PART 2 IN THE SANTA WISH LIST SERIES…
FROM MILES DIVETT WHO LIVES ON THE BANKS OF A TROUT STREAM IN THE MOUNTAINS
Here are my 3 wish list items. I've asked Inge to send you her’s separately as I'm sure they will differ markedly from mine:
1. For great music and weather at the 2014 Glastonbury Festival, which I am planning to attend with my son Stu who is London-based (and Inge, but she's not into the extended music Festival scene!)
2. Like Tim Rolston, I'm not at all a tackle junkie - but I would like a couple of new Sage Click Series reels to go with my 0 and 00 rods, as my old series 3100 reels are really looking a bit tired now
3. For an all-in fly fishing trip for Inge and me to any of the following destinations: Slovenia/Croatia, Alaska when it's "on", Iceland, Argentina (again), Chile, New Zealand (again), Seychelles, Belize.
And I'm going to sneak a 4th item ! That all the freshwater fly fishing parts of South Africa get really good rains throughout 2014, and that the Western Cape stops hogging all the moisture made available to the country by whatever powers are at work !
… AND FROM MILES'S GOOD WIFE, INGE
1. New fishing pants that fit properly;
2. Waterproof point ‘n shoot camera;
3. No more tangles – can’t see properly to unravel them efficiently!
Can’t wait for the compilation!
FROM ED HERBST WHO NEEDS NO INTRODUCTION, NOT EVEN TO SANTA
Dear Santa
Here’s my Xmas wish list. Please attend soonest.
1. To get my balance back so that I can fish the Bourne with Harry Plunket Greene
http://www.plunketgreene.hampshire.org.uk/Fisherman.htm
2. An opportunity to liaise with the carbon fibre specialists in England who fabricate components for the F1 teams so that we can create a one ounce small stream fly reel which will look like the Ari T Hart Remco and be just big enough to hold half a double taper 1 weight Yano silk line
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_8Lss84crI
http://www.hcn.zaq.ne.jp/yanosilkline/pricing.html
3. To have enough money to send my friends Stephen Boshoff and Stephen Dugmore to spend six months in England with Tom Moran and six months in Japan with Harada Takezao. (They will, of course, repay my kindness on their return!)
http://classicflyrodforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=51576
http://haradatakezao.web.fc2.com/lineup.html
Thank you Santa,
In anticipation
Ed Herbst
FROM JOAN WULFF, FIRST LADY OF FLY FISHING
My wish list is …
1. Continued good health so that I can keep fishing!
2. A 15-20 lb permit in the Florida Keys this winter!
- Progress on the freshwater closed-containment system for Atlantic salmon farming to replace the current salt water farming's growing contribution to the decline of wild fish.
PAUL CURTIS FLY FISHING BOOK PUBLISHER
Christmas came early for me this year (I've just found a perfect copy of Fishing in Egypt - 1919, one of Africa's first fishing books), all three of my wishes would be, unsurprisingly, books. Not in any particular order:
1. The Golden Rivers of the Western Province and how to fish for trout in them (1925)
This was to be Manning's follow-up to Trout Fishing in the Cape Colony. Although I found the mini-brochure advising that Maskew Miller were taking orders for the book with a plug for the book by the mayor of Cape Town of the time, who claimed to have read it - it was never (according to AC Harrison) published. Yet there could still be the original manuscript lying around somewhere and I'd move heaven and earth to publish it.
2. Trout Fishing in Natal (1919)
Although this earliest of SA Railways fishing booklets was definitely printed, it is very, very rare. I only know of two copies - one (shown) once owned by Graham Armstrong of Engeleni Lodge and one that was once in your own library. I also know that both copies have 'walked'. Although I have a version of the booklet (it is essentially reprinted word for word with a couple of picture changes in the Natal Province Handbook - 1911), I would dearly love an original. And I would like to publish a facsimile of it.
3. Tom Sutcliffe's new book (2013/2014 when?)
AD MADDOX FLY FISHING ARTIST
Wow ... Good question!
The MFC - AD Maddox Reel
The Patagonia - AD Maddox T-shirt
The MFC - AD Maddox iPad Cover & phone cover
You know I'm biased!!!
FROM MARIO GELDENHUYS WHO MAKES NETS TO DROOL OVER
Only 3:-Damn Tough man ....
1. Ijuin Yomogi Glass Blank by Kazutomo Ijuin
I have a bit of an obsession with the Japanese crafstmen to be honest. Along with Yukihito Okawa, Takayuki Kaneko and Yasuyuki Kabuto, Kazutomo Ijuin has become one of the people I admire for the passion and quality they put in their work. The Ijuin is a prime example of this. I you can get through the broken English that Google Translate provides, you will quickly see what Kazutomo was intending with this blank. The overall colour, action and feel of the rod just looks like it needs to be out on a stream - t needs to be out of it's tube, next to a little brook or stream filled with free rising trout.
2. Vosseler Vise with the ‘loop’ jaws
( http://www.troutline.ro/vosseler-fly-tying-vice.html)
This vice has been on my wish list for a very long time. It is the jaws that intrigue me. Rather than having the conventional "clamp" jaws (which incidentally are the standard the vise comes out with), it has a pin with a small hole in (almost like the back of a needle) which the hook is set into, and then retracts back into the vise head to secure the hook. It looks like it provides much more space/access to the hook, but mostly, the coolness factor and uniqueness of the system appeals to me.
