Sea of Galilee (Kineret), 2011 season open

I was really trying hard to implement all my South African knowledge.
Only Streamer and nymph variation has worked.
But there is still a whole season ahead, will try some more.
But this season 2 new fly fisherman have got their first fishes...

New Spinning rod made by local master. (MHX 8" 4-23gr)

New spinning rod made by Jimmy Woodser, built on MHX Hot Spot blank 8" 4-23gr.
The rod is fairly light ~119gr, has new concept rings positioning.
The rod is very fast but sensitive, can be used for UL lures easily and up to 20 gr will work well.

A quick Mozambique, Inhaca

This time in  South Africa, we have planned to visit Mozambique.
After a  weekend with the family, we pack our bags, take the rods and start driving.
On the way we get the malaria tablets, repellent and a bottle of "Havana CluB"
Long waiting at the borders, but everything goes pretty smooth.
We finally get to Maputo, but the only flight for today is gone.
We decide to drive through Maputo and find a Hotel for a night.
We decide to stop at Blue Anchor Inn just 20km north to Maputo.
Very friendly people, with good food and service.
We get a very good night rest and at 11:45 we catch the plain to Inhaca isaland.
On the first afternoon we decide to take a kayak for a ride.The place is amazinly beautifull, with lots of coconut trees and mangroves.
It has some lovely shallow beaches and lagoons.
There are no asfalt roads on the island, all roads are sandy, and so it will be unpossible to walk around.

In front of the lodge plenty small jacks at high tide, those can be easily caught on clousers or small lures from the jetty.

On the next day we visited Portugese island, wich is about 5 mins by boat from the hotel.

On the westers side the drop is just by the beach and some great fishing opportunities.
We were catching small queenfish on nearly every cast.
Lots of small jacks, though I have seen bigger group passing by.
Plenty garfish, I got one giant on Acme KM, and it was very nice jumping all around.

The other two days we spent on Santa Maria beach just by the Hells Gate.
I will tell you, that it is the most beautifull beach I have ever been at.
There is sandy shallows and deep channer running by the shore.
Long wall of corall reef.
There is excellent fishing spots, though we we not so successfull with giants but we have got various speecies from the spot.
We have noticed tat fish activity drops very significantly before the storm, very productive spots just suddenly stop working.
We had an excellent lunch with fresh Mozambican King Prawns at Lucas restaurant at the local village.
And we are on our way home to Pretoria.

Dullstrom FlyFishing Clinique

So there is a fly shop  in Cedar Square, Johanneburg called FlyFishers Unlimited.
In the last couple of years it has become all our flyfishing needs main point of contact.
This is where I go to bombard with all questions and problems I have collected between trips.
And they would listen and answer patiently.
This time we wanted some kind of flyfishing clinique to improve our skills.
We prefered Yellowfish, but it wasn't the best season for them, because the rivers were too high due to rains.
Murray came  up with a proposal to go to Dullstrom for a stillwater trout clinique.
We agreed immidiately.
On Thursaday 24 Feb at half past four in the morning, we took off from Pretoria to Dullstrom with Murray as a captain.
Mavungana Syndicate Water is a big lake looking very nice.
Murray started to explain were should we start from and what rigs would he usually use first.
We have assembled three different setups.
Dragon and buzzer, dry/dropper and streamer and nymph on intermidiate line.
We started fishing I had no response on both static dragons and moving leach.
Ella had little response on dry/dropper as well, but as soon as they swiched to white streamer, and immidiate powerfull bite resulting in line break.
Next couple of casts brought the first fish.
i ave started to see bites on two small nymphs, while drifted below indicator. Taken two good fish.
We have tried to fish the washing line, but with little luck.
After lunch we were hoping for some surface activity and even tied some dries on one rod, but the weather was quickly changing.
There was no fish activity seen at all.
Thunderstorm with heavy rain have drawn a line below this day.
This day was proably the most productive ever, in the means of knowledge.
The atmosfere was great, and we enjoyed every minute of chating with Murray.
So lots of luck to FlyFishers Unlimited, so we could use their hospitality next times.

Local Rod Building.

This rod was built by Slava M., his first fly rod. He made several spinning rods before that. The rod is 8"00 4wt built on MHX blank.
I will jump ahead and say that I have tested the rod, it has very nice medium action, loads and casts very well the 5wt line. Very balanced rod, the handle is too short in my opinion. Excellent for a first fly rod to build.

Carp fishing, short session match.

This is a new format "Israfish" is trying, not the long 5 days match, but an 2 days, weekend one.
This one for a bit less fanatic carpfisherman, and a bit less strict rules.
This year it was better than ever, veri good mood, weather. Many people were interested, 38 teams participated.
Very good atmosphere, although I'm not fishing for carp for some yars, but alway attend this competition for a day or two, just to take pictures and stay with the teams for a little bit.

Mayfly of Fagaras mountains, Romania