Straight out of varsity and into guiding, Flybru’s Nick van Rensburg is racking up hours on the water. Fresh from a season in Tierra del Fuego, we caught up with him before he heads off to guide in the Kalahari.

5 best things about where you guide?

1. Kau Tapen’s Rio Menendez is the most insane tributary. Pulling out a fresh sea trout in a river no wider than your bathtub is a pretty gnarly experience.
2. The night sky in the Kalahari will literally rock your socks off. Aliens are a thing.
3. Dry fly fishing to smallmouth yellowfish in the Orange River valley with Kalahari Outventures.
4. The resident brown trout in the Rio Grande are flippen rad.
5. The best thing about where I guide, is wherever I am guiding at the time. Spending a season in these places is the experience of a lifetime, and there isn’t much that can dampen that.

5 items that you don’t leave home without before making a mission?

1. Costa sunglasses. Currently the Hamlin, in Green Mirror are very difficult to beat.
2. My camera, which is currently a Canon 80D, with a Signma 18-35mm f/1.8.
3. Extra undies. Sometimes fish get me excited.
4. Simms G3 waders or floral shorts.
5. Plakkies (aka flip flops aka thongs).

5 most difficult guiding experiences?

1. Portaging a fully packed raft down the Orange River, with an insane upstream wind. It wasn’t a short push.
2. Downstream wind on the Smalblaar, and a client with a very limited casting set.
3. 100km/h winds on the Rio Grande can make for some interesting situations.
4. Sea trout with acute lockjaw.
5. Having to manage unreasonable expectations.

Catch the rest of guide (and one half of FlyBru) Nick van Rensburg’s High 5s issue 16 profile, below.