All posts in Fishing

Aquarium Expo 2012

by Chris M on March 26, 2012 in Fishing, Tropical Fish with 2 Comments

That’s right folks, it’s time for the 2012 Aquarium Expo, taking place this year from the 8th of June to the 10th of June at the Emperors Palace from 10h00 to 18h00!

This is the first ever Aquarium Expo in South Africa and from what I’ve read, it’s going to be a really great event! The event is a joint venture between my favorite tropical fish team, TASA and MASA.

Here’s what you can expect:

  1. Exciting new products for home aquariums
  2. Buy yourself some livestock
  3. Local and International Speakers
  4. Meet like-minded folks
  5. Drool over some display tanks

Tickets for the event will be sold at the door for just R45! This gives you access to the Aquarium Expo AND The Home Expo, so bring the family along.

Click here to find out more.

I’m pretty bleak it’s not happening in Cape Town as I’d be buying tickets right now!

Macquarium – fish in your iMac?

by Chris M on May 19, 2011 in Fishing, Mac with 2 Comments

I love it when I come across weird and wonderful ideas, especially when business/money is attached to them. Enter Jake, a guy who decided to take Apple G3 iMac’s and turn them into aquariums, correctly named, Macquarium’s.

Jake builds that aquariums and sells them to Mac and fish enthusiasts around the world. Each one comes ready to use, just style it however you want, add water and get your fish in there.

Here are some pics:

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iMac Aquarium 2

Want one? Get it here.

My trip to Trout Haven

by Chris M on May 2, 2011 in Fishing, My Life with 4 Comments

I decided to take off a few days last week, so that I could enjoy a little holiday and during my days off, a good mate of mine, Johan, and I went fly fishing in the Western Cape streams at a place called Trout Haven.

This is the first time I’ve ever fly fishing for rainbows in the Cape Streams and I have to tell you, it’s hugely difficult! Principles are the same, but there’s very little space, the fish are easily spooked and you need to change your equipment a fair bit compared to dams. Never the less, it really was a great deal of fun, and I’ll definitely be going back again. I managed to catch one rainbow (See pics below), he was a little guy, but he put up a big fight.

The accommodation was great, lovely little cottage, equipped with fireplace inside and out, which was essential, it was freezing! The cottage was nice and clean, wood was provided and everything worked as expected. There is also a little shop and pub, which allows you to grab things like milk, smokes and other little essentials, saving you a trip through to Rawsonville (15-20mins dirt road from the camp).

Here are some photographs I snapped:

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Wish I could have gone for longer, next time I will make sure I have at least 2 or 3 full days there!

Insanely planted aquarium

by Chris M on March 3, 2011 in Fishing, My Life with 2 Comments

If you know me personally, you’ll know that I’m an aquarium and tropical fish nut. So videos like this really get my blood going:

Who else is into aquariums?

Awesome weekend

by Chris M on December 19, 2010 in Cape Town, Fishing, My Life with 2 Comments

As the year winds down, it feels more and more like holiday time and this weekend kicked things off. On Friday it was Fe’s birthday, so we had a braai at her place with her family and some friends, perfect weather and there’s nothing like a braai of course. The champagne rolled and the evening ended on a good note.

I was up at 7am on Saturday morning to do some fly fishing, I headed through to La Ferme, in Franschhoek, amazingly, it was boiling hot by 9am already, so I decided it would be in my best interests to stand out in the sun, so I fished a little longer (fish weren’t biting, too hot) and decided to head through to some wine estates. I picked up a couple bottles of bubbly from Graeme Beck for the braai. By the time I got home, it was boiling hot and I took a quick swim, well, it was meant to be quick, but I ended up in the pool for a good hour – it was absolutely stunning! After this I did shopping for the braai, set things up and soon afterwards guests started to arrive. It was just a small braai with some close friends, but what a blast it was! The night ended in many games of Guitar Hero, first time I’ve played after a good few glasses of champers, what a gas :D

I was up again this morning and off to Hout Bay with Fe to get some slap chips, this was followed by a visit to Kirsten Bosch to pop into the Bonsai Kai Show, which was quite incredible. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to publish all the photographs I took, as there were notices requesting that photographers get the owners permission before publishing, but I did manage to snap one of a tree, which didn’t have a listed owner:

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Some of those bonsai’s were absolutely gorgeous, blew my mind away to see them in person. Of course, I’ve looked on the Internet, but it’s not the same as in person – the skill and talent is quite incredible. I hope I can grow my 3 trees into beautiful specimens too :)

Went show house hopping this afternoon and then watched Step Up 3 and enjoyed braai leftovers. Was a really awesome weekend! I’ve got work tomorrow and Tuesday, then a staff braai on Wednesday and then I’m on holiday until the 6th of January 2011, looking forward to some time off, I must admit!

I hope everyone else is enjoying the festive season!

