TomSutcliffe - The Spirit of Fly Fishing

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July 2021 Fly-fishing Newsletter

2021-10-09T13:10:44+00:00

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JULY 2021 FLY-FISHING NEWSLETTER

About this month's Newsletter

This edition of my newsletter is largely devoted to my dear, departed friend Basie Vosloo, written from my sense of loss but also from a sense of gratitude; loss because his passing has left a hole in my life as if an important chapter had closed, and gratitude, which is never a good enough word in most circumstances, for the quarter of a century I was the fortunate recipient of Carien and Basie's limitless largess and friendship.

For those to whom Basie Vosloo is unknown, he was fabled in South African fly fishing circles, and to add some reference to my homage I have included a few of my most cherished photographs of him, and of Carien, and Birkhall and Gateshead and sprinkled the text with a few passages from Shadows on the Stream Bed, Hunting Trout and Yet More Sweet Days. These quotes are in italics and I centre the text. I hope the words help to conjure some imagery for you in what was a difficult passage of words for me to write.

Beyond Basie's sad passing, July was also very challenging in other ways and also rewarding. Let me explain. There were two cataract ops to restore my failing eyesight, done by young Cape Town ophthalmic surgeon Dale Harrison. Take a bow, Sir. The improvement is beyond miraculous, the delay getting it done (due to my concerns around Covid and the lockdown) intensified the improvement between my pre- and post-op eyesight. The world's colours seem bright again and detail sharper than ever before. I can now spot moths on the moon. Dale Harrison, by the way, is a keen fly fisher.

Then there was the week of mid-July madness when two provinces in South Africa, particularly KZN, staggered under a siege of lawless pillage that went unchecked long enough (around four days) to risk blowing our young democracy clean out of the water until an unaccountably somnolent government woke up and the police and army brought stability. Over 300 people died and looters left countless shops, factories, supply lines, even some strategic infrastructure like cell phone towers, destroyed or damaged. And I couldn't help thinking as I watched these anarchic incursions unfolding on television hour after hour, that they carried the hallmarks of an orchestrated insurrection. I’ve used the word ‘insurrection’, and on the face of it, that seems about right.

It's too soon to predict a final outcome, but not too late to point out the silver lining around these tempestuous clouds, namely the counterpoised and very evident successes of so many good South Africans from all walks of life to rise above these forces of evil. Still, the naysayers suggest South Africa hasn't the capacity to recover. I don't agree. I think South Africa has that capacity. We are nothing if not a resilient nation. But recovery will need swift justice for offenders and rigorous self-examination by the government.

My thanks to the many fly fishers from around the world who sent me messages of sympathy, hope, encouragement, and unity.

Two lovely pieces of writing

All this aside, there are a few other lovely pieces in this edition. One is by Justin McConville on fishing a stream in Wales and the River Loddon a chalkstream – my word he does write well.

Another is a most interesting book review by my friend and expert on global, but especially South African angling literature, Paul Curtis, who shares what will become a regular feature in this newsletter, a book by book account of the gems in early South African angling literature.

Then please have a look at Gordon van der Spuy's limited edition prints of all the yellowish species, drawn in exquisite detail and professionally scanned, an ideal companion piece for your fly fishing/fly tying den.

But let's first speak of Basie...

Johannes Arnold 'Basie' Vosloo - 24 May 1957 – 4 July 2021
The passing of a near-mythical figure in many South African fly-fishing and hunting circles.

I was introduced to Basie Vosloo 25 years ago by Ed Herbst when we arrived one night for a protracted fishing stay on his farm Birkhall, the car immediately swamped by enormous dogs with barks that rattled the windowpanes. I was scared stiff until Basie arrived with a torch to see me in. It was an embarrassing but portentous moment. Ten days later I'd got used to the dogs – or they to me – and had grown fond of Basie.

The farmhouse on Birkhall

Basie and Carien at home in Birkhall

My initial characterisation of Basie (in line with my narrow orthodoxy that farmers are generally rough and largely uninterested, or unversed, or both, in the affairs of the world), was way off. He had a gentle side, far-ranging intellectual horizons, as at home with the arts and literature (particularly the writings of Oscar Wilde), as he was grading wool or planting potatoes.

Basie and his mother, Patricia, in the shed at sheep-shearing time

But he was still your typical farmer in so many ways: in his warmth of spirit and generosity; in his love of the veld; in his industrial-grade self-belief in his farming skills; in his total delight in any bit of running water. And, not least, in appearance; a big man, with legs of a billiard table, always in shorts and open-neck shirt, even when that high-mountain cold turned our breath to clouds of frozen vapour.

But above all Basie had a presence; that opaque quality a few people have of radiating a definable sense of their own space.

Looking over Birkhall

Life on Birkhall:

Basie became known to hosts of South African fly fishers, if not personally, then certainly by reputation, as a man who took any angler's visit to Birkhall seriously, when a day's fishing might easily end around his pub for a celebratory libation. Accounts of many unsteady late-night departures of anglers in happy and assorted stages of incipient tailspin are now storied enough to be part of fly-fishing folklore.

Carien points to a trout taken from the Sterkspruit and mounted in that much-storied pub

Ed Herbst, one of Basie's dearest friends, on Birkhall's veranda; with ubiquitous pipe and matches.'

There were days, countless of them over the years, when we just sat chatting on the veranda on Birkhall, gazing across views along the tree-laced river valley, sometimes with an early mug of coffee seeing in a sunrise, or watching the unfolding drama of a thunderstorm or, commonly, a sunset gradually turning the surrounding blue-shadowed mountains to flame-orange.

View in a mirror of the valley from Birkhall

Sunrise over Birkhall

Down the tree-laved river valley

'We had a farm-style lunch the last day on Birkhall, a roast leg of home-grown mutton prepared by Carien. Later that afternoon a majestic storm played itself out in the Birkhall valley and pretty soon the Sterkspruit was too high and too discoloured to fish. In a way, I liked that. It’s easier leaving a place when you know the river is going to be out for a day or two anyway.'

The unfolding drama of a Birkhall thunderstorm

...the setting son turning blue-shadowed mountains flame-orange

'That evening on the Birkhall veranda, Basie grilled steaks as thick as roof rafters. He did them on a steel wok connected to a portable gas cylinder. The white-marbled meat was good in ways it’s hard to put your finger on, other than to say you can’t lose sight of the fact that it hadn’t come from a fridge in some city supermarket, but from a grass-fed animal slaughtered on the farm.'

Basie Birkhall veranda steaks

Basie was proud of Birkhall; proud of the way he and Carien farmed it, each with their own focus and energy and love, proud too of Birkhall's unmissable beauty.

Rainbows over Birkhall tend just to gild the lilly

Basie with anglers on Birkhall

'I’ve got into a loose routine over the years on my visits to Birkhall. I’m up early, at about 6 a.m., pad into the kitchen, switch on the kettle, add a heaped teaspoon of coffee to one of the mugs that hang in the glass-fronted cupboard directly above the kettle. They are white mugs with big red polka dots on them. They have been in the kitchen since I can remember. I add farm milk, thick with cream, and a spoon of sugar. I sip the coffee and wait for Basie. Or else Basie has beaten me to it and he’s there sucking on his pipe in clouds of blue smoke, his wet hair combed flat. The dogs are let out and they bark at the fading moon or the rising sun, whatever. They just bark. We talk farming or fishing, and then eat breakfast; eggs and bacon and (homemade) Russian sausages, toast and marmalade, more coffee. Then Basie is gone, Carien leaves on one of her endless errands, and I am alone. I have a hundred choices where to go fishing. Or I might write up my diary, or set up my vice to tie flies on the veranda... Life here is richly coated with choices, all strung across lazy days that drift slowly by like sail ships on a light breeze.'

...they just bark at the fading moon, or the rising sun, whatever...

Some years there was drought and I seemed to live through those with Basie, right down to the sorry day the Sterkspruit stopped flowing ...

'The rivers had perked up a bit but, despite the rain, it was still pretty dry. Basie said the only thing still green on the farm was the indicator light on the dashboard of his old F 100 truck.'

Basie and pointer Biggles, Archer at the back in the old F 100 adorned with Koki penned Adams dry flies (tied Catskill-style?).

Birkhall spring water

Birkhall has a garden pond fed by fresh spring water where Carien grows watercress and at times Basie grew out trout. We hooked countless fingerlings on wet flies in the Sterkspruit, kept them in laundry baskets immersed in knee-deep runs, later loaded them into buckets to stock the Birkhall lake below the house.

Birkhall Lake

Reservoir

Some fingerlings went into a reservoir in the garden for 'the sheer joy of having a few trout nearby' Basie said. I once hooked a monster here on a dry fly with Ed, that I never landed.
And the presence of fish and frogs and tadpoles meant kingfishers were common visitors. It's a lovely feature in their garden.

Basie and fly fishing...

When Ed and I first met Basie his approach to fly fishing was a little downstream of high culture, but over years he moved from stripping Buggers on heavy rigs to dry flies on light rods and gradually acquired an appreciation of small stream fishing with all its obsessive oddities and minimalist refinements Ed and I had obsessed over almost exclusively from the day we first met him.

Basie fishing the Sterkspruit

But on the rare occasions I actually fished with Basie, mainly on the Sterkspruit and the Bokspruit at Gateshead, he was always only part-fly-fisher-part-farmer, never totally able to surrender to the day without half an eye on the farm. So you might look up from a run and suddenly find him high up a bank straightening a fence post or counting ewes in a paddock.

Basie on the Birkhall Sterkspruit

Basie on Bokspruit River at Gateshead

Of all the rivers in the district, and there are many, Basie loved the Sterkspruit beyond all, not for its strong fish alone, but for its winding beauty, its endlessly interlinked tapestries of runs and riffles and braids and pools that are so characteristic of this stream's anatomy no matter where you step into it.

Sterkspruit river landscape

The gorge water on Birkhall as it borders Branksome

Typical tapestries of the Sterkspruit River

The Sterkspruit above and below the Lindesfarne Bridge

Basie and Gateshead...

Basie and Carien at Gateshead cottage

Basie also loved their high mountain farm Gateshead, a place where the essence of life is dressed in its loveliest simplifications. He was proud of its remoteness, at the very end of a road that crossed bridges of cold water straight off mountains; the clear, clean air; the timeless Victorian pastiche cottage, prettily latticed veranda fronted by privet hedges and flanked by fruit trees over a century-old...

Gateshead cottage

On the way up to Gateshead...

' The flow of water spilling under the bridge made the steady, softly sibilant, sucking sounds of a stream in good flow. We stepped out of the truck and could smell the water and the leaves, a compressed mix of cold freshness, wet loam, and mulch, the air so saturated with a fragrance that made you want to breathe in deeply. Above the bridge was a long pool of clear, thigh-deep water; below it the stream ran white and rough. A trout weaved in the pool above, at first not easy to see but later so obvious it seemed strange we hadn’t spotted it straight off...'

At a bridge on the way to Gateshead

'The cottage sat on the lower slopes of the Gateshead Mountain facing a narrow, steep-sided sweep of hills and falling river...'

Basie just loved to gaze across the hills from the Gateshead veranda

Nights on Gateshead were good, cold, starlit, around a campfire, crate of beer, watching shadows lengthen, lapsing under jeweled night skies into assorted philosophies until the cold of dying embers (or the fast aggregating heaps of empty bottles) saw us off...

Simplicity. The kitchen stove on Gateshead

'An orchard of fruit trees so old that naming them wasn’t something you could ever feel sure about.' (I now know they are a mix of cherry trees, apricots and apples.)

'We laid in a wood fire between stones in the tiny boma off the kitchen at the back of the cottage, cooked thick streaks on the fading glow of hot coals, drank good red wine, and relived a spiritual day where we had all hovered briefly on the outskirts of heaven.'

Formal dinner on Gateshead: Phil Hills, Luke Rossler, Basie, and self.

Horses...

Days out with Basie on horses were glorious but too rare, he always the master of these animals, often on Apla his headstrong black steed that everyone else was too scared to ride.

