Note, you can subscribe to my full weekly Newsletter on the Home Page of my website
Backburner
Plans I had to fish this week were put on the backburner – in the literal and the figurative sense – when the turbocharger on my truck blew. I can drive it, sure, but out on the highway it moves like a dyspnoeic geriatric and hardly makes it to 100 ks per hour; certainly not in a head wind. The plan is to get it fixed soon, fingers crossed.
Meanwhile my Jack Russell puppy grows by the day and our evening walks that started out at a modest half hour now easily soak up an hour and a half. And when we get back she throws in a few high speed victory laps around the garden! The word energy takes on new meaning with these little dogs.
Ed Herbst celebrates
Click in images to enlarge them
Photo per Andrew Ingram
On Monday Ed Herbst celebrated his 70th birthday over lunch with a few of his close friends and I’m happy to number among them. He’s been a great friend of mine for more years than I need go into right now, but from around the time steam was first invented.
Ed at Gateshead
He’s a friend with a formidable mind and, as you will have discovered, a keen contributor to both this newsletter and my website and to countless South African fly fishing publications. He is the ultimate small stream disciple and a High Priest of the Light Tackle Faith.
Ed on a small Cape stream
I want to wish him a happy birthday in these pages on behalf of his close friends but also on behalf of just about every South African fly fisher who lives and breathes. We all owe him big time – one way or another.
…and on the Coldbrook in the Eastern Cape
Thoughts on the Angler’s Curse, stillwater caenis, from Brian Clarke
I was working on experiences with caenis hatches for my next book when I came on some interesting tongue in cheek observations about them by Brian Clarke. It happened that earlier this year I ran into a sizeable caenis hatch on Birkhall Dam in the Eastern Cape when the hovering columns of hatching bugs were tall enough, and dense enough, to just about block out the horizon.
Rising columns of caenis on Birkhall Dam
After the spinner fall the fishing was predictably tough, frustrating and rarely hectic, all at the same time, a situation cleverly wrapped up in this quote from by Brian’s book, In Pursuit of Stillwater Trout.
‘Trout go daft for caenis, and the manner in which many of them swim, and the vast numbers of flies, and the likelihood that the fish cannot sometimes see where they are going anyway, make our chances very slim indeed. Unless you have an iron constitution and are not prone to fits of rage, or stamping your feet (a dangerous thing to do in an elderly boat), pack and retire to the hostelry. Angler’s fluid, I have found, casts a happier spell than Angler’s Curse.’
As you may know caenis duns are of no significance to fly fishers because they leave the water so smartly. But after moulting and mating the spinner falls can carpet a calm lake and turn the surface into a rich soup – from which you may or may not be lucky enough to hook any of the countless fish cruising around, mouths open, gorging themselves.
From Peter Brigg
I thought you would be interested to see Oliver Edwards flies for the Help the Rhino auction. He uses some very interesting tying techniques, especially on his emerger patterns with budding wings and CdC (Flies 7 and 8). All are beautifully tied with some really fine work. Oliver also sent me a picture of himself with a beautiful brown caught from the Laxa River in Iceland.
Pete also sent these images of a Crane Fly and his beautiful imitation of it. Score? 10 out of 10, I’d say.
Val Atkinson sends lovely images from a trip to Colorado
The link below is part of Val Atkinson’s latest newsletter. Follow the link if you want to see all the images, but here are a couple of my favourites.
http://valatkinsonphotos.smugmug.com/Flyfishing/Colorado-Trout/33160781_pXcCsc#!i=2876934411&k=MvQJ2kb
Tasmanian lake
Andrew McKenzie of New South Wales writes:
I am just back from a walk into Tin Hut Lake in Tasmania under very difficult conditions and uncooperative trout indeed. I have attached a couple of photos from the trip – the day after the snowstorm we were baked by a fierce sun all day.
I only caught one fish which if in good condition would have weighed 7 to 8 lb I reckon, but it had not recovered at all from spawning efforts and was probably just 4 lb – but look at the length. It almost made it to the stripping guide, 27 to 28” or around 70cm. Missed another on the rise and had a couple of others just refuse to eat or ignore my offers completely. As I said, it was very difficult fishing.
News from Jan Korrubel on conditions in KZN
After a cool spell last weekend, I headed up to the upper section in Kamberg Nature Reserve with a client on Tuesday. The water was still and CRYSTAL clear, and with it being so low, there was hardly any movement in the deeper runs. I am sure the fish saw us coming before we even entered the Reserve! Although we saw, and spooked, a couple small fish, nothing came to the fly until the very last pool.
