- A gem of a rod on auction. Clem Booth, an ardent supporter of the Children’s Hospital Trust (CHT), offers this magnificent rod for auction, all the proceeds going to the CHT! Says Clem:
I would like to offer a precious little rod for auction with all of the proceeds going to the hospital.
The reserve price is R4000.
The rod is a 6 foot, 2 piece, 3/4 weight Farlows Stream Series. The maker of these beautiful rods has long since departed and very few remain in circulation. I bought it new in the old Farlows store in Pall Mall getting on for a quarter of a century ago. It is perfect with no set or other issues. With the rod comes a leather-covered aluminium tube made for me by Hugh Grieve, a great craftsman in leather.
Click in images to enlarge them
If the successful bidder is in South Africa, I will bring the rod with me to Cape Town; if in another country it will be couriered at my expense.
I hope people will bid generously for this cause.
(This kind gesture of Clem’s also appears on my website today. Bidding will open today 15 March and will close on Sunday 22 March 2015 at 6:00pm South African time when it will go to the highest bidder. If a bid is in foreign currency I will convert it to the Rand exchange rate ruling at that time.
Simply email your bid to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . The successful bidder will be named in my newsletter of 22 March 2015 and on my website – unless he or she so chooses otherwise – along with the winning bid amount.)
Fra Diavolo
A classic salmon fly tied to perfection by Gordon Van der Spuy
Photo Tom Sutcliffe
What trout fly is this?
Answer at the end of this newsletter.
Book review
Blood Knots – A Memoire of Fathers, Friendship, and Fishing by Luke Jennings with a forward by Thomas McGuane.
This is a deeply thought-provoking memoire of a man’s quest for fishing and an understanding of life, the narrative beautifully laced with stories of his growth in angling. Says novelist Craig Nova:
This is a book written from the heart, one that acknowledges the mysteries of fishing , which, as the author so gracefully manages to suggest, is a stand-in and an expression for many other of the most powerful parts of being human. On top of everything else, it is so keenly written as to make the beauty of the English language, seem new.
Says Stephen Bodio, well-respected author, columnist and book reviewer:
Blood Knots is simply the best book with fishing in it since ‘A River Runs Through It’. It’s that good!
Skyhorse Publishing Inc. New York
Quotes of the week
First quote:
You may recall we had a theme on fly fishing and dogs in a few recent newsletters, hence this quote:
Dogs, like horses, are quadrupeds. That is to say, they have four rupeds, one at each corner, on which they walk.
Frank Muir and Dennis Norden, You Can’t Have Your Kayak and Heat It.
Second quote:
The hopper floats spraddle legged on the water of the pool an instant, an eddy catches him and then there is a yard long flash of flame, and a trout as long as your forearm has shot into the air and the hopper has disappeared.
Ernest Hemingway The Best Rainbow Trout Fishing, Toronto Star Weekly, August 28, 1920.
Finally, the third quote. I suspect I may have drifted this one over you before, but it’s worth a second cast I think!
Dr Strabismus of Utrecht (Whom God Preserve) is carrying out research work with a view to crossing salmon with mosquitoes. He says it will mean a bite every time for fishermen.
JB Morton Beachcomber
Gordon Van der Spuy’s fly tying tips – Chirp No 1
The first of a series of five weekly fly tying tips from Gordon is now posted on my website. Included in it are the fly tying threads he recommends you should look for. See his article at
http://www.tomsutcliffe.co.za/fly-fishing/fly-tying/item/1006-gordon-van-der-spuys-fly-tying-tips-part-1.html
To follow in future newsletters are: Tip 2- Fail to plan, plan to fail – that’s about plotting out points on the thread base to help with proportions, Tip 3 – thread economy – thinking ahead by keeping the amount of thread wraps to a minimum, Tip 4 – feather fibre legs made easy and Tip 5 – Flat heads made easy.
PS from Gordon – Kai scissors
Says Gordon:
My new Kai scissors are arriving next week should anyone be interested in a pair. They go for R250. They'll be more next time, but my supplier has just informed me that there will be a price increase.
Mick Lunn obituary
Mick Lunn, who died aged 88, was head keeper of the Houghton Club, arguably the world's most celebrated fly-fishing club, and the third generation of his family to occupy the post. His obituary, which appeared in the Daily Telegraph, was sent to me by my London-based friend, Frederick Mostert.
Simon Cooper of Fishing Breaks ( www.fishingbreaks.co.uk) also refers to it and says:
It is very rare for a river keeper have an obituary in the Daily Telegraph and rarely one as long and fulsome as that for Mick Lunn, third generation head keeper to the famous Houghton Club on the River Test. The only one I could recall that Mick's came anywhere near was that of Frank Sawyer in 1980.
Ed Herbst to run articles on fly tying tools on my website
I will be posting a series of articles on the tools Ed has tried and tested over the years to assist in perfecting his fly tying, starting with a review of the latest UV torches from Clear Cure Goo and Loon.