Basie rounding up at Gateshead

Basie on Apla

The dogs...

Basie had a special love for Archer, an English pointer. Feathers, also an English pointer, was next in the line of Birkhall's canine hierarchy, then followed a later pointer, Thomas, that I collected for Basie as a puppy from a breeder in Johannesburg and drove down to Birkhall with him in my truck. Don't ask me about that trip. The dog arrived safely and ended up named after me. But Archer somehow lifted himself to near holiness among the many gun dogs in Basie's life, and he has since had a room named in his honour in the Branksome Country House, a lodge run by Basie's sister Rene on the next farm upstream of Birkhall. (By the way, there's also the Ed's Hopper room in that lodge. As I said, Ed held a special place in the Vosloo's lives.)

His Royal Highness Archer

Archer on a day out with me on the Bokspruit River

'That night we tied a few flies by gaslight .... When we finally turned in, the air was like frozen steel. I crawled under a heavy mountain of blankets and blew out the candle. Moments later Feathers started to inch her way onto my bed with deliberate and measured stealth, trembling paw by trembling paw, convinced I was unaware of her subterfuge. I let her sink onto the bed. She lay dead-still and eventually we fell asleep. In the morning she was curled up warmly at my feet and her son, Archer, still a puppy, was deep inside my duffel bag with only his nose showing.'

On Gateshead : Feathers and Archer

If the dogs sit out in the morning sun on Birkhall, they sleep inside at night around the warmth of the Agar stove.

A momentous visit with Basie to a lake under construction...

One morning we visited Basie's new lake above Birkhall. He was finishing the wall with heavy machinery. I left him in dust clouds and hiked up the thin feeder stream, a wisp of water no wider than a stride, and discovered in its meager flows a brace of trout and a bunch of fingerlings. Basie said I was hallucinating, so we wandered back up the creek, found the evidence and I watched first Basie's astonishment and then I saw utter delight appear on his face. 'Thomas,' he said 'you have your uses.'

A slip of stream

...with fingerings in it

Finally completed. The new lake on Birkhall

Friendship…

To explain more aptly my privilege in knowing the Vosloos, here's what I wrote under the appreciations in Yet More Sweet Days:
'Those who stand out are Basie and Carien Vosloo of Birkhall, who are more part of my family than just good friends. ...Without them there would be no story to tell. '

A moment with a humourous side...

'That night Basie said it was too cold to snow and I offered to light the fire in the lounge. He quickly said, ‘Don’t worry, leave it to me.’ I suspected this was a deep survival response that got embedded in his mind when I last lit the fire in his lounge one particularly cold evening on a previous trip. The wood was slightly damp and the flames just wouldn't take hold. Basie suggested I add a little ‘starter’, a turquoise-colored, high-octane inflammable gel. I poured a little gel onto blackened embers that I could have sworn were nowhere near still smouldering. Bad call. The bottle burst into flame in my hand, and I reflexively tossed it straight into the fireplace. There was a massive whooshing sound, and the entire chimney lit up in a blinding sheet of orange flame. For a few long moments, it looked like the Taliban had scored a direct hit on Basie’s lounge. No serious damage done, but Basie needed a stiff drink before he could speak. Around nine that night the colour finally came back into his face.'

On leaving Birkhall...

'That afternoon I packed my fishing gear and loaded my truck. I left the next morning later than planned because Basie insisted on cooking a grand breakfast. We ate in the kitchen, just the two of us...'

Basie maling breakfast on Birkhall

Final thoughts ...

It was as hard not to respect Basie as it is to fall upwards, his life lived in primary colours rather than in any anti-climatic shades of grey, even into the backwash of his cancer and then the pandemic. I called him often. He was always the same; no confected dressing up his dire situation; the same jovial human being; the same connectedness with family, friends, farming, hunting, fishing, the weather, especially rain, with the community, in fact just as he was from the first time we met one night in wobbling torchlight amid a bunch of baying dogs.

We are all of us lifted by our most cherished moments, not so?

Tom Sutcliffe 03 August 2021

*
Oh! I have slipped the surly bounds of Earth and danced the skies on laughter-filled wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence.
John Gillespie Magee (1922-1941)

On Apla

Rest in your well-earned peace my dear friend.

Justin McConville on fishing a stream in Wales and the River Lodden
Says Justin

I was meant to travel to Normandy in the last week of June to fish two of the French chalkstreams, but Covid restrictions put paid to the trip. Limited to the confines of mainland Britain, I chose to visit Wales instead. Not a chalkstream in sight, of course, but Wales does possess some of the finest trout fishing in the world. Innumerable rivers drain the country’s verdant valleys, and almost all of them will have brown trout. Our holiday cottage sat perched on a hill above the River Cothi, once famed for its runs of sea trout. I spent a warm day on the thin upper reaches of the river, at the site where a Roman fort once guarded a valuable gold mine, soaking in the sheer sense of history that pervaded the place and occasionally tempting the river’s wily trout to take a dry fly. The waters of the Cothi are acidic and the trout I caught measured no more than 6 or 7 inches. Tiny slips of life in a harsh environment, hardwired to survive against the odds. It felt like ‘proper’ fishing.

The Cothi in Camarthenshire, running as clear as a chalkstream.

Back home in the south of England, the weather has been very unsettled from mid-June, with some locations in Hampshire being the wettest in the whole country with over three times their average June rainfall. Several of my fishing plans were washed out. We seemed to turn the corner in mid-July and on a glorious day when the mercury went north of 30°c I took up a kind invitation to fish the Loddon, a small chalkstream which rises in the town of Basingstoke in Hampshire and flows north for 28 miles until it joins the Thames.

My host casting a fly in a likely looking run of the Loddon

The clear water hurried over gravels and ranunculus, the perfect picture of a chalkstream in miniature. Lush bankside vegetation grew tall, and watercress and reeds flourished in the river’s course, confining the lower summer flows into an even narrower channel, where ranunculus thrived untended. It called for precise casting, aiming the fly for the small gutters of gravel and leafy margins, where the trout were willing to take a well-placed fly. My best was around 12 inches.

A typical wild brown trout from the Loddon

The Loddon is a private chalkstream in its upper reaches and I was pleased to tick it off my list and receive an invitation to return next year to fish its even smaller tributary, the Lyde.

Thanks Justin. Please let us know when you have dusted the Lyde. TS

Paul Curtis on African fly-fishing books – Book No. 1
Trout Fishing in the Cape Colony (1908) by Dumaresq Manning – Argus Printing and Publishing (Cape Town)

I doubt that when Cape Colony civil servant, Dumaresq Manning, sat down to write 'Trout Fishing in the Cape Colony', he realised he was the first in a long line of authors writing books about trout fishing in Africa. Or that his 97-page book (plus 30-page appendix) guide was the first book on any sort of sport fishing on the continent. Fresh or saltwater.

There had been earlier articles on fishing and trout in magazines such as Cape Illustrated and in the UK in Fisherman’s Gazette and Hardy Bros catalogues, and a few chapters in books – but not that many.

'Trout Fishing in the Cape Colony' was written, as the author says: ‘primarily to bring into prominence that [trout] acclimatisation in the Cape Colony is an encouraged fact, and to encourage angling’.

The book has a detailed history of trout acclimatisation in the Western and Eastern Cape and a large map of where trout had been stocked – which is almost everywhere from Table Mountain in the south, to Carnarvon in the north and eastward to the Natal Colony border. In fact, everywhere the South African Railways network covered. Which was not surprising as the early head of the railways, ardent fisherman Sir William Hoy, had instructed his train drivers to release ‘carboys’ (large glass flagons) of trout at the end of every line and branch line they went to – wherever there was water.

Manning also gives a district-by-district review of the fishing and suggests what flies to use: ‘March Brown , Alder, Zulu, Teal and Claret, and Alexandra, and where there is no rise of any natural fly such as would be seen on any English river, it is only expected that trout, naturally cannibalistic should take those feathered monstrosities known as Salmon Flies’.

What is surprising that in his list and description of the species of trout that the angler might expect (brown trout, Loch Leven, and rainbow) he mentions Atlantic salmon stocked in the Breede!

There is also a chapter, of particular interest today, on catching indigenous fish, the wittevisch on the fly. Manning writing; ‘This fish, a species of barbel and very like a chub in appearance running to several pounds in weight’.

There are appendices including the legal requirement to fish, the closed seasons, how to build fish weirs, hatching boxes and several government proclamations on the protection of trout under the signature of Governor-General Sir Walter Francis Hely-Hutchinson. God Save The King!

There are numerous black and white photographs of fishermen and large bags of fish and one full colour plate of a brown trout.

'Trout Fishing in the Cape Colony' is an extremely rare but important cornerstone of any African fishing library. I was fortunate in my early days of collecting to find a copy (map included) in good condition. But I was even more fortunate not too long ago, to buy on auction in the UK a second copy – this originally belonging to, and with the signature of, G.E.M. Skues in it and dated in his hand – I VIII 08.

G.E.M. Skues

Manning doesn’t appear to have written any other fishing books, although one was planned – I have a pre-publicity leaflet put out by Cape publishers Maskew Miller promoting The Golden Rivers of the Western Province. In the leaflet there is even a note on the Mayor of Cape Town’s letterhead with the then mayor, the aptly named William Fish, claiming he had read the book and recommended it. Maskew Miller has no records of publishing it though. Let me know though if you ever find a copy …

The Golden Rivers of the Western Province

Limited edition prints of all yellowfish species

The artist in Lesotho

Print size 68 x 44 cms

Says Gordon van der Spuy:
The project started during lockdown last year after I completed my book. It was commissioned by a young man named Luke Leatherbarrow from Johannesburg. The brief was to draw SAs nine yellowfish species with the focus on capturing the character of each species. Along the way we learnt that yellowfish taxonomy is pretty much incomplete currently and that there are probably more species than we believe there to be. The project took over a year to complete. Many thanks to Garth Wellman, Leonard Flemming, Horst Filter , Warren van Tonder and Luke Leatherbarrow for reference pictures.
Those interested contact Gordon on email gordon.vanderspuy@gmail.com

(If I may add a word of advice. If you don't get one of these prints you will be kicking yourself down the road 5 years from now ! TS)

Finally, I just spoke to Ed Herbst who said he wanted to add a piece on Basie's passing. It's an important read.
says Ed,

I first met Basie and Carien Vosloo in Barkly East in April 1992 at a function held to establish the Wild Trout Association.
I attended the function as editor of Piscator, journal of the Cape Piscatorial Society and you can read my account of that meeting here.
A three-decade friendship with Basie has now ended and, like so many others who knew him, I have a hole in my heart because he and Carien were family to me.

The rivers in Barkly East produce double-figure rainbows and most of these fish have been caught in deep pools or from undercut banks using streamers and, when I first met Basie, he was firmly wedded to this technique.

“The trout in Barkly East want steak not sandwiches”, he would tell me as his #6 Mrs Simpson produced another five-pound trout.

He was using a five-weight fly rod when I met him which I called the G5 after the 155 mm howitzer used by the South African infantry at the time.

Every time I acquired a new ultra-light line fly rod, I passed its predecessor on to Basie and he quickly changed tactics, fishing the flies which Tom and I tied for him.

I remember fishing the Sterkspruit with him using a laboriously-constructed double-taper leader which I suggested he try.
His first cast saw the fly firmly affixed to a rock face on the opposite bank and, without hesitation he stripped off on a cold and cloudy day and swam across the river to retrieve it.

Over the decades hundreds of fly anglers have sat in the lounge at Birkhall enjoying the hospitality for which Basie and Carien were justifiably renowned.
He played a singular role in establishing the Wild Trout Association which has been instrumental in promoting fly angling tourism in region to the benefit of the local economy.

He invited Dave Walker of Walkerbouts Country Inn fame to move from Bloemfontein to one of his farms and it was there that Dave and Martin Davies conceptualized the idea of a conservancy which would protect and promote the resource to the benefit of both farmers and fly anglers.
His son Arnie and his daughter-in-law, both doctoral graduates from the University of Stellenbosch, have given up their academic careers and moved to Barkly East to help run the Vosloo farms.

