“I’ve just tied up 10 more mega clousers, bru,” came Ewan Naude’s words late last week, following a phone call to James Williams from Wildman Fishing co. Ewan's mega clousers “Basically, like I would be tying if I was fishing for Geets off Mozambique - I wrapped the shanks in copper wire, plus [...]
The Harley Shakes is a fly created by Stuart Hartley, a guide for Tourettes Fishing, designed specifically for the Tiger Fish (Hydrocynus Tanzaniae) of the Mnyera and Ruhudji Rivers in Tanzania. It's a surface fly that is very productive and a favourite for these rivers. You can see the fly in action in The African [...]
Spanish barbel gently sip dries, but what follows is an electric, turbo charged, dash into the depths. Here are some patterns that worked during the trip to Extremadura covered in The Mission Magazine #17. The insect life around the desolate, arid lake sides is tremendous. Every flower was covered with little beetles, hundreds of spiders [...]
I recently returned from my annual trip on the lower Orange river and when people ask me what I love about fishing I usually simply take them through a day on the Orange. You float down a deserted river with zero contact with the outside world for 6 days enjoying nature in all her splendor, [...]
With Peter's recent post on how much he hates me and the BEAST Fleyes I've been obsessively tying over the last 18 months, I thought maybe its worth putting together a little video clip of just why these flies create the obsession in so many of us as soon as you start tying them... Not [...]
I hate the damn beast fly. And I hate that Andre has made me feel like I need a fly box full of them. And for making me obsessed with them. Somewhere between reverse tying, getting superglue stuck to my fingers and wasting thread on thread dams I decided there had to be a better [...]
One of the many benefits of fly tying groups, whether they are loose collectives like our Whippet Wednesday crowd, or Whatsapp Groups, get togethers like the CPS Vice Squad Meetings,or FB groups even is the shit ton of new stuff you get to learn. Some of it deals with new patterns, new materials, new techniques, [...]
I was on my second hosted tigerfish fly fishing trip to the Okavango Delta armed not only with the usual clouser minnows but also with some new ideas incorporating rabbit zonker strips. Staying at the lodge was a well known South African guide with two clients from Europe. In the morning as we were heading [...]
Ive banned myself from tying crustaceans. I have triggerfish like taste at the vice and as a result I always end up tying Crabs, Shrimp, etc. As a result my fish flies aren't where they should be. More than once now Ive found myself in a bait ball scenario hating everything in my fly box. [...]
The Vice Squad evenings (initiated by Tudor Caradoc-Davies) at the Cape Piscatorial Society clubroom is taking off and the last event (and second one hosted at this venue) was so well attended (approx. 35 people) that the room was close to getting sardine-packed with eager beaver fly anglers of all sorts (iconic fly guys, freshwater and saltwater [...]
