SOUTH EAST MPUMALANGA

Fished with Garth Welman and friends last Thursday and Friday on the Phongola but found the going hard, probably due to the weather. Then on Saturday we had an excellent day on the Assegaai with some very good largescale plus some smallscale. I am pleased to say that the population looked good although there were traces of pollution starting to appear again. This was followed by an excellent day on the upper Phongola as the weather had changed and we took some very nice fish. Unfortunately bass are becoming a real problem in the Phongola system.

KZN MIDLANDS/SOUTHERN KZN

At Zingela Lodge on the Middle Tugela downstream from Colenso Mark Calverley reports that the water temperature has risen to 14 C and the fish are starting to rise in the evenings. This would indicate that providing there are no major cold fronts the scalys should really start moving in the next couple of weeks. The situation is the same on Umkomaas in the Richmond/Ixopo area. The river is very low but crystal clear and should be in great form for the Bells/Xplorer festival at the end of the month (refer ‘Events' page) on this website.