I draw comfort from this seamless inter-generational transition which will see fly anglers continue to walk the banks of the Sterkspruit at Birkhall and Branksome and the upper Bokspruit at Gateshead which Basie once fished with so much joy and vivacity.

Great words and sentiments, many thanks, Edward.

Tom Sutcliffe 03 August 2021

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July 2021 Fly-fishing Newsletter

2021-10-09T13:10:44+00:00

From: Jonathan Clark
Sent: 18 August 2021 04:47 PM
To: Tom Sutcliffe <sutcliffe@mweb.co.za>
Subject: Re: JULY 2021 SPIRIT OF FLY-FISHING NEWSLETTER

Dear Tom

I too was a friend of Basie’s and was lucky enough to be with him at Birkhall a few weeks before he died. I’m writing to thank you most sincerely for sending out your thoughtful and kind email. Your pictures are fabulous. Thank you.

Best wishes, Jonathan

jonathan clark

mobile: +27 83 267 6968

e-mail: jonathan@agglethorpe.com

From: Tom Sutcliffe <sutcliffe@mweb.co.za>
Reply to: Tom Sutcliffe <sutcliffe@mweb.co.za>
Date: Tuesday, 3 August 2021 at 12:23
To: jonathan clark <Jonathan@Agglethorpe.com>
Subject: JULY 2021 SPIRIT OF FLY-FISHING NEWSLETTER

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The farmhouse on Birkhall

Basie and Carien at home in Birkhall

Basie and his mother, Patricia, in the shed at sheep-shearing time

Looking over Birkhall

Carien points to a trout taken from the Sterkspruit and mounted in that much-storied pub

Ed Herbst, one of Basie's dearest friends, on Birkhall's veranda; with ubiquitous pipe and matches.'

View in a mirror of the valley from Birkhall

Sunrise over Birkhall

Down the tree-laved river valley

The unfolding drama of a Birkhall thunderstorm

...the setting son turning blue-shadowed mountains flame-orange

Basie Birkhall veranda steaks

Basie was proud of Birkhall; proud of the way he and Carien farmed it, each with their own focus and energy and love, proud too of Birkhall's unmissable beauty.

Some years there was drought and I seemed to live through those with Basie, right down to the sorry day the Sterkspruit stopped flowing ...

Birkhall Lake

Reservoir

Basie and fly fishing...

Basie fishing the Sterkspruit

Basie on the Birkhall Sterkspruit

Basie on Bokspruit River at Gateshead

Sterkspruit river landscape

The gorge water on Birkhall as it borders Branksome

Typical tapestries of the Sterkspruit River

The Sterkspruit above and below the Lindesfarne Bridge

Basie and Gateshead...

Basie and Carien at Gateshead cottage

Gateshead cottage

On the way up to Gateshead...

'The cottage sat on the lower slopes of the Gateshead Mountain facing a narrow, steep-sided sweep of hills and falling river...'

Basie just loved to gaze across the hills from the Gateshead veranda

Horses...

Days out with Basie on horses were glorious but too rare, he always the master of these animals, often on Apla his headstrong black steed that everyone else was too scared to ride.

Basie rounding up at Gateshead

Basie on Apla

A slip of stream

...with fingerings in it

Finally completed. The new lake on Birkhall

A moment with a humourous side...

On leaving Birkhall...

Rest in your well-earned peace my dear friend.

The Cothi in Camarthenshire, running as clear as a chalkstream.

My host casting a fly in a likely looking run of the Loddon

A typical wild brown trout from the Loddon

G.E.M. Skues

The Golden Rivers of the Western Province

Limited edition prints of all yellowfish species

The artist in Lesotho

Print size 68 x 44 cms

Copyright © 2021 The Spirit of Fly Fishing, All rights reserved.
The Spirit of Fly Fishing newsletter
Our mailing address is:

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7 Evergreen Ave

Newlands

Cape Town, Western Cape 7700

South Africa

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NOVEMBER 2019 NEWSLETTER

2019-07-06T00:00:00+00:00

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OCTOBER 2019 SPIRIT OF FLY FISHING NEWSLETTER

I was fishing alone and lazily on a bright morning on a quiet stream last week. The stream was still early-summer cool and full and it was enough just to be there. The gentle passage of the day was punctuated only by the happy shock of a few cooperative trout.

The stream was a mosaic of familiar shapes and colours, and then, slowly, as if seen through the tumbling glass colours of a child's kaleidoscope, a garland of autumn-coloured leaves gradually blended in my eyes to the unmistakable shape of a slow-sliding puff adder.

Not the first snake I've seen on this stream, it won't be the last, and it's always the same; there's the electric jolt, even before my mind registers; then the moment of recognition when I sum up the danger and if its small, stand quietly to enjoy the macabre fascination of being in the close presence of a snake in the tumble of a river.

The snake left the stream slowly like an unfolding conjuring trick, its yellow and black patterned chevrons moving rhythmically along it sides like hinged leaves, until it was swallowed in the shadows of the riverbank.

Every step I take then is a very cautious one until I relax enough to accept I'm not actually wading through a wall-to-wall spread of hovering serpents, and my world settles once more into the harmless tapestries of a familiar trout stream and life goes on.

The One Feather CDC Midge

Shortly before I bumped the puff adder I was thinking of fly patterns. I am not particularly obsessed with the relative merits of one fly over another, well not on small mountain streams, but something interesting happened this day that I thought warranted a few words.

I'd started the morning after a brief downstream hike at a run so perfectly pretty it belonged in a text book. The Elk Hair Caddis I floated though it looked like it would be swallowed at any moment, but no fish showed. After two more drifts, I changed to a Para-RAB, but again if the look of the drifts and the fly on the surface pleased me, they didn't please the trout.

I remembered my friend Robin Douglas telling me he'd recently had repeated refusals to a number of dry flies throughout a morning's fishing on a nearby stream and could only hook fish on a One Feather Midge. So I changed to it and hooked a trout on my first cast in that same pretty run, and another on my second. And the story was repeated, twice, on different runs in the same stream on the same morning with the same patterns. The Elks and Para-RABs were refused, the One Feather Midge not.

A clutch of CDC Midges

It will require a lot more evidence before this becomes anything like some biblical truth, but let me put it this way: early season, on a bright morning on a Western Cape stream I'd not wager money that One Feather CDC Midge won't work. And that's mainly because hatches of tiny mountain midges on all swift-flowing upland streams are common and often go unnoticed.

I fish the Midge in sizes 16 and 18, tied with natural dark dun CDC. Use a spotter of your choice. I like orange Poly Yarn. It's easy to follow and easy to use.
The tying of the CDC Midge is on my website.

From Rene Vosloo - Escape to Branksome Country House

Branksome Country House is the brainchild of Rene Vosloo, Basie Vosloo's sister, Basie being the owner of the farm Birkhall up in the Eastern Cape Highlands about whom I have written more than a few pages.

Branksome sits at the top right of this loop of the Sterkspruit

Branksome is the next farm up the road from Birkhall on a section of the Sterkspruit River I have also often written about; and with good reason, because it includes one of the Sterkspruit's most productive beats, the Gorge section, and above that, the water up-and downstream of a pretty bridge with a weir above it is also productive and very picturesque.

A fish in the Gorge section

The weir and the bridge sections of the Sterkspruit

Rene tells me she has converted two of the historic sandstone sheds on Branksome into a fine country house. The milking parlour, built in the 1920’s, has been converted into five large rooms with bathrooms en suite and patios to take in the vast mountain views. What I really liked hearing is that each room is decorated with old family furniture collected over many generations of Vosloos.

The shearing shed and bull stable are now The Trout and Hound, a pub and restaurant, with little change to their original and beautiful sandstone structures. Most of the material used in the bar has been repurposed – a Bedford Chassis with poplar planks hewn from trees felled on the farm and the old floorboards were used to set up the shelves.

Says Rene,

The restaurant offers a farm-to-fork dining experience using seasonal local produce. Our meat is sourced from the certified Birkhall Butchery providing the best quality grass-fed lamb and beef. Breakfast is catered to suit your schedule and Ploughman platters are available all day. The dinner menus are created each day.'

Crossing the Bokspruit River on horseback

'Hiking and mountain bike trails and horse rides are a different way to explore the countryside. Branksome’s horses are famously sure-footed, coming from blood-lines specially bred for endurance in mountain country. The area surrounding the farms has wonderful birdlife with sightings of vultures, lammergeier, crested cranes and many raptors.

Mario Cesare on Branksome

'Many of the sandstone caves are decorated with rock art documenting Bushman life in the valleys.
'The room rate is R950 and includes breakfast.

'The Trout and Hound pub and restaurant menu changes daily and booking is recommended. Horse rides can be arranged for guests and day visitors. Please call ahead to book rides. The cost per rider is R250 for the first hour and R500 for half a day.

'The Sterkspruit River is easily accessed from the guest house. A day permit is R150 and a half-day is R100, payable to The Wild Trout Association (WTA).'
For more information, visit www.branksome.co.za email info@branksome.co.za, or Whatsapp Rene on 082 606 1359.

Micro-midges for Mountain Dam - by Ed Herbst
(This is a long article, but it is a very valuable resume of the latest on fishing micro-patterns in stillwaters. My many thanks to Ed Herbst.)

Two years ago Alan Hobson posted an article on this website about a substantially increased yellowfish catch rate at Sterkfontein Dam through using 7-8 x tippets and flies size 18 or smaller.

Since then, as Alan has progressed to yet smaller flies, his catch rate at Mountain Dam at Somerset East has improved significantly and 2kg trout are regularly being caught on #24 flies.

Alan Hobson with a Mountain Dam rainbow trout which was fooled by one of his micro-patterns

Wanting to contribute to this research, I ordered some #26 Gamakatsu C12-BM barbless big-eye hooks.

A #26 spent mayfly imitation tied on the big-eye Gamakatsu midge hook

I also ordered the #24 Allen N304 which, like the Gamakatsu, is a medium-wire, scud-type hook. Looking at it through the 4x magnification of my Donegan Optivisor, I was delighted to find that it has a spear-point design pioneered by Tiemco on models like the TMC 2499 SP – BL.

Alan finds most micro-pattern hooks of #22 or smaller straighten on the fish in Mountain Dam and at Sterkfontein and he is also partial to the superb medium-wire Ahrex hooks which are made in Finland. Craig Thom of Stream X can source them for you.

Three of the medium-wire micro-pattern hooks favoured by Alan Hobson for his trout and yellowfish flies. They all have larger-than-normal eyes.

In his 1996 book What the Trout Said: About the Design of Trout Flies and Other Mysteries, Datus Proper wrote that trout accept size 16 and smaller flies with less suspicion than larger patterns.

Five years ago, in an article on this website, Tom Sutcliffe posted photographs of trout stomach contents that showed that most trout prey is less than half a centimetre in length.
I have watched trout feeding hard on mountain streams near Cape Town, darting from side to side and capturing prey too small for me to see.

Ralph Cutter who has spent dozens of hours snorkelling trout rivers in the USA makes the same point from an underwater perspective in his stellar book Fish Food :

'Scientists will tell you that a trout's vision is somewhat less acute than a human’s. How they know that, I can’t tell, but I can tell you that in a fish's world, a trout sees much better than we do. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of times I have finned in the water just behind a trout and watched as it cocked its fins, flared its tail, and raised its nose in eager anticipation of an approaching morsel of food.

It is a body language common to all trout in all waters across the world.

Rarely do I see the food item drifting toward us before the trout sees it. Invariably it is the fish’s behaviour that alerts me to the item. Many, many, many times I can't see the item until it is inches from the trout’s nose, and far too many times to count, I'm unable to figure out what the trout saw at all. From several feet away, trout can see Daphnia and copepods and mayfly egg masses the size of the period at the end of this sentence. They see, or otherwise perceive, these minute flecks against a swirling background of bubbles, swaying vegetation, and drifting debris.

