It's Crystal Clear

ANDREW FOWLER stresses the importance of being more vigilant of the state of our streams and surrounding environment.

- Andrew Fowler

August slides quietly and imperceptibly 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 trampled 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, wriggling nymph.