The long, cold, wet winter of our discontent is almost over (for Southern Hemisphere anglers like ourselves of course), so while we have been fishing through winter we are not going to lie about how excited we are for longer, warmer days, fat hatches, dumb fish and everything else that comes with the change in seasons. Without further ado, here’s a round-up of things we have been watching, reading, keeping and eye on over the last few weeks.
Save The Date – Afskop at Stream & Sea
Next up for those living in the Western Cape we have the Afskop (translation – kick off), set for the 30th of August right before the stream season opens on the 1st of September. Hosted by fly shop Stream & Sea at their premises just outside of Paarl near Val de Vie, the idea for the event is to bring anglers together over the coming fresh and saltwater seasons. There will be 101 classes by Jimmy Eagleton (salt) and Maddy Rich (streams), an update on freshwater conservation by fly fishing scientist Dr Jeremy Shelton, fly tying by Andre van Wyk, Richard Wale, Gordon van der Spuy, LeRoux Roos, and Platon Trakoshis, casting tuition, plus merch and artwork sales (e.g. Chris Bladen, Stephen Boshoff, Johann du Preez etc), boerie rolls, no doubt a few beers and lots more. The Mission will be there too flogging T-shirts, caps and our art director’s soiled underwear. Tickets are R50 and the money goes to the Freshwater Research Centre.
Yellow Dog Flyfishing’s Fly Fishing Leader Design for Bonefish, permit, Giant Trevally, Milkfish and Triggerfish
If you have a flats trip to the Seychelles or any other warm water destination planned, you need to put the time aside to sit down, absorb and practice the contents of this video. Ex Seychelles guide Alec Gerbec is a proper credentialled guru on these subjects, who visits the Seychelles all the time and keeps up to date with the latest developments among the guide teams there, so you know the advice he shares here is as fresh and legit as it gets. Even if you are unlikely to do one of these trips any time soon (the black market for spare kidneys not being what it used to be), these leader set up may also make the difference in your local saltwater fly fishing. Either way, you have nothing to lose.
The Greatest Fishing Spot On Earth (w/Brooksy)
Our St Francis-based boytjie, Jazz Kuschke writes, “I’ve been closely watching what feels like a bit of a revolution — or maybe a renaissance — in media. Print titles are making a comeback in Europe, the US, and even here in South Africa. At the same time, it feels like people’s attention spans are shifting back to longer-form video content. Not necessarily full documentary arcs, but definitely moving away from flashy, fast-paced, shallow content toward more real, substantial pieces. Now, while the Aussies aren’t everyone’s cup of tea — and a lot of the Aussie YouTubers can be, for lack of a better word, super irritating — I’ve found Brooksy to be one of the most authentic among them. The WildFly productions he’s part of feel genuinely real. There are kooky moments, sure, but also raw, relatable ones. Not everything goes to plan. The guys might not seem like the best fishermen on paper, but they get the job done, and that’s what makes it compelling. What really stood out to me was that I actually sat through a big part of the full video without skipping ahead to the ‘good parts’ — something I’d normally do with similar content. It was pretty cool.
Elevate Your Dry Dropper Game
For our local rivers, specifically the trout streams of the Western Cape, the ideal for a lot of anglers is dry fly fishing. And, for the most part, that’s what you can do all-day every day. But, of course, it’s good to have options if the weather, the flows and the fish and temperamental. Fishing a dry dropper is an easy route for covering several bases, but as Australian outfit Peachy Fly Fishing point out in this video, tying a nymph on the traditional way to the bend of the hook can really limit your options (it essentially relegates the dry fly to an indicator, rather than giving you both a working dry and a working nymph to fish with). Instead they run us through several simple alternatives when it comes to rigging your dry dropper, which should up your strike rate on both flies.
Mastering The Beast – Ben Whalley
If you’re into Beast flies, fleye fly design or just want to hear from the next gen taking this part of fly tying forward, give a listen to this interview with Ben Whalley from the Articulate Fly podcast. Ben takes us through a bit of history of the Beast, from the name to the reverse-tying technique and of course, some detailed tying tips.