I don’t have a clue how they do it.

Nine out of ten people use a ﬂy that is too big. Three reasons: It is easier to get the tippet through the eye of the fly; it is easier to see on the water; and to us, live flies simply appear larger than they really are.'

Alan Hobson says Mountain Dam is a veritable soup of tiny insects - spent Caenis, micro-caddis, Chironomid and Chaoborous (Phantom Midge) not to mention the even smaller Daphnia upon which it preys.

Chris Wood fishing Mountain Dam during a Caenis hatch

During the late afternoon there are huge Caenis hatches and a fascinating article on the Partridge website reveals how trout feed at such times.

A typical late-afternoon Caenis hatch on Mountain Dam

Spent Caenis at the margins of a dam. A scanned photo from Dean Riphagen’s stellar book Stillwater Trout in South Africa (Struik, 2004)

As the sun dips behind the horizon, dipterans in their thousands emerge, crawling up one’s waders. In the morning, their bodies blanket the margins and the wind lanes and they are dispersed at all levels of the water column by wind-generated currents.

Emerging Phantom Midges use Alan Hobson’s waders during a hatch after sunset on Mountain Dam.

For me the breakthrough tying tiny flies came when I discovered Uni-Caenis thread, the thinnest on the market. I had bought it about two years ago from Morne Bayman at the African Fly Angler online shop, but had never used it because I had been told, incorrectly as it turned out, that it was so weak that it would not hold the weight of a bobbin.

I put a spool onto my favourite bobbin, the Tiemco Adjustable Arm Bobbin, lubricated the spool holes and the bobbin arms with Mucilin to make the spool turn with less friction, and, after that, tying size 24/26 flies became routine.

After a dab of superglue is applied to the hook shank with a toothpick, I wind on a few turns of spaced Semperfli or UCT ultra-thin wire using a Stonfo Bobtec bobbin.

The two bobbins used by the author for tying midge patterns and the invaluable Optivisor equipped with the Quasar LED lighting system

The first layer of UV light-cured resin – (Loon Fluorescing) - is applied to further lock the wire onto the hook shank and because it adds a subtle blue glow. After that, I apply some thicker Solarez Topaz Sparkle resin which contains minute blue specks of reflecting material.

You can replicate this effect by mixing glitter dust - which is available from craft shops - into your favourite UV resin.
The Wasatch cement applicator is very helpful in holding a tiny drop of UV resin and then applying it evenly to the hook.

The UV light-cured resins used by the author when tying midges and the Wasatch cement applicator

The Uni-Caenis thread is now attached between the eye of the hook and the resin-covered wire. You will, at some stage, break this thread but it does not immediately spiral off the hook shank in coils – you just re-attach it and continue tying.
I find it easiest to attach a single wing pointing backwards using Fishient Gliss’n Glow Clear Ice which is a clear plastic strip with horizontal striations. Other possibilities are pearlescent micro Crystal Flash, Antron, CDC or Coq du Leon barbules.

To illustrate the tying sequence and make the photography easier I have used the #24 Allen N304 hook

Step 1 – the wire is wound onto the hook shank which is covered with superglue dispensed via a toothpick from a Zap-A-Gap bottle equipped with Flexi-Tips

Step 2 – the wire is covered with fluorescing resin which shines through the second coat

Step 3 – Solarez Topaz Sparkle is used for the top coat. Note the blue glints

Step 4 – The completed midge showing the Gliss ‘n Glow wing

A midge tied on #26 Gamakatsu hook using Micro Crystal Flash for the wing

To cover the wing at the tie-in point and mimic the insect’s head I use Quick Descent Dub which is made of extremely fine aluminium shavings.

The late Shane Stalcup raved about this dubbing in his book Mayflies from Top to Bottom and with good reason because I have never tried a dubbing material that is easier to use and there is nothing better for tying tiny flies. It almost magnetises itself to the thread and you need about two strands for midges which means a packet goes a long way.

The suggestion that it sinks nymphs ‘like a rock’ is simply advertising hype written by someone who has never used it.
It is no longer made unfortunately, but some shops still stock it.
I also wax the thread and use the fuzz stripped from peacock herl. Other alternatives are mole fur and Kreinik silk dubbing, a favourite of Ed Engle, author of Tying Small Flies.

Micro-midge success for Alan Hobson on Mountain Dam in Somerset East.

Alan’s research into the importance of predaceous diving beetles in trout diet was a singular step forward in the evolution of dam fishing tactics for trout.

A photograph on Alan Hobson’s cellphone of predaceous diving beetles eaten by a Mountain Dam trout along with examples of the closely imitative flies he crafts to imitate them

The air bubble on a predacious bubble which is trigger for the fish feeding on them. Photo by Charles Griffiths.

The air bubble as imitated on this Diving Beetle pattern tied by Alan Hobson

Here’s Alan’s advice on fishing micro-patterns for stillwater trout and yellowfish:

Fishing midges is challenging but oh, so rewarding. What is so special is that it is far from an exact science, as what works today does not necessarily produce the same success the next day.
After a 45- year fly fishing journey I can say that identifying what is hatching is imperative as correct fly selection does increase one’s success dramatically.

The other big factor is observing the fish’s behaviour to see how they are feeding. What makes fishing midge hatches so exciting is that ninety percent of the time you can see where the fish are feeding. Presentation, however, is always key element in success - you must get your flies into the zone of vision of the fish - to where it is in the water column.

My leader set –ups vary according to the species I am targeting and the prevailing conditions. I prefer using a longer leader, ten to fifteen feet. Ten feet if you are fishing with a wind blowing and fifteen feet to eighteen feet if it is a calm day. Generally I always use two or three flies.
The main section of the leader is made of Maxima Ultragreen and I use Stroft tippets.
To use long leaders effectively, slow your casting stroke down and open your loop.

I connect my leader to the fly line using a Surgeon’s Loop and build my own leader using blood knots. The blood knots act as a buffer for the free running dropper system. What is critical is that the mono the dropper runs on is at least two pounds breaking strain heavier than that of the dropper, i.e. if your dropper is 5x then make sure it runs on 4x, preferably 3x, the dropper should be a maximum of 6 inches long.

At the end of the dropper, opposite the fly, I tie a small loop. The loop is held against the leader and the fly is threaded through the loop which is then tightened.

This enables one to quickly change flies without cutting the leader.

I use a Uni-Knot to attach my fly to my tippet for two reasons. The small loop allows the fly to move and, on the strike, there is a little give as the knot tightens which makes the tippet less likely to break

The key factor in fishing micro-patterns on dams is that the fish are not prepared to chase them down, because they would expend more energy chasing tiny insects than they will receive in protein-return.

The takes are either a very quick, fast bump or, when the water surface is covered in tiny insects, more subtle. In the latter case you have watch the leader with concentration because they reject a fly in a split-second.

Don’t waste time casting blindly and furiously because the result is always a spooked fish. Rather wait until you see the fish or its movement and present without lining it. If you battle to detect takes then use a small strike indicator - one that does not make a loud plop - to help spot any deviation in the leader.

If the wind blows a bow in your line, keep moving the tip to maintain one continual bend with the rod and line. Don’t hold the rod at ninety degrees to the line because you will battle to set the hook. Let the wind do the work for you as it drags the flies below the surface. If conditions are calm, ensure you are in touch with the flies and watch the line for the slightest movement. If you spot or sense a take, lift the rod gently to strike and let the reaction of the fish set the hook.

When I started researching stomach contents of fish caught in the Somerset East area, I quickly discovered that predacious diving beetles were a staple in the diet of trout and yellowfish throughout the year. I now use them on all my three-fly leader set-ups with the beetle sometimes functioning as a strike indicator on the point. If I want to fish it beneath the surface, I’ll use a weighted nymph on the point to pull it down a few centimetres.

My close-copy diving beetle patterns have proved extremely successful. The foam is shaped with a Dremel tool and the decoupage paint is applied in separate drying stages which take four days. I use the technique pioneered on Sterkfontein Dam by Dr Hans van Zyl with his ‘Good Doctor’s Beetle’.

One of the problems that Alan’s clients have is snapping the required 7-8x tippets on the strike and he is collaborating with Pretoria-based custom rod builder, Koos Eckard on a fibreglass model based on a CTS blank which will cushion fine tippets more effectively than carbon fibre rods do.
It will incorporate the Ritz-based grip which he has developed.

The range of flies that Alan has developed and are for sale is shown on his website.

Useful information on the role of midges can be found at the following links:

http://www.mtfa-springfield.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Midge-article-Master-Naturalist-Blog.pdf
http://www.mtfa-springfield.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Midge-Fishing-Techniques-3-3-2018.pdf
http://www.mtfa-springfield.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Green-Gilled-Tubing-Midge.pdf

Tom Sutcliffe

Copyright © 2019 The Spirit of Fly Fishing, All rights reserved.
The Spirit of Fly Fishing newsletter
Our mailing address is:

The Spirit of Fly Fishing

7 Evergreen Ave

Newlands

Cape Town, Western Cape 7700

South Africa

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JUNE 2019 NEWSLETTER

2019-07-05T00:00:00+00:00

FLY-FISHING NEWSLETTER – JUNE 2019

Yet More Sweet Days – Notes from a fly fisher's Life

My latest book, Yet More Sweet Days, was delivered to my home this week after a long time in the writing and in the protracted process of publishing and printing. But, happily, the finished product is lovely. The book has a feel of comfortable sumptuousness, the cover is pleasantly evocative and the pen and ink sketches have been excellently reproduced. So I am a very happy author, thanks to my punctilious publisher, Tim Richman of Burnet Media, and his professional team.

A pen and ink sketch from Yet More Sweet Days

The book will be available in bookstores and fly shops throughout the country and from Craig Thom at NetBooks, as well as directly from myself. If you want a specially personalised copy, or just want to know more about the book, please drop me an email at sutcliffe@mweb.co.za

To order a copy please send your physical address and your cell phone number. This is for The Courier Guy, who will be delivering the orders for me.
Yet More Sweet Days sells for R320 and the courier cost is R70 (for up to three books per courier bag).

I am still waiting to hear courier costs to the UK, the USA, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

To pay for an order my bank details are:
Account Freestone Press, Standard Bank, Rondebosch, code 025009, Account number 071483861.

I still have a few copies of Shadows on the Stream Bed and The Elements of Fly Tying (both R185), but sadly Hunting Trout is sold out. My publisher, Tim Richman, spoke briefly about printing a third edition of Hunting Trout, but for the moment, Yet More Sweet Days is enough to keep my undivided attention.
Title: Yet More Sweet Days- Notes from a fly fisher's Life; Burnet Media, 2019; pages 472, chapters 20, pen and ink sketches 50. ISBN 9781928230717. Distributed by Jacana Media.

The Limited Edition of Yet More Sweet Days

The leather-bound limited edition copies will be delivered this week hopefully. It is well over-subscribed with a long waiting list, so if you ordered one and have since changed your mind, please let me know. Again the book will be couriered to you so I will need your physical address and cell phone details.

A New South Wales mini-grand slam; rainbow, brook and brown trout from tiny Australian streams

In New South Wales, Australia, my friend Nick Taransky makes fine bamboo rods. He is also a small-stream fanatic and as we were coming to the end of our respective fishing seasons, and perhaps in recognition of our shared love of tiny, twiggy waters, he sent me an interesting email with a few photographs. They lit a bright fire in the small-stream-addiction-centre somewhere deep in my brain, and if you are similarly small-stream addicted, hold onto your socks right now!

Says Nick...

It’s feeling very Autumnal here, but some reasonably warm weather got me away from rods and renovations with my mate Troy to try for an Australian 'mini-Grand Slam'; rainbow, brook and brown trout. We started out with rainbows and brookies.

Targeting wild rainbows and brookies...

There were plenty of rainbows and Troy got a handful of brookies, but it took a few hours for me to get mine. I fished my Madake 4 piece, bamboo ferruled 6’3” #3 weight, while Troy fished his 7’3” Japanese “Naoto Shibuya Favourite” Glassmaster #3.

