Text and fly images by Gordon van der Spuy. Other images per Tourette Fishing. * Crossing the border from Ficksburg into Lesotho is an attack on the senses, literally and figuratively. It’s hard to imagine that you’re only a hundred meters from South Africa. The first thing that hits you…

NEW THOUGHTS ON FISHING STERKFONTEIN DAM –  Text and images by ALAN HOBSON I have just returned from a week’s break to Sterkfontein dam, which re-affirms why fly fishing is such an incredible sport. The dynamics of the dam have changed somewhat, the water level not being quite full has left…

Fly tying for older folk  - and some modern fly tying developments generally. Ed Herbst. Just as fly fishing becomes more difficult with advancing age, so too does fly tying. Vision deteriorates and the hands start to tremble Although a lack of balance now makes angling impossible for me, I…

'South African Fishing Flies ' – a review by David Weaver  -   Fly fishing, like life, is all about choices. The more choices we make the more instinctive our decisions become, the more we rely on our instincts the more fun we have. As a fly fisher, you will spend…

Thoughts on contemporary hopper design By Ed Herbst   At the recent fly fishing expo in Johannesburg, Marc Petitjean said that, as a professional fly tyer, he can’t afford to spend more than five minutes per fly. With the increasing availability of mix and match components this is beginning to…

- ‘Whatever its nature, Lilliput water in any form offers the fly fisher one constant thing. This is its store of bright, and somehow cheerful little trout, as wild as the midget creatures on which they prey. Sadly, few of us pay lasting tribute to the Lilliputs we know, forgetting…