Link to image: http://www.flyshop.es/221-1692-thickbox/torno-vosseler.jpg
3. Custom made Tightline Fly Reel by Andy Ramish
http://tightlineflyreels.com/
Andy Ramish is an amazing reel maker, and also an amazing guy. His reels are (for me) simply amazing, and I've been chatting to him for a while now about the idea of a hybrid custom reel between the S1, T2-Euro and S3-Hubless!! Thus far it has only been talk, but maybe one day it will culminate into something I'll attach to the end of that Ijuin :-D
Incidentally Tom, an item that JUST did not make the list is the Vosseler clip tool - http://www.troutline.ro/vosseler-clip-tool.html
Severely over-engineered of course, but I think that is what appeals to me these days :-D The fact that something so basic can be taken to such an extent of beauty really tweaks my interest.
KOOS ECKARD, THE ULTIMATE FLY ROD MAKER
A realistic list would probably look something like this:
1. Drift HD Ghost Action Camera or the Gopro Hero 3+ Black Edition
2. Good Handheld GPS –Just a GPS I don’t want the thing to talk to me(I can’t stand that voice, it always sounds like that woman is being tortured with sharp objects). It must just do what a GPS does, it shouldn’t play music, boil coffee water and take Photos and tell me what the temperature is like in Siberia while I am fishing the Drakensberg.
3. I need one of those light weight compact All-Weather Jackets and if Santa brings me a Dri-Mack, I would like to see him fly that Sleigh with only two Reindeer!
DUNCAN BROWN AUTHOR OF ‘ARE TROUT SOUTH AFRICAN?’
Here is my Christmas list:
1. Complete set of the works of Roderick Haig-Brown.
- Breathable stocking-foot waders - I've had enough of trekking up rivers in my neoprenes.
3. A week at Giant's Cup.
ARNO LAUBSCHER , CEO OF SCIENTIFIC FLY
1. I first of all think of South African products and would say a J-Vive would be at the top of my list.
2. Secondly I have seen your posts on Mario Geldenhuys’ handmade nets and although I’m not a keen user of nets one of his would be perfect
3. Thirdly I would like a box of flies tied by a prominent fly tier such as yourself or Ed. This is something that we always do at the FFF conclaves and the BFFI. All the invited tiers need to bring two boxes with 6 flies each tied by themselves. One gets auctioned for charity and the other is used as a gift to another invited fly tier. These flies hardly ever gets used but the always reminds one of the great times of that specific year’s event as well as the tier who’s flies you have and the tier who took your flies home.
If I may add a fourth wish it would be the gift of clean, healthy water, especially in the Vaal River…but I guess that’s too much to ask from Santa!
JOHN THOABALA , GENERAL MANAGER OF MAVUNGANA FLY FISHING
My list will be:
1. A top of the range 5wt fly rod – Hardy Sintrix 9 5wt 4pc rod
2. A year’s subscription to Trout and Salmon magazine
3. Wading boots.
FROM HUGH ROSEN MEDICAL SCIENTIST AND FLY FISHER LIVING AND WORKING IN LA JOLLA CALIFORNIA
My list is simple, time with good friends on the stream. After all, as you have so wonderfully captured for me in your writings, in the half-light of the kloof, the warmest connections between memory, truth and affections of the heart combine in near perfection.
And a new book by you, for the evenings when the dry fly is out of reach
Best wishes to you and all the readers and contributors to the Spirit of Flyfishing for the Holidays and 2014
FROM PHIL HILLS WHO JUST SPENT 15 MONTHS FLY FISHING SOUTH AMERICA AND THE USA
I would ask Santa for:
1. An original copy of Fred Bowker's (Kingfisher's) Trout Fisher in South Africa. I love reading about the early days of our sport in South Africa, especially when it pertains to the river I cut my fly fishing teeth on. I have been looking for a copy ever since I first saw it in the Stellenbosch university library.
2. A Renzetti Traveller vice and...
3. A Steve Dugmore or Steve Boshoff custom bamboo fly rod – either will do me!
Plleeeeasse Saaaantaaaaa!!!!
LEONARD FLEMING MICROBIOLOGIST, FLY GUIDE, WRITER AND PHOTOGRAPHER
2. Shilton SL6 saltwater fly reel
3. Costa Del Mar Corbina polarised sunglasses
FROM STEVE BOSHOFF, BAMBOO ARTIST
What a special request … in no particular order:
1. A Tenkara trip to Japan with Craig Thom, meeting and fishing with Masami Sakakibara and Yoshikazu Fujioka.
2. A week of serious Lilliput stream fishing and splendid evenings of conversation, laughter, food, and Thelema with friends in trout (this could be in Rhodes or the Drakensberg). Peter Hayes can be the ‘foreign’ guest …
3. For Ed Herbst to fish Beat 3 of the Holsloot with his friends.
PART 3 WILL FOLLOW, AS WILL MY OWN WISH LIST!
Tom Sutcliffe