Then on the way back to Cooma we stopped at a tiny roadside creek for 20 minutes to catch a brown. Again, Troy got one in 2 casts but I missed a few chances before landing one.

Nick Taransky with the small stream rainbow...

We realised that a true grand slam needs 4 species, but that’s not really an option here on the mainland. So in the future, a diversion to a little dam on a tributary to catch a native galaxia minnow might be a cool thing to do.

Thanks, Nick for a lovely article and great images...

A different kind of fishing...

I fished with a bunch of well-known anglers recently in different circumstances. We were on two large ponds on the La Ferme Estate near Franschoek, at an event put on by Western Province Fly Fishing (WPFFA), hosted by disabled fly fishers Duggie Wessels and Mark Swartz.

Ponds at La Ferme near Franschoek

I have taken part in fly-fishing clinics for wheelchair-bound people on a number of occasions over the years, but this was different, in that us so-called 'able-bodied' anglers were also strictly confined to wheelchairs. We caught a few fish that, as you would imagine, were nowhere near as difficult to hook as they were uniformly difficult to land from a wheelchair. So it was a challenging and revealing spell of fishing where I discovered just how much I take my own mobility for granted.

I now have added admiration for people in wheelchairs which, I guess, was the point of the exercise to begin with, and I was left with the strong feeling that it would be good to see more fly-fishing venues offering disabled people appropriate access, throughout South Africa.

Duggie Wessels is the WPFFA coordinator for disabled fly fishers. He is on 0827753180, or at duggiewessels@gmail.com should you have any ideas on how to help him.

'Doing nothing for others is the undoing of ourselves.'
― Horace Mann.

Matching the Minnow by Ed Herbst – Streamers for yellowfish?

Writing ‘Matching the Hatch’ saw a young university student, Ernest Schweibert, join the pantheon of fly-fishing greats, but by serendipitous accident I discovered that a similarly analytical approach to imitation and selectivity is being used here in South Africa – but with minnows.

But to get back to my story. At the beginning of the year, my friend, Andrew Ingram, was planning a winter trip to fish the Orange River in the Richtersveld and I decided to tie some flies for him in anticipation of the trip.

A typical fly fishers’ camp on the Orange River in the Richtersveld. Photo by M C Coetzer

MC Coetzer, one of the country’s leading competition fly fishers, has often fished the area so I approached him for advice on what nymphs to use because Czech-nymphing the rapids can provide days when dozens of yellowfish are caught.
His answer surprised me. He said,

‘The fish in the Richtersveld are not picky at all. It’s generally more a question of finding them as some rapids are devoid of fish while others are jam-packed with them.
‘After my last two trips I have switched to fishing streamers for large- and smallmouth yellowfish. A 6-wt rod with an intermediate line, and black, tan or grey streamer patterns, works extremely well. This avoids the smaller fish and you will still end up with 20-plus fish a day.’

M C Coetzer with a typical yellowfish from the Orange River which separates South Africa and Namibia.

Alan Hobson, one of the country’s most innovative fly designers, guides lucky anglers to stellar fly fishing for trout, yellowfish, bass and barbel in beautiful surroundings from his Angler & Antelope guest house in Somerset East.

His research on the role played by predacious diving beetles and snails in the fish diet in his home waters saw him featured in a recent edition of The Mission magazine.

When I approached him for advice on streamers for Andrew Ingram’s trip to the Orange River, I discovered that he has adopted a similarly analytical approach when it comes to imitating our indigenous minnows.

His journey started when a guest gave him a poster produced by a Knysna company, Korckposters, which produces big and beautiful natural history posters.

Alan Hobson with the minnow chart in his Somerset East fly fishing shop, the poster which started him on his ‘Match the Minnow’ journey was Freshwater Fishes of Southern Africa – the Smaller Species.

He found that there is a significant colour range within a single minnow species depending on the water conditions it is found in. Alan says,

‘My minnow patterns originate from either catching minnows at an actual venue, or observing what I see at the water's edge and then using the appropriate materials to match the hatch – shape, size, colour and movement. It is actually a lot more difficult than it looks.

'The Chubby Head Barb is very prevalent in many waters throughout South Africa. What is interesting is how the colours vary from water to water. For example, the Chubby Head Barb in Somerset East - DSCF 5757 on the poster - differs enormously from of the same minnow species found in the Winterberg waters.

'The more the water colour looks like rooibos tea with milk, the more silver the minnow appears and, in the Winterberg, where the water is dark brown, the minnow is more golden.

‘The same phenomenon is found in the Orange River system, with the Orange Fin Barb and the Namaqua Barb.

‘These area-related minnow patterns definitely excite largemouth yellows and bigger trout.

‘The internet’s ‘Global Village’ enables people from all over the world to order my bespoke patterns. I receive a lot of orders for the customised patterns from anglers doing trips to the Richtersveld, Van der Kloof dam, KZN waters and our trophy Eastern Cape waters and have the flies couriered door to door.’

Alan Hobson’s Chubby Head Barb imitation for Thrift Dam, a legendary large trout venue in the Eastern Cape.

The Chubby Head Barb

There are subtle material and design differences between Alan’s imitations of the Chubby Head Barb (above) and the Namib Barb (below) which is prolific in the Orange River in the Richtersveld.

The Namib Barb

Matching the Minnow – the Eastern Cape Redfin which is common in rivers and dams close to Somerset East

One of the staples in the diet of both yellowfish and trout in South Africa is the tadpole of the African Clawed Frog – known colloquially as the ‘Platanna’ – and Alan’s HOT Fly (‘Hobson’s Original Tadpole’) is a justifiably legendary imitation. He is now selling an articulated version which is receiving excellent reviews.

The articulated version of Alan Hobson’s Platanna Tadpole imitation

Another veteran Richtersveld visitor is Richard Wale who, with his partners, bought the Upstream shop from John Yelland and moved it to new premises in Main Road, Kenilworth in Cape Town.

Richard Wale (left) and Andrew Apsey outside the new premises of Upstream in Kenilworth, Cape Town

Richard says that gold materials have proven particularly effective on the Orange River yellowfish and the way he incorporates dumbbell eyes into his streamer is innovative. These flies are available from Upstream as custom ties.

Richard Wale’s Zonker for the Richtersveld yellowfish features gold materials and an innovative way of weighting the fly.

My own contribution to Andrew Ingram’s trip to the Richersveld was designed for largemouth yellowfish, which is a 'wait-and-ambush' predator. It was based on the smaller version of the Mangum Dragon Tail which has exceptional movement in the water.

I tied it on a #6 Hanak H950 BL streamer hook and, between the tail material and the dumbbell eyes, I palmered in some Zonker fur trapped in a dubbing loop of 12/0 Nanosilk thread. I tied some foam rubber beneath the tail to stop it from wrapping around the hook.

The author’s Mangum Tail streamer which targets largemouth yellowfish.

MC Coetzer pointed out another advantage of fishing a streamer down and across rather that high-sticking a heavily-weighted nymph in the rapids is that it is not as tiring as constantly wading against the current.

Sadly, the Orange River was in spate when Andrew got there and the water was too high and too swift to fish safely. This was a useful reconnaissance trip however and he is planning another trip in spring.

Thanks, Ed for a delightful piece, as always, from South Africa's supreme investigative fly fisher!

Tom Sutcliffe

JULY 2019 NEWSLETTER

2019-07-05T00:00:00+00:00

The July 2019 Spirit of Fly Fishing Newsletter.

Tim Rolston

I recently attended a fly-tying function hosted by the Cape Piscatorial Society (CPS) organised by Mission Magazine's Tudor Caradock-Davies (editor) and Conrad Botha (editor at large) and fly tyer, Gordon Van der Spuy, to celebrate the recovery of a South African fly-fishing notable, Tim Rolston and to raise funds to help him cope with his medical costs. He had a serious brush with pneumonia that kept him in hospital, and off work obviously, for over a month. When he's fit he's one of this country's premier fly-fishing guides, fly tyers and authors. See Tim Rolston.

Vice-president of the CPS, Tony Biggs with Chris Bladen (sculptor) and Gordon Van Der Spuy (fly tyer) in the CPS club rooms.

At the function were the President and Vice-president of this august society, Ed Herbst and Tony Biggs. Tony is the inventor, if that's ever the right word for it, of the now legendary South Africa dry fly, the RAB.

A typical (high-water) RAB

Ed Herbst I choose to think of, at least when it comes to fly patterns, as the inventor of Ed's Hopper and, of course, many micro- ant and beetle imitations. All enduring patterns.

Ed's Hopper in situ!

I will be auctioning an artwork through Mission Magazine to help support Tim. It's the original art used in Chapter 1 of Yet More Sweet Days, a large piece in pen and ink on art paper, 40 x 26 cms.

If you are interested in making a bid please drop me at this email.

There’s this nice little stream called the Lima...

Jay Lee writes of some Italian fly fishing he recently did.

Last week I was on a family vacation in Lucca, Tuscany, Italy, for a week.
During family vacations I usually don’t bring my fishing gear but this vacation I was allowed.

There’s this nice little stream called the Lima near the town of Bagni di Lucca.

Didn’t bring bamboo this time. I wanted a very packable rod to keep the luggage light so I chose the four piece 7ft #4 fibreglass rod.

Fishing consisted of just one morning until around 1 PM. A local fisherman was so kind to show me the Lima.
Weather was gorgeous, scenery is amazing, wild browns in a stream that mesmerized.

We did the regular visits to the famous spots in Tuscany like the tower of Pisa, the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.
Early July I have a short fishing trip planned to the Spanish Pyrenees. Unusual lot of fishing for me this season – grin.

Best, Jay.

From Michiel Hendrix writes from Scotland...
Says Michiel

A couple of weekends ago I joined a group at Middleton-in-Teesdale on the upper reaches of the River Tees, in the North Pennines, the western part County Durham.

It’s a beautiful place, and the river is great for both trout and grayling. We ran a casting instruction course for a small group wanting to learn the Italian Casting Style, and had some great fishing as well. After dinner that night we fished till darkness at about 10:30 pm. Though we all caught and landed some fish, both trout and grayling, the fishing was a little disappointing. The insect hatch was copious enough, but the quality dry fly fishing we hoped for didn’t materialise.

The next day, as the weather was very settled, we decided to head upstream to the Widdybank beat, in the Upper Teesdale National Nature Reserve. This is fairly elevated and exposed moorland and can get very blustery. The river there is fantastic dry fly water, fast-flowing, lots of boulders making for a lot of pocket water, with some flatter parts; very challenging nymph fishing because the river bottom is all boulders from small to large. This also makes it a bit more interesting to wade. If one was a Tenkara artist, this place would be heaven. I had a very happy day, with a decent bag of small, feisty wild brown trout.

Quotes of the month...

'...buying a fly rod in the average city store, that is, joining it up and safely waggling it a bit, is much like seeing a woman's arm protruding from a car window: all one can readily be sure of is that the window is open.'

Anatomy of a Fisherman by Robert Traver. (Traver wrote two notable angling classics, Trout Madness and Trout Magic.)

'The finest gift you can give to any fisherman is to put a good fish back; and who knows if the fish that you caught isn't someone else's gift to you?'
-Lee Wulff

Lee Wulff on a visit to South Africa in November 1989at the invitation of FOSAF, with Ian Lehr (then CPS Chairman, left) and Dr Willie Van Niekerk (then Chairman of the Council of Provinces, right). He is pictured here at a dinner given in his honour at the Groote Schuur Estate, Cape Town on 3 November. The party of FOSAF guests also included Joan Wulff and Gary Borger, and from the UK, Taff Price and Peter Cockwill.

A temporary chaos comes with the arrival of a new book...

The eye of the storm has passed. I can live a semi-normal life again, but there was a time of great chaos and clutter after the printers dropped off a few copies of my new book, Yet More Sweet Days, at my home. The arrival of the books occasioned a hectic two-week-long routine of responding to emails, filling in courier forms, wrapping books, folding cardboard boxes, all the while navigating for free space in the clutter that was once a sacred place, my sanctuary for reclusive escape, my study.

