Bell Blog 30-1-2012 by Tony Kietzman

Stephanus and I visited Millard. This beautiful beat is situated on the upper Diepspruit in the New England area. Magnificent specimen size trees and indigenous bamboo hedges stabilize the river banks. We observed some saw fly larvae, the green inchworm. I suspect that the river was flowing below the optimal rate. The fish were plentiful and very spooky in the relatively shallow pools. The biggest taken was about 13” and in very good condition. We only threw dries at the fish. The biggest fish that I spooked was a specimen of about 15”, this was living in an undercut beneath a tuft of grass in water only about 30cm deep. I used the Tenkara all day; it revealed its limitations in dense tree cover, a shorter wand may well have preformed better.