I heard a clambering outside my door around 2 AM this morning. It was the guys getting in after yesterdays long day of yellowfishing and picking up Mike Sexton and Pete Erickson from the Johannesburg Airport. Pete’s flight was screwed up and he came from Europe and landed at 10 PM instead of 4 PM from Atlanta. Then they drove the four hours back to Nooitgedacht Lodge here near Dullstroom, South Africa.
All of Team USA Masters Flyfishing are here now and despite the fellas arriving late they were up and ready to fish at 7 AM. Scott, Loren and I filled them in on what to expect based on our few days practice. Mike and Pete don’t have much training time so its up to us to get them up to speed.
We split the group and three of us went with Dan to the Spekboom River while the other three went to the lake. After my mediocre river results yesterday I was eager to see Dan’s approach. Dan brilliantly took us to a pool he knew was recently stocked and pulverized them! Lo and behold this is where Scott was yesterday and I no longer felt so bad.
Turns out, the river will be stocked for the tourney so knowing how to catch them fast is crucial. Stocked fish always bums me out but I’ve seen it before in competitions in Eastern Europe. Evidently it was decided there aren’t enough wild fish of size so they opted to dump in a few. It is what it is and after Dan’s demo I went in and practiced crushing a few stockies.
After the morning session and lunch we loaded our rental van with the team and drove to look at Nooitgedacht Dam which will be one of the venues in the competition. It’s a rocky dirt road to get there and wouldn’t you know, we blew our second tire of the trip. Luckily, Jerry and the guys got a new spare while in Johannesburg yesterday.
After we looked at the lake we flip flopped venues which put me on the lake in front of the lodge. I went in the boat with Pete which was great because we’re good pals and haven’t fished together since the Championships in Spain last April. Pete’s an excellent lake angler and he wasted no time proving this. He caught four fish before I touched my first.
As we fished, bad weather settled in. The temperatures dropped and we had some rain. It didn’t affect Pete’s fishing and he caught two fish to each one of mine for the rest of the afternoon. It was enough for me that I might think over a few things in my sleep tonight. Nonetheless we all had a great time and when done at 6 we enjoyed some brews at the lake before returning up to the lodge.
We had a great dinner and horsed around tonight with beers and good stories. Pete and Mike are absolutely knackered after their first day with jetlag and simply the length of travel they just came from. But we did it a few days earlier and none of us would trade it for the life of us. Tomorrow is our last day of practice before the World Champs begin!
I see my next get rich quick idea.. importing tires to South Africa or drivers training courses.. pretty country though.
Problem is they aren’t going to buy the new ones when they can just grab another bald one from the dump. And yes, South Africa is a beautiful place and truly one of my favorite places.