But, in the interim, Ed says:
I am very pleased with my latest acquisition, the Dual Head Pro Light which costs R1700 and is available from Morne Bayman at the African Fly Angler. Jan Korrubel of Nottingham Road in KZN urged me to buy one. He ties flies professionally and said it changed his life for the better
http://www.theafricanflyangler.co.za/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=productdetails&virtuemart_product_id=3303&virtuemart_category_id=170
The Dual Head Pro Lite – a heat free light source
From fly fishing book publisher Paul Curtis
I'm getting closer to finishing ‘Fishing Wider Margins’. Tim Howse has been a great help in supplying some better pictures and a list of books and reviews that I've missed. The book will be consequently a lot more comprehensive than the original ‘Margins’.
(For enquiries about the new ‘Margins’, or other fly fishing titles, contact Paul at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. TS)
Have spent most of the last few weeks reading and cataloguing articles in the 95 issues to date of ‘Classic Angling’ magazine and hopefully we will start on a 'best of' book shortly. I've come across something that may be of interest to you and attach a watercolour done by Lord Baden-Powell from the Boy Scouts collection- supposedly of the Umzimkulu (or so it says in pencil in the bottom right hand corner).
Painting by Baden-Powell
Photo of Drakensberg per Peter Brigg
To me it looks like the Bushman's (or a tributary) with Giant's Castle in the background and not anything at the top of the Umzimkulu – but you might know better. You’ve probably fished both more often than I have. I do know that Baden-Powell fished the Mooi at Trout Bungalow on occasion so probably the Bushman's too. What do you think?
After some serious reflection, and getting nowhere Drakensberg ace fly fisher, Pete Brigg, was consulted and had this to say:
I accept that change takes place over time, but the structure of the river and type of rock (more jagged than the Bushman’s distinctive, rounded boulders) in this painting as well as the surroundings with lack of vegetation are much more like the Mlambonjwa River than the Bushman’s.
But Pete does agree that the matter is still open for further debate and insights.
And from Peter Brigg again with yet more interesting images
Says Pete:
On the subject of pavement signs/plaques although not the same message as those in your last two newsletters, I have attached for your interest some I came across on the paving stones forming a walkway along the edge of Puget Sound, Alki Beach, Seattle.
Lesotho lunker
George Harris sent me this story and these images:
As an eager recipient of your weekly newsletter, I thought I would send you a picture of my first 10 lb trout caught in Lesotho.
I caught my dream trout within an hour of arriving at the Tourette fishing camp, which is ideally situated where the Bokong River meets the Katse dam.
I was fishing the juncture between river and dam in a deep pool when my Olive Zonker derivative was intercepted by this (11 lb - 5kg) beauty.
I have been fly fishing for as long as I can remember and have always yearned to break the 10lb barrier: I finally did, putting end to my brothers bragging rights on his 10 1/2 pound rainbow.
I would highly recommend that you visit this camp and fish the magnificent river.
Amusing extract from Jan Korrubel’s KZN report
I recently completed an interesting bunch of flies that will go on auction at the 20th Wild Trout Festival in Rhodes this coming week. At last year’s Festival, we somehow managed to persuade Dave Walker, proprietor of Walkerbouts Inn, to shave off his beard – at a price of course, and all for the good cause of fundraising for the Wild Trout Association and trout in the area.
Dave Walker
Miles Divett was the winning bidder, and gave me the honour of tying up a box of flies using Dave’s beard as material. The box of flies, along with a signed Certificate of Provenance, will go up for auction this coming Saturday night at the closing of the 2015 Festival. I am led to believe that postal and telephonic (email and SMS in this day and age) bids will be allowed, so any interested parties please contact Dave Walker with your bids at Walkerbouts Inn in Rhodes on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 045–9749290 by no later than midday on Saturday 21 March. If you wish to stay informed on the bidding process on the day, I am sure the lines will be open!
The fly box!
Houses to dream about from Clem Booth...
In last week’s newsletter I included what I thought my dream home might be, a picture of a thatched cottage with the Arle, a chalkstream tributary of the Itchen, running beneath it. Clem replied:
On the topic of houses to dream about, here is an image of one on the banks of the Avon.........in a word, it is stunning!!
Thank you Clem. When it comes on the market I’ll put in an offer. Unless I buy the one below ...
Here's a streamside home I came across courtesy of Simon Cooper’s Fishing Breaks website. It’s Fulling Mill on the River Test.
See ‘Fishing Breaks’ at http://www.fishingbreaks.co.uk/
Images of the week – Clouds!
To begin with, a quote from Joseph Wirthlin:
The more often we see the things around us - even the beautiful and wonderful things - the more they become invisible to us. That is why we often take for granted the beauty of this world: the flowers, the trees, the birds, the clouds. Because we see things so often, we see them less and less.
Summit, Naude’s Nek Pass, Eastern Cape
Karoo landscape, Free State
Storm over the Pitseng Valley, Eastern Cape
Lourensford, Western Cape
En route to the Smalblaar River, Western Cape
What fly is this
This is the Bibio, although not as popular as it once was, is still a very trendy stillwater pattern used mainly in the UK. It is often fished in a team as a bob fly or dropper. The pattern originated in Ireland where it was one of the greats for lough fishing and is attributed to Major Charles Roberts of County Mayo in Ireland. The body is tied in three parts; black seal’s fur, red seal’s fur, black seal’s fur again. The rib is silver wire or tinsel and the hackle is a palmered black cock hackle.
Tom Sutcliffe
