We recently got back from an epic trip to Lesotho, where we experienced some spectacular flyfishing in some of the most incredibly remote mountain rivers you can imagine.

The Wildfly team planned this trip and invited me to come along, in order to try save me from myself and civilise me with some mountain stream flyfishing.

The Journey to Semonkong, where we were to be based, was spectacular. We went in to Lesotho via Qacha’s Nek border post, close to Matatiele, and then threaded our way through the mountains along the Senqu river, then onto a road, still under construction, negotiating blasting areas and heavy machinery as we headed into the heart of Lesotho. Fortunately for us we were driving in comfort, having been loaned some very nice Mercedes ML350 vehicles for the trip by Mercedes Benz South Africa.

The trip took the best part of a full day, and we arrived at Semonkong in the late afternoon to be greeted by friendly management and a round of ice cold Maluti Lagers. We settled in to our rooms, which were lovely and cosy and built in the local style, using rocks and natural materials.

After a delicious dinner we hit the hay, knowing that a big day waited in store for us.

The following morning our group split into two. Half the guys headed off eagerly with fly rods in hand to test the waters of the Maletsunyane river close to the lodge. The rest of us decided to experience abseiling down the cliff next to the Maletsunyane falls, at 204m, the highest commercial abseil in the world according to Guiness’ book of records. After a morning session of practising our abseiling skills on a mere 30m cliff close to the lodge we were taken to the spectacular Maletsunyane falls, where we saw what lay in wait for us.

 We kitted up, following instructions to the T, before going over the edge one at a time, to dangle above 200m of space. Something that still makes me wake up in a cold sweat…

Above Gareth George grits his teeth as he goes over the edge!

After we all got safely to the bottom, we spent about an hour gathering our wits and having a few casts in pools below the falls, before tackling the climb back out of the gorge.  This turned out to be an even more extreme experience than the abseil down had been. By the time we got to the top there were some very shaky legs.

Back at the lodge we met the others over lunch and were galvanised at some of the fishing stories that they had to tell us from their morning out. It appeared that the river above the falls held some spectacular brown trout. Grevin Price and Jeremy Rochester had both had some amazing experiences with these fish and a pic that Grevin showed us, had us reaching for our own rods immediately after lunch.

Above is Grevin with a pic of a world class brown trout.

The trout in this part of Lesotho were introduced back in 1950 and have maintained their own population since then. These are wild fish, in wild rivers, so the idea that there were fish of the quality in the above pic had us all vibrating with excitement. People travel halfway round the world to find river fish in that class.

With tired legs, we fished very close to the lodge that afternoon, and I was stoked to christen my new little 2 weight Explorer T50 rod with its first brown trout, a little ten incher, but still my first Lesotho river brown.

After another spectacular meal and a comfy night in our rooms, we awoke to a day that was going to change everything. We were heading down into the gorge below the falls for three nights of camping, hiking and fishing. Jonno, owner of Semonkong Lodge, had arranged a group of porters and Basutho Ponies to help carry all of the camping gear and supplies down into the gorge. The idea was that they would move ahead of us and put up a new camp each day, as we fished our way along and met up with the lodge crew later.

Jonno, supervising the loading of the Basutho ponies.

The beer donkey. (This donkey escaped during the first night and unbelievably made its way out of the gorge in the dark and found its way home. Thankfully the beer had already been offloaded)

A view of the gorge that we were going to be climbing around in, and fishing.

The walk down was not as tough as climbing out had been the day before, but with shaky, tired legs from those of us that had done the gorge already, we headed down, following the pony train.

It was good to finally reach the bottom and be able to put the rods together. The river was spectacular, though a bit brown, as there had been a storm the night before. Our guides, Jonno and Morgan assured us that the water would clean up quite quickly, and that we would have some good fishing while we were there.

Well it didn’t take long for our most experienced trout fishermen, Grevin and Jeremy to get stuck into some good fish. They showed the way and we watched an learnt.

 Jeremy with a beautiful wild brown trout. Sorry about the quality of some of the pics, but we had luggage restrictions, so only little point and shoot still cameras made it on the trip.

Grevin with a pretty river rainbow.

Soon the rest of us started to join in with some good catches and the tired legs were quickly forgotten.

Above is a pic of Gareth with one of his special catches.

The scenery was so beautiful down in the gorge, and as the water cleaned up, we  felt that we could be almost anywhere in the world, at a first class mountain stream. The air is thin up in the Maluti Mountains, so the sky is stunningly clear and the gorge closes out the rest of the world.

There were places where we had to climb and scramble to get along, but there was always the reward of a fresh, unfished pool around each new corner.

 

It was becoming clear to us that most pools held at least one good fish, and these fish were exceptional. They were in perfect condition, slender and fit and they put up a really good fight. I fished with the two weight for the duration of the trip and every fish gave me brilliant sport. Below is a pic of my best fish of the trip, which tested me and my tackle to the limit!

As you can see in the backround, the water was cleaning up nicely at this point and the fishing just kept getting better.

Below is a pic of Morgan with a pretty rainbow.

After three days of hiking and fishing through the gorge, and not having seen another soul who was not part of our group, we were wondering about just staying there and never leaving. Unfortunately reality stepped in and we were finally faced with the hike out agin, after a good final morning’s fishing session. Here is a view of the climb out that lay ahead.

After getting to the top of that, we still had a further 4km  or so to hike to the lodge, which was done very slowly. As we neared the lodge the pace picked up at the thought of an ice cold Maluti Lager and a delicious home cooked lunch.

We sat around the veranda table at lunch, chatting and reflecting on our experience and all agreed that we could never have expected the fishing to be as good as it had been. We truly had tasted world class mountain river fishing, and pretty much in our backyard!

This was one of the first of these type of trips that Jonno and Morgan had done with clients, and it was mazing how well prepared and organised they were. Everything went smoothly, and to top it off the weather played along, giving us a trip of a lifetime to store in our memory banks.

It was my first mountain stream fishing experience, and it certainly won’t be my last. The 2 weight rod came home with me, and I am not planning on letting it gather too much dust before heading for the mountains again!