The clutter that was once my study – Steve Boshoff photograph

Addressing orders has gone smoothly enough, but here and there I hit a few bumps. One such bump was the order I got from one Carlos, a fly fisher who lives in a rural Western Cape town. He ordered a leather-bound limited edition, but in error I posted him a soft-cover. He sent a concerned email pointing out my error; I confessed; told him to keep the book (he paid for it anyway). Then in the brief space of a couple of days I repeated the same mistake. I sent him a soft-cover book, again; not once, but twice more !

He naturally got twitchy about ever receiving a limited edition, had the courtesy to stay relatively calm in our email exchanges, if, reading between the lines, a little dubious and concerned. So when it finally came to posting his leather-bound edition, I labelled the package as in the image below - just to lift his pulse rate a little. It did! (Carlos took the picture.)

Mentioned in dispatches...

Greg Carstens sent the photograph below of his son, Jason, with a decent fish from a late season Sterkspruit, saying, 'I was up in our favourite place just a week or so ago and the fishing was the best it’s ever been!'
(By 'our favourite place,' he means the Rhodes-Barkly-East area.)

Dave Lambroughton of Armstrong, British Columbia, sent this recent catch, a lovely steelhead taken on a Moose Hair Skater.

A tub of Dave's Moose Hair Skaters

Dave is a professional photographer specialising in fly-fishing scenes and he produces a wonderful calendar. If you are interested in a 2020 Lambroughton calendar, email Dave at Dave Lambroughton. It's going to be $18.

From Dr Vanessa Trewick, Norfolk UK
says Vanessa fishing an East Anglian chalkstream:

The DDD proved a winner again last week (it’s been too hot to fish this week - Norfolk has been basking in 32 degree heat), this time in natural livery....I have attached a photo of the trout...a lovely wild brown hen....safely released to fight another day.

Ed Herbst writes about some new innovations in fly tying:
When I started fly fishing in the early 1980s, Cape Town had only one shop catering for our needs, Lemkus Sports at the bottom of Adderly Street.
There you could buy a small range of flies from the garish Mountain Swallow to the very effective Caribou Spider and, if you had the money, fibreglass rods like the Hardy Jet.

That changed when Roger Baert acquired the Orvis agency for South Africa and opened 'The Flyfisherman' in Pietermaritzburg in 1982.
For fly tyers, the arrival of the annual Orvis fly tying catalogue was like Christmas for a child. Sadly, Orvis is no longer represented in South Africa, but whenever Morne Bayman at the online fly tying shop African Fly Angler puts in an order from the huge Hareline or Veniard catalogues, I order what I need.
John Geils says the Wapsi and Semperfli products will be loaded on the Xplorer website within a fortnight.

Hareline has a huge inventory and what I found most interesting in my latest order are the Ahrex FW 506/507 and FEW 516/517 midge hooks and the new Solarez colour UV light-cured resins.

The Ahrex midge hooks have a bigger-than-usual eye but, unlike the Daiichi 1110 dry fly hook (which is based on an Orvis patent) they are made of slightly heavier wire and have a wider gape.

This will make them ideal for the micro-patterns that Alan Hobson is, with increasing success, using for trout on the Mountain Dam in Somerset East and the yellowfish which he is catching in significant numbers on these tiny flies at the Sterkfontein Dam near Harrismith.

Alan Hobson’s micro-pattern imitating an adult chironomid

Alan Hobson with a trout that took a #22 midge on the Mountain Dam in Somerset East

In last month’s newsletter I wrote about mixing clear Solarez resins with Wilson & Maclagan glitter dust which comes in colours such as red, orange, black and green and is available from craft shops such as PnA.

Well, the new Solarez colour range includes Topaz Sparkle and Copper Shimmer which incorporates minute specks of glitter. I use the Solarez Copper Shimmer as a sighter on my Veniard Ultra Ant bodies and coat the underside of the fly with Solarez black resin mixed with black glitter dust.

A blood worm imitation which uses no thread. The red wire rib is ultrafine Semperfli, the bead is a Toho 15/0 silver-lined red bead and the fly is coated with fluo red Solarez resin mixed with orange glitter dust.

The principle is not new, nail polish manufacturers such as Sally Hansen's Top Coat Megashine also has these embedded specks - but it takes longer to dry.

The author’s version of Pat Dorsey’s Mercury Black Magic.

The first layer is Loon Fluorescing resin mixed with black glitter dust. The second layer is Solarez Topaz Sparkle which contains minute blue specks. The bead is a 15/0 Toho silver-lined grey and the hook is a #20 Dohiku 302

The author’s Mercury Black Magic under UV light which shows up the embedded black glitter dust.

A Veniard foam body ant using Solarez Copper Shimmer as highly-visible and light-reflecting sighter. The hook is a #16 Dohiku 303

The best UV torches on the market at the moment, in my opinion, are the Loon Infiniti and the Semperfli because not only are they powerful but they can be charged through the USB port on your computer. The Semperfli torch does not need a separate charging cable and has a hooded lens. On smaller flies this means that you can cover the fly with the torch and your eyes are not exposed to the light. Its beam is not as bright as the Loon model, although I doubt this makes any difference to curing time. Both are available through Xplorer in Durban.

The author’s Semperfli torch being charged from his computer

Alan has brought to my attention that the Czech fly fishing company, Hends, has a representative, Hansie Meyer, in South Africa. Hends played a role in the evolution of the Czech-nymph technique more than a decade ago and their fine lead wire is in a class of its own.

Hansie, of CMF Fly Fishing sent me some Hends Synton thread which is probably a 17/0 and consists of two very fine threads in parallel.

8 Hansie Meyer, the Hends representative in South Africa

The bobbin spool is smaller than normal so I invested in a C&F Midge bobbin from Frontier Fly Fishing which, like my favourite TMC bobbin, is exemplary in design and finish.

Hends Synton thread and the beautifully finished C&F bobbin holder

Hends Synton has long been a favourite of micro-pattern tyers in Europe and, having a dual thread, is ideal for split-thread CDC patterns.
Even thinner is 20 denier Uni-Caenis, available from Morne Bayman at the African Fly Angler, which I demonstrated at last week’s fly tying function held at the Cape Piscatorial Society to help Tim Rolston defray his recent medical expenses.

As I pointed out, because it is so thin, you will break it sooner or later but, unlike thicker threads, it does not unravel on the fly and you simply start again.
Rubber leg threaders have been around in various forms for a number of years. There’s the Zuddy’s Leg Puller and the small threader made locally by Jay Smith in Durban.

Now Craig Thom of Stream-X in Milnerton, Cape Town has come up with an innovative and inexpensive leg puller.

From left, the Zuddy’s Leg Puller, the JVice model, Craig Thom’s new creation and the C&F threader

But there is another way as I discovered when I came across this video which shows a bobbin threader being used to insert a sighter into a foam rubber beetle pattern. The threader with the thinnest wire is the C&F model which I got from Frontier Fly Fishing.

Tom Sutcliffe

AUGUST 2019 NEWSLETTER

2019-07-05T10:00:00+00:00

Spirit of Fly Fishing Newsletter August 2019

Signing books...

Last weekend was strangely hot in Johannesburg, given that it's supposed to be mid-winter up there when Highveld evenings, as I remember them from my youth anyway, are shivering cold and daytime sunshine always feels like some heaven-sent blessing. In fact, basking in pools of sunlight like a somnolent rock rabbit is something I remember fondly from the winters of my Highveld youth.

Not so this last weekend. It was just plain hot – night and day. Global warming maybe? I don't know.

The purpose of my visit to Johannesburg was to sign copies ofYet More Sweet Daysat the Frontier Fly Fishing store in Bryanston, where I was the guest of the owners, Tom Lewin and Dean Riphagen. They had piled books on a table inside the store and outside they laid on fresh coffee and muffins. We stayed busy from 8:30 to 2:00, when I left to take a plane home from Lanseria.

The book signing was a success, if only, as Tom Lewin later remarked, in that we had managed to dodge John Gierach's amusing take on a book signing he once did where only two people approached his table all morning, one of them to ask if the toilet was out the back.

I met like-minded folk as you would expect, who uniformly made me feel a lot more important than I really am, although this, I now sense, is more the sort of reverence reserved for the older members of society than the simple reverence rightfully deserving of anyone with life's equivalent of a full-colours blazer for fly fishing.

Among the many interesting folk I chatted to wereMarlon Nair, fly fishing's ultimate enthusiast; my friendAndrew Levy, author ofReflections On The River, who would make a fine professor of fly-fishing at a prestigious American university, like Yale or Harvard;Petrus Gouwswhose whole world is wrapped in high-end medical science, guitars, music and fly fishing (and not necessarily in that order);Roy Furywho I last saw when we played as schoolboys in a Transvaal Nuffield cricket trials (which we worked out was in 1959 when he was the most feared fast bowler around and had the surname to go with it); andKen Quick(there's another appropriate name for a fast bowler), who asked me to sign his books and then casually showed me the most impressive micro-patterns I have seen in a long while. He ties them with a neat quill body, a post and a parachute hackle, right down to size 32! That's the size of a match head!.(See below.)

And then there wasNikki Lewin, the ever-patient wife of her bamboo-berserk husband, Tom, both good people to share time with. There were others, but editorial space and reader-tolerance have limits.

Ken Quick's size 32 dry fly pattern

Hook: TMC 518 #32,
thread: UNI-Caenis 20 denier,
tail: Spanish CDL,
abdomen: dyed peacock herl tip,
hackle: Whiting from the top of the neck,
post: TMC Aero Wing,
dubbing: 2 strandsHendsIce Dub in peacock.

What could go wrong...?

On the Friday evening before the book signing I held a fly-tying demo for a small group of Johannesburg and Pretoria-based tiers at a venue in my old school, St Stithians College, and predictably tied two of my own patterns, the Zak and the DDD, and then a high-water version of Tony Biggs' iconic RAB.

Tony Biggs' RAB (at least, my high water variants of it), with grizzly wings (above) and honey dun wings (below).

I knew there would be some skilled tiers in the audience (for a start, JP Gouws of Catskill school of dry flies fame was there), and, probably as a result, I had the disquieting feeling something would go wrong, which it did. First, in the middle of tying the DDD the hook suddenly sprung out of the vice with a loudping; and then as I was about to wind a hackle on the RAB one of its spent-wings mysteriously fell off. You can't write a script for things like this, except to say you can bet good money on something going wrong when you demo anything to a bunch of discerning cognoscenti?

Here they are:

Denise van Wyk; Self; Michiel van Rooy; Don Mc Lennon
Back Row: Peter Dilley; Alan Weakley; JP Gouws; Martin Rudman; Brett James Beattie; Alistair Franks. (Photograph by Darren Fowler).

Lest we confound future historians about the RAB dry fly, understand, please, that 'it depends...'

During the tying of the RAB, JP Gouws happened to ask when Tony Biggs winged his RABs and I answered,'Itdepended', which was a way of saying that although Tony and I fished together for more than a few years, I really didn't know, or worse, couldn't remember. It worried me a bit, though, so when I got back to Cape Town I called Tony to ask him when exactly he did, or if you like did not, wing his RABs, and he replied, after some thought, 'Well, Tom,that depended.'
I'm not making it up.

Of course, the exception would be when we fished in a rare fall of large mayfly spinners that the Holsloot River was known for. The adults were a speckled slate-grey with particularly long wings and often a bright yellow egg sack.

Tony also reminded me that there is no such thing astheRAB. Rather the RAB is atypeof dry fly that evolved into a pattern with many guises that is always at once impressionistic, untidy, long-tailed, long-legged, long-hackled, full of movement, as light as thistledown, aVarianttype dry fly combining any of mainly two hackles, from red, through black, brown, white, dun or badger – whatever was at hand and suitably long-fibred – and whether you winged them or not, well, thatdepended.