The heat wave was broken by a small storm on Thursday afternoon that brought 4mm of rain. This weekend’s forecast was for cooler weather and that arrived in double quick time on Friday afternoon and the temperature plummeted. Yesterday brought another late afternoon storm and we received some 7mm of rain and a smattering of hail. My records show only a tad over 100mm received since 1 September, so we are still in desperate need of rain, being in arrears by nearly some two thirds of the rainfall we had received by this time last year.
Creative writing competition
Steve Boshoff suggested in a recent poem he submitted to the newsletter that I consider having a creative angling writing competition. I agreed and promised a water colour painting as a prize. So far two people have responded with poems.
The first was George Momogos who submitted two poems. He said
Your marvelous newsletter is the closest I get to fly fishing these days. Work keeps me away unfortunately. The idea of a writing competition is an excellent one, as I’m sure that there are many fishermen who have ink in their veins. I have the skeleton on file of my first poetry book on fly fishing. I’m hoping that it will become a reality at some time in the not too distant future.
Then I had two more excellent poems from Walter Vorwerk. So what I have decided is to let this library of work build up, then publish it on the website and call on two language gurus to help me judge the best of them – authoress and fly fisher Dulcie Kirby and journalist and fly fisher, Ed Herbst. If you have any essays, short stories or poems you are welcome to send them in.
Jade dos Santos (far right) and friends on the Bokspruit River Bridge
The work of Jade dos Santos is certainly already in the hat, along with a few others.
News on fly fishing in Somerset East from Alan Hobson
We have had over 150mm of rain in and around the town of Somerset east, resulting in our still waters, Mountain dam, Bestershoek and the Glen Avon dams filling up and producing good fishing. Ironically our waters are still quite cold for this time of the year at about 19 degrees, because we keep having fronts passing through with cold nights and only the occasional hot Karoo day. However our mountainous waters were not quite so fortunate, where up to 70mm was recorded and literally soaked up by the dry thirsty Karoo, resulting in only a slight increase in flow. Having said that our fishing and catch reports are fantastic for this time of the year; Mountain dam regularly producing catches of over twenty fish per angler, Glen Avon fish of over 1,5kg again and our rivers leave me speechless.
A 6,48kg Karoo rainbow
I have been waxing lyrical about the phenomenal growth of our fish in these Karoo waters and here is proof. This beauty of 6,48kg was stocked as a 40 gram grower in the Little Fish River four and a half years ago and left to fend for itself.
The complete mind blow of wild fly fishing in the Karoo is that most of the time our rivers are spring water, running underground and every now and again we have rocky outcrops that have deep pools scoured from Hippo’s that used to live here years ago.
As you can see the river is only just trickling over and the pool about 50 square meters and 4m deep is full of algae pads, hardly looks like the place to produce a fourteen and a half pound fish. People look at me in disbelief when I tell them of fish up to 8lbs and over 70cm! I am proud to say we have a few more of these fish currently in our waters thanks to the genetics, tenacity and breeding courtesy of Martin Davies and the Rhodes University fish farm where we get our stock.
Thoughts and images from Robin Gilbert and compliments for Tim Rolston
Yesterday I received this message and images from Robin:
I have been very lucky these last 4 years to have managed to get to New Zealand and fish these incredible rivers. It is a real learning-curve for me and I always feel that I become a better fly-fisherman after each trip.
I didn’t grow up in South Africa, although at one stage I was seriously considering moving over there. I am originally from England, spent most of my youth in Australia and have been living in Hamburg, Germany for the last 20 years. I have friends in Cape Town and Johannesburg and have been there many times. On one of those trips I was tossing up whether to do a cage-dive with a great white shark or spend the day fly-fishing with Tim Rolston. I took the day's fly-fishing. I have been hooked ever since.
I still have fond memories of fishing those streams behind Cape Town. My favourite was always the Elandspad but I fished the Holsloot and Witte too. Never got to Jan du Toits though. Back then it was early days for me and I learnt a great deal from Tim Rolston.
