Playing Western Cape fly fishing tour guide for these three Scandinavian legends (Håvard Stubø, Markus Lemke and Rolf Nylinder) has been an eye opening fever dream.

On one hand they still feel like characters in my head. On the other hand, I’m blown away by how truthful and authentic they are. The characters you see in Rolf’s videos act, fish and talk smack the very same way in real life.

This past weekend, courtesy of friends of The Mission, they had a taste of Western Cape fly fishing. They experienced more in three days than most of us do in a summer. Hunting browns and rainbows on the Cape Streams, and targeting indigenous Clanwilliam yellowfish and sawfin in the mountains drew some contrasts to their unique fly fishing in Swedish Lapland.

The style of fly fishing that they aspire to is very similar to hunting. They only target fish that they can see – rising or cruising – and only ever with a dry fly. To them, nymph, dry-dropper and indicator tactics are very unattractive, although often go-tos in the South African scene.

This short film is a recap of their fly fishing adventure in Cape Town which concluded at the screening of their unreleased film A Not Too Steady Flow of Mayflies, hosted by Stream and Sea.

Joburg, you’re next

Joburgers can catch the show on Sunday 27 November 2023 at Gillroy’s Brewery. Details and tickets here.

Enjoy.