Then, yesterday, at the Cape Piscatorial Society Conclave held in the Kelvin Grove Club pavilion in Cape Town, Ed Herbst, Tony Biggs and I were on stage for an hour or so to answer member's questions. (You will read more on this below). At the conclave Tony outlined the origins of the RAB and described his earliest prototypes (from the 1960s) as being tied with red thread (no bobbin holder; he never used a bobbin holder all his tying life), a tail of three to 12 wisps of stiff white cock hackle, a stripped peacock herl abdomen, two or three turns of red, ginger or brown cock hackle at the back, a white spade hackle upfront and Egyptian Goose primary fibres for legs. (He later threw these out as too rigid and heavy). They were wonderful flies. I know. I stole hundreds from him.
The best illustration of the 'original RAB, and the most valuable historically, is to be found on page 42 ofSouth African Fishing Fliesby Peter Brigg and Ed Herbst, which I include below. (I find this a most important reference book by the way.)

The original RAB. 'Look, Ma, no wings!' from page 42 'South African Fishing Flies'

RABs tied by Tony Biggs (above and below) and photographed by Stephen Dugmore. Note the variation in hackle colour and the ultra-long wings.

A certain elegance and an unmistakable pedigree...

On the morning of the book signing Dean Riphagen gently dropped a few no-hackle dry flies on my table,all elegant and delicate, all tiny, all in naturally muted colours and tied in thatperfect proportional harmonythat left no question as to their high-end pedigrees. They looked like they were about to hatch and fly off the table.

They included a Pale Morning Dun (PMD), a Mahogany Dun, a Flav (Lesser Green Drake), a Callibaetis and a Trico, all tied variously in sizes 16 through 20 I'd guess. They were from Rene Harrop of Henry's Fork fame. Dry fly tying just does not get much better than this. My view anyway.

The No-hackle Callibaetis, Mahogany Dun and Pale Morning Dun (PMD).

Rene Harrop, an angler I have always admired, has had lifelong ties with the Henry's Fork River, often known, and for good reason, as the Graduate School of Fly Fishing.More about this later.

From Clem Booth in London
Clem says

I had a lovely day on the Itchen on Friday. The same stretch fished by Lord Grey of Fallodon. As much as I fish these chalkstreams, the sense of history never leaves really. I left my camera at home so the images below are with the iPhone. Decent quality although using an iPhone is clunky in practice; I much prefer a “proper” camera.

Some magnificent grayling and the odd trout too, so a good day!

From Alex Hathorn

I’m heading off on Tuesday for a week on Kiritimati Island (Christmas Island – CXI) wading the flats chasing lots of bonefish, and hopefully trigger fish and maybe a giant trevally. Quite topically, I’ve filled up my tropical fly box for the trip and confess to using copious amounts of indispensable, clear, hard Solarez in the process. It protects the flies from hard mouths and abrasive coral as well as making the colours “pop”.

Here is a photo of the one hundred or so Gotchas, Christmas Island Specials and Chilli Peppers that I take along in a wide variety of weights and sizes, not to mention another similar fly box packed with GT brush flies, small Clousers, shrimps and crabs.

California Golden Trout

The State fish of California, the California Golden Trout, once occupied about 450 miles of stream habitat in the upper South Fork of the Kern River and the adjacent Golden Trout Creek. Currently, it is native only to two high-altitude watersheds in California’s rugged Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Formerly called theVolcano Creek Golden Trout, this is one of the most colourful trout in the world.

California Golden Trout caught by Ian Douglas from a tiny creek in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and Ian seen fishing this creek below.

These fish are found at elevations from 6,800 feet (2,100 m) to 10,000 feet (3,000 m) above sea level. They are a threatened species and in 1978 the Golden Trout Wilderness was established within Inyo National Forest and Sequoia National Forest, protecting the upper watersheds of the Kern River and South Fork of the Kern River.

(I include this trout, and will be including other subspecies of trout in newsletters to come, as I am studying the species, subspecies and strains of salmonids thatmay havemade their way to South Africa from Europe and the United States. The California Golden Trout was not one of them – at least as far as I can tell.)
Brent Flack-Davison at brentfd@gmail.com
Says Brent

I have five Sage rods for sale. With a 14 month old, I don't have as much time to fish anymore and sadly they are just gathering dust - these rods deserve a better home.
All the rods come with bags and original tubes.
Sage ONE #6 – R6600. Sage SALT #9 – R6600. Sage Xi3 #10 – R6600. Sage Xi3 #11 (extended cork) -R6750

Tom Burgers

Tom Burgers

I was sad to hear from Tony Biggs that our friend Tom Burgers had passed away, a gently-paced fly fisher, wine connoisseur, would-be trombonist, writer and professional photographer who lived a creative life well into his 80s.

Tom Burgers on the Smalblaar River circa the late '60s (Tom Sutcliffe photograph.)

I first got to know Tom on the Cape streams, mainly the Smalblaar River, in the late '60s and early '70s, and even back then he was not so much out to catch the Smalblaar's unsuspecting trout on dry fly as to capture its imposing grandeur on celluloid – with John Beams as a central figure in most of his compositions. They were lifelong friends. I was lucky enough to use one of his photographs on the cover of the first editionHunting Trout;John fishing in late afternoon light on the Smalblaar. A more evocative photograph of this beautiful trout stream I have yet to see.

The cover of the first edition of Hunting Trout by Tom Burgers

Later in his life, through the 80s and early 90s, Tom made regular trips to KZN to fish the lakes in the Impendle district above the Dargle Valley, especially the legendaryOld Damwhere his modest rigs – sinking line, level leader, Red Setter or Walker's Killer – produced enough trout to keep him a convert. One of those fish, at least, was memorable, a hen rainbow of 8 pounds, taken back when theOld Dam'srainbows often shaded nine pounds at just over two years old.

So Tom became known, at least in our circles, not so much for his angling skills as for his devotion to atmospheric studies of fly fishing in its rich variety of moods and occasions. He was an accomplished author, writing and illustrating two books on the Karroo, both photographic essays,The Cedar People,centred around the greater Cederberg area, andKarroo Pastoral,published in 2010, a ballad of words and images on the Karroo that Philip Todres described in a review as '... capturing Tom's love of the silence and timeless moments, the tremendous contrasts and the authenticity of the Karoo environment. '

From his book, The Cedar People

South Africa has produced exceptional photographers, the likes of David Goldblatt, Sam Haskins, and Alf Kumalo, but as a landscape and mood photographer, Tom Burgers was never out of place in their company. His love of fly fishing was not so much for the pure sake of fly fishing, as for the beauty he saw surrounding it.

Flies sold for R5000...

A bid of R5000 got Trevor Freestone a framed set of flies tied by Tony Biggs, myself and Ed Herbst. The flies were auctioned in aid of funds for theHaenertsburg Trout Association. The HTA, one of the oldest fly fishing clubs in South Africa, has rights on two streams, the Broederstroom and the Helpmekaar, and on seven pristine stillwaters.

Peter Bradfield, HTA Chairman, Trevor Freestone, and Giordano (Zamps) Zamparini.

The Broederstroom and a brown trout from it.

The Cape Piscatorial Society Conclave

As I said this function was held in the Kelvin Grove Club pavilion in Cape Town. We came in on a presentation by Garth Niewenhuis (Protea team fly fisher) on Euro-nymphing that was fascinatingly technical but lucid and logical and I am glad I didn't miss a word of it, if only to remind myself of the sage adage, 'Close your eyes and the world moves on'.

There was a late afternoon slot with Ed Herbst, Tony Biggs and myself, who variously hold positions of President (Ed Herbst) and Vice-President (Tony and myself) of the CPS.' It was an informal Reddit-style AMA (Ask Me Anything), and we were tasked with fielding questions from the audience on fly-fishing related topics, such as, 'Where have you poached the most?', that sort of thing. It was fun.

Finally, on graduate schools of fly fishing ...

On the matter of theHenry's Fork Graduate School of Fly Fishing, just to let Tom Lewin and Dean Riphagen know that there is an equally prestigious department of fly fishing, apostgraduate facultyno less, situated on the banks of the Upper Itchen in Hampshire. Former alumni include Harry Plunket Greene, WM Halford, George Marryat, James Mottram, GEM Skues, Frank Sawyer, Dermot Wilson and, of course, Oliver Kite.

Faculty buildings, Stoke Mill Campus, Upper-Itchen Postgraduate Faculty of Fly Fishing.(Tom Sutcliffe photograph.)

A typical classroom.

A typical subject!

Appreciations

Many thanks to the boys atFrontiers, Dean Riphagen, Tom Lewin, Mike McKeown and Keegan Finlayson for hosting the book signing in their accustomed professional way, and my appreciations also to all who attended.

My thanks to Denise Van Wyk (JacarandaFly Fishing Club) and JP Gouws (Fly Crew, Benoni) for the fly-tying evening's arrangements. A thank you toSt Stithians College, and to staff member Alistair Stewart, for providing an outstanding venue for the fly-tying evening.

Thanks to theCape Piscatorial SocietyCommittee, (with a special mention for Tudor Caradoc Davies), for inviting us three senior members of council to bring our great collective wisdoms to the broadest attention and benefit of

Next week I am fishing a stream with my buddy Robin Douglas and will report on it in my September newsletter.

Of interest, there are now nearly 2500 subscribers to this newsletter that began in 2012 and goes to 16 countries around the world.

Tom Sutcliffe

September 2019 Newsletter

2019-07-05T11:00:00+00:00

Thank you Alan. Are you in the UK now?

Best regards Tom

From: Alan Hatton [mailto:aehdullies@gmail.com]
Sent: 29 September 2019 04:33 PM
To: Tom Sutcliffe
Subject: Re: Fly-Fishing Newsletter September 2019

Thanks Tom ....... your newsletters are a delight. Especially as we get into mid-Autumn here with blustery wet weather abounding

Kind Regards

Alan Hatton

On Sun, 29 Sep 2019 at 12:27, Tom Sutcliffe <sutcliffe@mweb.co.za> wrote:

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SPIRIT of FLY-FISHING NEWSLETTER for SEPTEMBER 2019

Opening the season with slow, studied care...

Robin Douglas Opening Day, Lourens Stream 2019

The day was pleasantly warm, almost breathless, the fishing relaxed, the water just fine, the trout roughly where you'd expect them to be, in the plumpest parts of the better runs, which on small mountain streams can contrarily suggest they aren't on the feed. Or at least suggest they are not strongly on the feed, when they move out of primary lies to hunt hatching bugs in secondary lies, and on small streams these are often in the unlikeliest, shallowest places. This is not one of the immutable laws of the Medes and Persians, of course; nothing in fly fishing ever is. But it strongly points to the need for slow-paced, heron-like approaches on all clear-flowing mountain streams. (Maybe the non-negotiable need for heron-like approaches should be one of the immutable laws of the Medes and the Persians.)

'Sitting out'– boldly on show in a secondary lie – Oh, so easily spooked! There's a lesson in this!

But we saw no bugs and the trout remained glued in primary lies, where they stayed more or less lukewarm to our drifting dry flies all day. The few we got were tiny, but then just as pretty and wild-looking as you'd expect on a stream like this.

As pretty and wild looking as you'd expect

I used my Tenkara rod – don't ask me why, perhaps for its simplicity, or its poetry, I'm not sure – and Robin Douglas fished his 2-wt Sage, which was more sensible. On a mainly bushy trickle like this a long rod – my Tenkara is over 11 ft – can feel like its purpose is to trim the leaves off high lying branches rather than drop dainty dry flies onto sweet little runs.

Bushy trickle

I don't think the patterns we used on the day mattered for much. Well, not as much as I always imagine they are going to matter when I sit down to tie them, all primed with entomology and quasi-river science and brimming with intent to high deception. The patterns I used – that is before they were variously treed or snapped off, and not on any big fish – included a Kite's Imperial (for nostalgia) and Peter Brigg's Spider (for bugginess and floatability), a marvellous pattern to imitate Wolf Spiders (Pardosa amentata, below), not uncommon on most streams.