My biggest rainbow trout yet

by Chris M on October 31, 2010 in Fishing, My Life, Photographs with 3 Comments

This morning, after some duties, I headed through to Franschhoek to do some much needed fishing. The destination was La Ferme.

I arrived on location around brunch time, the weather was gorgeous, but the fish really weren’t too interested in any of the flies that I threw at them. Well, that was until around lunch time when the wind picked up and obviously started blowing some bugs into the water, which was exciting the fish. I quickly changed flies to a DDD fly, changed location and cast from about 1.5m away from the edge of the dam. On my one cast, as the fly hit the water, the rainbow trout got on and for the next 10 minutes I fought with the bugger – what an awesome fight it was!

Here she is:

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The biggest rainbow I’ve caught yet, I’m absolutely over the moon! The staff even ran off to fetch a camera, so I’ll have another pic of me holding it in the next several days hopefully!

She was released right afterwards and swam off into the depths of the dam, hopefully to bring a sm:)e to someone elses face in the not too distant future.

Great day of fishing!

This weekend in weather

by Chris M on October 22, 2010 in Cape Town, Fishing with No comments

I must admit, when I heard that it was going to rain all weekend I was really upset as I desperately want to get out to do some fly fishing – Suffice to say, it looks like it won’t be raining tomorrow, which is brilliant..

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Stunning day but poor fishing

by Chris M on October 17, 2010 in Fishing, My Life with No comments

I headed out to do some fly fishing at Jonkershoek yesterday – The sun was beating down by 8am and the trip out was really enjoyable. I carefully chose a few flies and headed down to the water, but unfortunately, after 3 hours of fishing, with multiple flies, without a single bite, I decided to call it a day.

It’s the first time I’ve been unsuccessful at Jonkershoek, all I can narrow it down to is that it was too hot and the trout were hiding. I snapped a couple pics anyway..

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There was a photographic society on location with about 30 people, it might have been all their movement that was scaring the fish, but I’m not certain about that though.

Anyone have any ideas?

Pretty decent weekend

by Chris M on September 20, 2010 in Fishing, My Life with No comments

I can’t believe the weekend is over already, it’s coming up to 9am on Monday morning and the week’s started on a fast note already.

Friday saw me working very late, I had a lot to wrap up and managed to get through all of it, in and amongst taking the plunge into watching How I Met Your Mother from Season 1 Episode 1.

I was up at the crack of down to go fishing on Saturday morning, with my first stop at Franschhoek. I fished for about an hour, but my motivation wasn’t really there, so I jumped in my car, took a drive through Franschhoek town and then went via Villiers Dorp to Grabouw to try out another spot. The weather was gorgeous, but the fish weren’t biting unfortunately. The drive was awesome, right up through all the mountains, truly beautiful, I’d recommend the drive!

Must admit, bit sad to arrive at the dam in Franschhoek nice and early to see them feeding the fish :/

Franschhoek

I spent Saturday night watching more How I Met Your Mother and Sunday saw me not doing too much, as I slept in really late, for a change.

Decent weekend all in all.

What did you get up to?

Another great weekend

by Chris M on September 12, 2010 in Dance, Fishing, My Life with 6 Comments

There’s nothing better than a great weekend is there? I find that when I manage to have a great weekend, the week ahead always rolls smoother.

My aim for Friday was to get through as much work and as many emails as possible to ensure that I could really detach from my computer and enjoy some disconnect time, and this is exactly what I did. I spent Friday evening relaxing whilst Fe went to watch a show. After her show I went round for a drink and then set forth to fill my tank up with petrol, only to realise that all the petrol stations were closed. I finally found one open in the CBD and whilst filling up I bumped into DChetty and we ended up chatting for quite a while and then when I was just about to leave, I bumped into Han, which resulted in another long conversation, suffice to say, I got home in the really early hours of the morning, but it was worth it.

Despite getting very little sleep, I managed to wake up nice and early on Saturday morning and head through to do some fishing. The weather was gorgeous, mid-twenties, next to no wind and lots of sun. I managed to catch an awesome rainbow trout, put up quite the fight (and was then released). I also lost one unfortunately, but I’m just glad I hooked one, here’s a pic:

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After fishing I headed back home, Fe and I then went through to Century City to go look at holidays at Flight Center – fat help that was, they have a temp on duty who cannot access prices or anything, so we got given brochures, which are basically replicas of the information on the website. Anyway, after that we proceeded to fire up a big braai, we ate ourselves until we could hardly walk – delicious! Once our stomachs had settled, I suggested that we head through to Sue Pasa to do some dancing, which is exactly what we did – so awesome to do some salsa again, it’s been far too long. Must admit, pretty amazed I remember quite a few moves!

I slept in this morning and really don’t have any plans for the day as of yet. I need to round up the Nokia N8 competition so we can announce a winner tomorrow, but apart from that, I think I’m just going to take it easy.

How’s your weekend been?

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