THE MISSION ISSUE 43

Did you know that 2024 is as far away from 1980 as 1980 is from 1936?

Now that you too are having a quarter/mid/three-quarter life crisis along with our editor (born in 1980), perhaps it’s time to make 2024 your year. Be the best fly angler you can be and all that. That means making every minute count. Because who knows? You might get run over by a Cybertruck tomorrow.

To help inspire you, we have put together a jam-packed issue to kick off the year.

Read The Feathers Award 2023 entries and then go catch your own dorado off the beach in Gqeberha or toss dry flies to Mola mola (not joking). Take a leaf out of Gareth Tate’s book and head off to a remote valley with friends, some flash Clousers and serious plans to find virgin tigerfish territory. Then there’s ‘Lost Boys’, our deep dive into guide life on Farquhar with some of the survivors, a decade after they left.

Zimbabwean Cullan Ashby is our High Fives profile, Alta River and UK chalk stream regular Vanya Hackel is our Lifer; and sawfin is our Wish List Fish. There’s a What’s In My Bag with Si Kay of Fly Fishing Nation; a Troubled Waters look at estuary breaches; bush pilot Iain Rennie’s Wakanda Forever; Slow Lane Slovenia vibes with Gerald Penkler; a look at Gnarly Headz, the new popper heads (five years in the making) from ScientificFly’s Arno Laubscher; plus gear, beats, and a whole lot more.

Read The Mission Issue 43 online for free, or buy the print version to cradle the real thing in your arms.

COVER: Alphonse Fishing Company guide Cullan Ashby sports a beatific smile as he releases a milkfish. Brian Chakanyuka