Pete's Spider, a high-floating and very dependable imitation, especially on swift water

The Spider was easy to follow, even in the soda-bubbly water, though trout only took the fly when it had broken out of the swift white corrugations and settled into a sedate drift, as long as there wasn't any drag of course. Where, I wonder, do naive little stream-born trout learn about the dangers lurking in even the gentlest suggestion of drag? Is there some mysterious sub-aquatic College of Drag that we don't know about, with as many satellite campuses as there are wild trout streams, colleges that teach kindergarten fish the advanced principles of drag detection and bulletproof ways to outwit us? If so, they provide a fine education. And it's free.

Where do these fish go to college?

The valley was hot by the time we left the fishing, mid-afternoon, to wade downstream, back through the water we'd just fished, over slippery boulders with boot-trapping cervices that by the time we climbed out hot, scratched and flustered made me realise I am old. Not getting old. I am old. In my youth I moved around these streams like a dragonfly darts across over water. Now I nurse myself along them with slow, studied care and for the next few days I hobble around as if I'd made an ascent on the north face of the Eiger. But the sweet sense of anticipation I get on streams, the sudden surprise of a sipping trout, the pleasant drag of cold water around my legs, swallows sewing loops in the riverbank sky, all this atmosphere of the river lingers on like a beckoning drug and I long to be back, never mind the tortured joints, the creaking chassis. So Robin and I have made plans, as you might have expected, to fish again next week. This time I'll take my 2-weight Sage.

Of RABs in a light breeze on a warm summer's evening – and things they don't teach you in fly-tying books ...

A pinch of 'talking' Zaks tied for my friend Sharland

I looked down the other day on a dozen Zaks I'd tied for my good friend Sharland Urquhart, who has resolute faith in this pattern, and I swear they spoke to me.
What they said was this; 'With a little more practise you will get this right. But so far it isn't bad. At least we feel just untidy enough to be buggy; under- not over-dressed, properly segmented in the abdomen, dark enough in the thorax, suitably tailed (barred, long and wispy; certainly not a toilet brush) and we note that you paid respect to the fact that our progenitors, the noble family of the mayfly nymphs, have only six legs not sixty. Which isn't to say you can't improve; just that you're getting better'. That's what I heard.

It's not unusual, of course, for flies to take on a life of their own after tying, just like Pinocchio did when the Blue Fairy answered his woodcarver father Mastro Geppetto's wish upon a star.

And here's further proof of flies taking on a life after tying:

Tony Biggs, the inventor of that commendable dry fly pattern the RAB, once told me, without a hint of its improbability, that years ago he woke after a long night tying RABs – he did flies for a local tackle store for pin money – to find them all moving in a shoebox he had them in. He said he realised then that he'd cracked it. I've sometimes seen this myself with RABs, though trembling is perhaps a better word than actually 'moving', so that whenever you look at a clutch of them, good ones that is, they never seem still, seem restless. Some -- especially the winged ones – look like they will get up and fly off as soon as they get near a riverbank in a light breeze on a warm summer's evening.

A clutch of seemingly restless RABs

And even more proof:

I once asked Jimmy Eagleton, aka the Shark Man, what crab patterns he likes best and he said, 'The ones that crawl sideways out of my fly box when I open it'. See what I mean?

Of course, this is not something they teach you in fly-tying books, though they should if only to add an anthropomorphic dimension to the usual characteristics of imitation; shape, colour and size. Then when someone picks up a fly you tied, holds it up to examine it carefully against the light, and asks, 'Does it catch fish?', you can keep a straight face and say, 'Go ahead and ask it'.

Yours truthfully,

etc. etc.

The Cape Piscatorial Society Conclave

A function was held by the CPS in the Kelvin Grove pavilion in Cape Town last month with the late afternoon slot taken up by Ed Herbst, Tony Biggs and myself, respectively President (Ed Herbst) and Vice-Presidents (Tony and me). We were featured in an informal, Ask Me Anything, cluster interview with a wide audience of CPS members. I must say they all responded with tolerable patience to our rambling 'When we -' type answers.
Seen here in the hot seats:

Self, Biggs, Herbst. Photographer James Leech.

There's the very rare Apache Trout – then there's the rarest trout in the world ...

The Apache Trout (Oncorhynchus apache) is not quite as rare as its neighbouring cousin the Gila Trout. The Apache is found only in the headwaters of the White, Black and Little Colorado Rivers above 1700 metres in the White Mountains of Arizona where it is the State Fish. They are discretely spotted, have olive-brown backs and golden-yellow bellies touched with hues of lemon and blue. Once near extinction, they have been restored to much of their natural range and limited fishing for them is now allowed. Because they live in small streams, most only grow to around 12 inches, which no one complains about.

Apache Trout. ( TS Watercolour 2019).

Another rare trout also native to Arizona and to parts of New Mexico is the Gila Trout (Oncorhynchus gilae), possibly now the rarest trout in the world and limited only to the high-altitude headwaters of a single stream and its tiny tributaries, the Gila River near Phoenix, Arizona, which is not far from Las Vegas, just to orientate you. Habitat loss due to a variety of natural and human causes, including drought, climate change and wildfires that leave toxic ash deposits, drastically reduced the population of Gilas.

Map of the Gila River course

The Gila was once very much on the threatened species list back in the 1950s, when fishing for them was closed as they were all but non-existent. But the recent Gila story is one of challenges, triumphs, and cautious optimism. Conservation work using anything from pack mules with panniers filled with young trout, to helicopters dropping tanks of fish along remote streams, or people carrying in freshly fertilized trout eggs in backpacks, has improved the lot of Gila Trout, and the number of places where you now catch them in their native habitat has steadily grown. In 2011, after the herculean efforts to re-establish them, fishing was opened for the first time in half a century under special provisions called the 4-D rule, Wildlife America’s 10-year vision for their endangered species.

The Gila Trout. This golden-brown and yellow trout is sometimes referred to as the 'Sunset Trout'. (TS Watercolour.2019).

Not at all similar in colouring to the Apache, Gila Trout have smaller, more profuse spots than the Apache and parr marks along the sides in younger fish, while parr marks are absent or very rare in Apache Trout. The Gila also has a faint rose pink flash along the lateral line, again missing entirely from all life stages of Apache Trout. Their natural habitat is obviously also small streams, so like the Apache, they rarely grow to much more than 12 inches. Again, who's complaining? Today, only a handful of fly fishers have ever caught a native-born Gila, and sadly, I am not one of them.

Father's Day

A lovely gift just recently christened.

Blessed I am with thoughtful daughters and the notion of Father's Day!

My books
Signed and personalised copies of Yet More Sweet Days are available from and buyers a welcome to ask for a drawing on the opening page.
The book sells for R320 and the courier fee within South Africa is R80. You can order through my email address sutcliffe@mweb.co.za . I also have a few copies of The Elements of Fly Tying and Shadows on the Stream Bed which sell at R185. Hunting Trout is sold out but my publisher is giving thought to a reprinted 3rd edition in 2020.

Overseas buyers are welcome and quotes will be provided for either courier or postal services. I have a small stock of Yet More Sweet Days with my daughter in Perth.

My artwork

At present, I cannot take orders for my watercolours as I am busy with commissions. However, a few of the original art used to illustrate the pages in Yet More Sweet Days is still available. Please let me know what page of any artwork you're interested in getting.

Blasts from the past
John Beams, born in the UK in 1932, died in KZN in 1984, was a fiery character, very, very bright, tirelessly competitive, the creator of the Beams Woolly Worm, author of a useful booklet, Introducing Fly Fishing in South Africa, a great fly fisher and a great friend.I used to say if I had to fish for my life against anyone in South Africa I'd fear John Beams the most. He was very much the thinking angler.

In this photograph, he has coffee mugs decked atop a frozen water trough somewhere in the wintery Midlands of KZN. Note too, the flies on his lapel, something of a sartorial signature adopted by many anglers of the time. In the photograph below, Beams is fishing a pretty stretch of the Little Mooi River on the farm Stagstones in KZN.

Back on the streams – but with a twist...

There was an interesting twist to our second outing this week when Robin Douglas and I fished another clear mountain stream that we drop in on from time to time. The twist was that Robin announced he was going to fish a Kite's Imperial dry fly all day, and nothing else, come what may. Which he did. I thought it was risky. More about this to follow.

A traditional Kite's Imperial

We again had good weather, the stream was bubbling, the occasional trout took something off the surface, probably adult mayflies (I thought I'd spotted a dun drifting by just before a trout rose pretty near where I'd seen the bug), or maybe they were mopping up the last of a hatch of mountain midges, common enough on all our streams hereabouts. But rises were scarce and sporadic. I used a RAB, then a CDC and Elk tied by Gordon Van der Spuy, which caught fish, and then I changed to a One-feather CDC Midge for reasons not rooted in deep science, and got fish on that as well.

CDC and Elk by master tier Gordon Van der Spuy

Robin as he promised stuck to the Imperial and caught more than a few trout, even after the fly began to fall apart. It wasn't a traditional Imperial. He had no purple thread and no true honey-dun hackle, but I aim to fix that for him. I have supplies of both.

He fished this Imperial all day until it started to come apart. Note the neat thorax.

I suspect one particular fish will stay in his mind a long while, if not forever. In fact, he said as much. It went like this. We'd got to a pretty run with a belly of deeper water running through it and we nodded in agreement that it must hold a decent fish. Robin landed his bedraggled Imperial as light as a windblown dandelion seed and let the fly drift as free as a sailboat. A nice trout came up and hung under the fly for a few exquisite moments, at the same time neatly aligning itself so that the fly would drift precisely over its nose. How they do this so swiftly I don't know. The fish took the fly, leapt knee-high, then ran downstream like giant crabs were after it. It was a beautiful hen fish, a fin-perfect wild rainbow and the best fish of the day. We photographed it underwater, released it carefully, then offered up a toast to the late Oliver Kite. I hope he heard it.

Fin-perfect wild rainbow on the bedraggled Imperial

The last fish of the day conveniently rose under our noses just as we were leaving the stream and Robin took it – again first cast – to a minor round of applause from me.

Reading this, it might sound like we got 100 fish. Well, we didn't. In fact, I don't think we made much more than double figures. But it felt like 100 fish. It was that sort of day. The trout were suitably cautious, but not overly fastidious, every run seemed to hold promise and if some disappointed many more didn't. The fish weren't huge, but I have stopped making excuses for my devotion to small-stream trout no matter their size because they make up for it in so many ways, and, well, because catching big fish actually isn't the point of this kind of fishing.

Small stream trout. Not big, but they make up for it in so many ways.

We walked back to the truck through a garden of flowers scattered above the stream between the proteas and restio grasses.

Typical of the fynbos tapestry

There were stands of violet-coloured heather, blue sage, snow-white chincherinchee, scatterings of sulphur-yellow irises and daisies, the typical fynbos tapestry of an unspoiled Cape stream in springtime. My friend Taffy Walters once said of the Bushman's River in KZN that its banks were 'blushing with flowers'. You can't improve on that.

The Bushman's River 'blushing' with flowers

How to catch trout in Rhodes...

The Old Iron Bridge

...a view over three different trout streams in a single glance...

When I next arrive at the Old Iron Bridge that spans the Kraai River between Rhodes and Barkly East up in the Eastern Cape Highlands, a bridge that offers a view over three different trout streams in a single glance (the Bell to your left, the Sterkspruit to your right and the Kraai River right under your feet), I am going to walk out to the middle of that famous bridge, lean over its railings and pay homage to the River Gods in the hope that it helps. The homage I have written goes as follows;

River Gods, O' River Gods, view me with pity,
I am wearily-travelled from a far-distant city,
So bless me please with a few of your trout,
All pretty enough to write home about.'

So ends my lesson for the month.

Tom Sutcliffe

The Spirit of Fly Fishing

7 Evergreen Ave

Newlands

Cape Town, Western Cape 7700

South Africa

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DECEMBER 2019 FLY-FISHING NEWSLETTER

2019-07-07T00:00:00+00:00