(Tim Rolston is a leading South African fly fishing guide working out of Cape Town. He is 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. and http://www.inkwaziflyfishing.co.za/)
Fly fishing news from the deep Karoo – Pierre Swartz reports from Graaff Reinet
The water level of the Nqweba dam is looking good and the water is relatively clear for this time of year with plenty of shallow bays and exposed mudflats where thousands of fish congregate each year to spawn and feed. The Carp season is in full swing, and quite a number of fish have been caught since the start of October. Thousands of fish are coming onto the flats to feed and can be caught right at your feet at times.
Edward and Andrew
Edward Truter, Anthony Kruger and Andrew Pautz had a great time on the water a few weeks ago and landed numerous fish in the 10lb range before a cold front came and messed things up for all the anglers. Stalking tailing and cruising Carp on the flats can be very exciting and those who know how go about it are rewarded with some big fish and a fight that will not be forgotten.
Anthony Peutz
Other news is that Lake Sneeuberg in the Murraysburg area has been stocked with rainbow trout from Martin Davies and will be ready to fish next winter.
Included are some pictures of an event held at the dam to celebrate the recent stocking and formation of the Sneeuberg Aquatic Conservancy. The 3.5 hectare dam is absolutely great with a good inflow of gin clear spring water and even offers a small section of stream which can be fished at the inlet of the dam as well as below the dam wall.
Lake Sneeuberg
Anybody interested in fishing the waters of the Camdeboo is welcome to contact me on my cell: 078 794 3821 or email: 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 annual Cape Piscatorial Society River Festival
From Ed Herbst with images from Steve Boshoff:
The annual Cape Piscatorial Society River Festival held in the Breede River valley near Worcester this weekend was memorable for a number of reasons:
The Festival follows a familiar format – 30 to 40 fly fishers gather for a weekend of camaraderie, guided fishing and fly tying at the Merwida Country Manor near Rawsonville.
Camaraderie at the Merwida Country Manor. (Images per Steve Boshoff)
As always the weather plays a pivotal role. In the past few years we have been unlucky enough to have howling winds and streams in spate but this time the weather was idyllic and the fishing excellent.
Craig Thom of the Stream X fly shop in Milnerton, Cape Town, was the main sponsor and he put in a lot of work into making the event a success. He was helped by Denise Hills, who will take over from Jean Farrell as the Society’s secretary next year.
What helped make the event such a happy occasion was the Master of Ceremonies, professional actor and fly tyer extraordinaire, Gordon van der Spuy. He made the recent Ufudu festival in Durban a great success . http://www.streamxflyfishing.co.za/jul13_sx.html
Gordon tying. Ed Herbst and Gerrit Redpath look on
Everybody caught fish and the evenings were filled with banter, good food and the chance to watch Gordon tying Philip Meyer’s Para-Rab which is featured on the DVD, ‘A South African fly Tying Journey with Ed Herbst and Friends’
http://www.tomsutcliffe.co.za/fly-fishing/fly-tying/item/210-new-dry-fly-the-halo-hackle-rab-variant.html
http://www.customflyrods.co.za/index.php/our-blog/84-new-fly-tying-dvd
There was some innovative fishing gear to try. A new rod by Stephen Boshoff features micro guides, a spinoff from the carp and bass fraternity. He has built a six and a half foot two weight rod on a proprietary Japanese blank and everyone who tried the rod on the swimming pool at the Merwida Country Manor and on local streams such as the Smalblaar, Elandspad and Molenaars was adamant that it comes close to being the ultimate synthetic-blank stalking rod, providing exceptional delicacy and accuracy at small stream casting distances.
http://www.bassmaster.com/blog/making-sense-micro-guides
http://www.mudhole.com/Micro-Guides
The micro guides offer distinct advantages on the narrow-diameter 000 to 2 weight lines and Craig, as a Mudhole agent in South Africa, will provide the components for those who wish to build their own rods on this theme. Koos Eckard, whose rods have featured here before is also keen to become part of this experiment.
http://roddesigns.blogspot.com/2013/05/sage-circa-279-4b.html
Another product that aroused a lot of interest was the collaborative project between Stream X and Ark which combines the advantages of Ark’s well-known inflatables and a float tube at local prices.
A big thank you to our hosts Dirk and Hester de Villiers who took over the Merwida Country Manor a month ago and are completing a refurbishing programme which was very favourably received by everyone who attended the River Festival.
Ed addressing the evening gathering
Thanks are also due to sponsors such as Tom Sutcliffe for his original pen and ink sketches, Sharland Urquhart for some superb food and wine hampers and sculptor Chris Bladen whose fish-themed belt buckles delighted those who were lucky enough to receive them in the draw.
