‘Tis the season to be thinking about what we want for Christmas, both in the real world and in that other space in our head where we can afford anything. The Feathers and Fluoro crew have varied tastes and it shows in the three wish list items they each picked for 2023. The brief was simple:
- Smaller fly fishing stocking fillers that they’re in love with,
- A more expensive “break out the credit card” kind of item,
and - An I-won-the-lotto experience.
This is what they recommend you put on to your Christmas wishlist, if not bucket list.
The best fly fishing experiences money can buy
LEROY BOTHA
Buy me a farm, man. I want a farm with river frontage with smallmouth bass. Somewhere on the Gourits will do just fine. Hell yeah.
LEONARD FLEMMING
Ridiculous float tube: Two Float Plus Pro 2 electrical motor units with a Float Plus 1 belly boat and a Garmin Echomap fishfinder – this may sound excessive for float tube equipment (getting near R 100 000 just for a rigged-up float tube), but it is actually a fairly standard setup in Europe and it works well in stormy weather and for covering long distances (>10 km per day) when fishing large waterbodies for predatory fish.
JAZZ KUSCHKE
A trip to Cosmoledo Atoll in the Seychelles. Gotta get there one day.
PETER COETZEE
A one month live-aboard Seychelles outer atoll extravaganza. Starting south. Providence, Comsoledo, Alphonse, Poivre, St Joseph, ending in Mahe.
GERALD PENKLER
A few months aboard a fully crewed yacht with family and friends exploring remote islands in French Polynesia.
FRED DAVIS
Early retirement package that allows me travel the world – a winning Lotto ticket.
CONRAD BOTES
A week of fishing for big dorado in a small stream in Bolivia.
TUDOR CARADOC-DAVIES
I was going to say dorado in Bolivia, but I see Conrad has already taken that (cough… and I will be inviting myself along), so I’ll go for a smorgasbord of species in Kamchatka.
ANDRE VAN WYK
A six month trip starting in Florida, and ending in Tierra del Fuego with a couple buddies, hitting all the best fisheries at the best times along the way. From tarpon and snook in Florida, to reds and jacks in Louisiana and Texas, roosters, snook, perms and tarpon in Mexico. Dorado on heli trips in Bolivia, peacocks and traíra in Brazil, down to sea run browns and king chinooks in Patagonia.
PLATON TRAKOSHIS
Three fishing trips a year to top bucket list destinations around the world, each year for the next 15 years, with six fishing friends included.
MATT KENNEDY
Not so much out of this world, but I’m headed to Dubai to fish for Queenfish with my boet. Two huge ticked boxes for me that I never would’ve dreamed of a year ago.
EWAN NAUDE
I want a month long trip to Bhutan chasing golden mahseer. Obviously Bhutan is not accessible to the mere mortal. One has to be an oligarch or the like to fish there.
See more: The best fly fishing stocking fillers, and our big-ticket wish list.
