A story of two smallmouths and water under the bridge by LeRoy Botha in issue 19 of The Mission "14 November 2012. It’s incredibly hot and the wind is shunting. I’ve come prepared for a day or three’s fishing: food, tent, beer, gear. The Upper Gouritz River at this point is a wide, powerful river, [...]
I didn't know how this name popped into my head and decided to give it a google, pre post. Turns out there was an American Footballer with that last name who became a murderer and it's on my Netflix home screen. Not sure if he was a hermit though, and hopefully this fly murders the [...]
We were floating down the lower Orange talking about fish species and fly tying while watching birds and casting streamers when we spotted a goliath heron hunting majestically on the bank. Garth Wellman mentioned how heron biots were some of his favourite materials for tying nymphs. Like it was destined to happen I found a [...]
Since Jimmy Eagleton's caught his first yellowtail on silicone prototypes that he tied several years ago, he's continued to fine tune the pattern (and colour combinations) and has more recently come up with a very effective molded silicone fly that he's raving about - and when Jimmy's raving about a fly then I know it [...]
When I’m fishing at night or in dirty water and I pick a fly, I give it a little shake expectantly. When I hear nothing I feel disappointed and my confidence in the fly drops a tad. But if it rattles I hear Prince singing “Sexy MF Shakin’ that ass, shankin’ that ass”, which is [...]
A little look back at the Iron Man prawn fly. A little while back LeRoy Botha and I once again found ourselves on a grunter bank. The initial plan an ambitious one involving leeries, but when the onshore breeze and rising swell chased us off, we ran for the river. It turned out to be [...]
Outside of Copic (and other spray guns), the use of markers on foam heads just looks wrong and amateur. Its for that reason alone that I hardly have any poppers in my fly box. They look shit. Then I saw Arno VD Nests crease flies, covered in Mylar (an oversized variety thats almost impossible to [...]
I used to go through surfing, fishing and climbing phases, but since time's become limited with two little boys at home fishing's naturally taken over any leftover, spare time. My interest in fish (which started at the age of three, according to faint memories and family photo albums) fuels the priority pastime; when I'm not [...]
Something I love about being a fly tyer in this day and age is the amount of access to information. Facebook, Youtube, Forums, Whatsapp groups, clubs and more, to be honest there has never been a better time to be a tyer... in my opinion anyway. Another thing I love is learning tricks from guys [...]
A few of my flies hanging in OceanSouldiers bar waiting for Chad to take them for a swim! Getting ready for Fiji forced me to clamp some big hooks into the vice. It's been a while since I tied GT flies and I'd forgotten how much I enjoy tying big flies. As always, [...]
