As we were going to print with this issue, news broke that Cape Nature in all their infinite wisdom, foresight, care and planning, had just informed the Cape Piscatorial Society (CPS), mere days before the Cape trout stream season opened, that they would be cancelling the MOU between the two organisations. Just like that, decades of collaborations and partnership (donations, river clean-ups, security and Working on Water assistance etc) to care for and manage the rivers in the Limietberg, were gone in a puff of smoke. Zero actual consultation. No negotiation. No compromise. No collaboration towards some kind of shared solution.

“Cape Nature scientists will get a pat on the head for fulfilling their bio-diversity mandate, something they could have done in hundreds of other Western Cape streams and left these four alone.”

The main reason will no doubt be given that trout are an invasive species and they should be eradicated. As anyone familiar with these waters knows, these fish have essentially been stuck there for over a hundred years – they are not invading anything. They cannot take the hotter temperatures downstream and cannot move any further upstream. And eradicating them from these rivers altogether is basically impossible unless you want to poison the entire system, something I doubt Cape Nature really want to do. If Cape Nature were coming with an alternative plan to stock the area’s original indigenous species like witvis (that grow bigger than river trout in the Western Cape, and eat dries, nymphs and streamers), then I seriously doubt any angler would have a problem seeing the rivers shared by the two species, just as European rivers sport both trout and grayling. But that is not the messaging. Aloof and unavailable (it took the CPS months just to get a meeting), their vibe so far is simply, “Bye, you are out.”

SHOP THE MISSION

All this incredibly short-sighted move will achieve, is loss, confusion and animosity. Cape Nature scientists will get a pat on the head for fulfilling their bio-diversity mandate, something they could have done in hundreds of other Western Cape streams and left these four alone. Meanwhile the thousands of people affiliated with the Cape Piscatorial Society (current members, past member, family and friends), will likely see Cape Nature in a negative light and by association the Democratic Alliance, the political party running the Western Cape whose appointee, Anton Bredell (their environmental affairs minister), heads up Cape Nature. Jobs will die, as fly fishing guides give up and return to being OnlyFans stars, fly fishing stores will lay off staff and related hospitality businesses like lodges and hotels that cater to these areas will see revenue crater.

“Phone that politician buddy, petition Cape Nature, renew your memberships of the CPS and FOSAF (more important now than ever before) and start squatting in Cape Nature and the DA’s offices.”

As for the area in question, the four rivers the CPS, its members and visiting anglers mainly frequent? They could quite easily descend into an unregulated free-for-all. No beat system, just anyone fishing wherever, whenever, with whatever. Most importantly, the voluntary monitoring of river usage by fly anglers – keeping tabs on the state of the rivers and human impacts from illegal fires, campsites, pollution and criminal behaviour (because Cape Nature sure as hell does next to nothing to police these areas themselves) – will be gone. There is literally no other group – besides aquatic scientists and the odd Mountain Club guy looking upwards – that spends as much time in or around these rivers as fly anglers. The CPS is fighting this, but they will need help. Every fly fishing legal eagle or person with political pull needs to get involved. Phone that politician buddy, petition Cape Nature, renew your memberships of the CPS and FOSAF (more important now than ever before) and start squatting in Cape Nature and the DA’s offices. Bang pots. Speak in tongues. Soil yourself. Never leave. Whatever it takes till common sense prevails.

Still here? f you’re into reading, check out issue 53 below. It’s free!