18 | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 | TCFF
you. How does that catchment produce
trickles of subterranean water that en-
dure for say four long months of bright
sunshine and no rain at all. This system
upon which the trout’s existence depends
is as fickle and as fine-tuned a thing as
you can imagine.If the Welwitschia’s survival in the
desert can come down to its dependency
on single dewdrops on its leaves, are we
not wrong in assuming that this veritable
land of milk and honey on the eastern
seaboard of the Drakensberg, for
example, is a robust and undam-
ageable environment? Are there
not times and places between
these mountains and these sum-
mer rainstorms where every
hectare of ploughing, every plas-
tic packet and every foliar spray
could bring our system to within
a single dewdrop of collapse?Might it just be, that to catch
that September trout may de-
pend on our success in ensuring
it has a home in the first place?
I, for one, have started to pay
more attention to the infinitesi-
mal variables and effects measured by
our environmental scientists. If we know
that a one-degree sea temperature change
is killing the Great Barrier Reef, are we
giving thought to ten more hectares of
timber in the catchment or a five percent
greater population of cattle or indeed
people?Let us not be found trolling the
shelves of our tackle stores while our
trout streams slide quietly and impercep-
tibly into oblivion, one sad kilometre at
a time. How good is ourperipheral
vision? Can you see the movement?A
ugust slides quietly and impercep-
tibly into September and suddenly
you wake up to the fact that it is
trout season again. In September, with
the dry of winter at its back, a trout
stream slides quietly and imperceptibly
too. Warming temperatures trigger
blooms of soft algae that lie in pools
where flow is not evident. Those
pools are as likely as not to be
crystal clear, having had no less
than four months of nothing but
settling time. Add to that the
fact that the banks will be tram-
pled or burnt such that bankside
veld offers no shade or cover
for trout or their terrestrial food
sources. Fishing these things
is more than a little daunting. I
should imagine that for the trout,
surviving in them must be just
as challenging. Many of us, and
I include myself in this, simply
put off our stream fishing until
either desperation or good rains
move us back out onto the water. Like
a trout emerging from the shade of a
rock in shallow water for the irresistible
opportunity presented by a lone, wrig-
gling nymph.
So what is there that a fly fisher can
do to improve the odds in these condi-
tions? For one thing, slowing matters
down to a pace befitting of stalking is
a starting point. A heron catches fish
because it doesn’t move a muscle. In his
book Presentation, Gary Borger gives one
of the most comprehensive explanations
of trout vision that I have ever read.
It’s Crystal Clear
ANDREW FOWLER stresses the importance of
being more vigilant of the state of our streams
and surrounding environment.FORUM: TROUT DIARY
He explains the exceptionally wide
angle of a trout’s peripheral vision, and
goes on to explain that while the focus
isn’t great in that sphere, the detection
of movement is attuned. Standing (or
preferably not standing) dead still for
longer than seems natural or reasonable –
long enough to feel a little silly in fact –is
a good starting point to your approach.
Add to this a level of observation that you
have not exercised before, and you have
the beginnings of a game plan in which
success is not an unrealistic expectation.But here is another aspect to consider
in your approach to this water, and it is
not what you think it is. Consider why
the water is so low in the first place, and
consider why it is unshaded and why
the banks offer little cover. Consider, too,
the tenuous hold that the trout you are
wanting to stalk has on life itself. Con-
sider how close its existence is to that
ugly border between life and death.Now add to these thoughts a level of
observation that you may not have
exercised before. Take a look at the
catchment feeding the stream in front of