eventually after a couple of heart stopping moments I had him safely in the net. With a sense of joy & relief I made my way back up to the bridge. The guys watching were very excited & we shared another beer before I left back to the lodge with a proper 2lber in the rucksack. O.K you could be kind & say it was an unconventional capture, but I had done it none the less. The experience wasn’t without pain either as it turned out that I had burned myself quite badly on the back of the neck, which scabbed & bled for a week. Ouch!! The dragon had a fierce bite after all. That evening we did indeed have trout on the bar-b-q. & as I sat there opposite the mother in law beer in one hand & trout on the plate, I couldn’t help but think that this was indeed the finest bit of fish I had ever tasted. Was it worth it…you bet it was.