Feathers and Fluoro is proud to announce our participation in the South African Fly Fishing and Fly Tying EXPO scheduled for 30 July 2016 at the Lourensford Wine Estate in Somerset West; more details below:

The Cape Piscatorial Society is supporting the first ever South African Fly Fishing and Fly tying event to be held at the Lourensford Wine Estate on 30 July this year. The society has offered to host visiting festival members from other parts of the country. The offer is being made to visiting fly fisherman/woman only.  Fly fisherman who’d like to bring their entire families can, but at their own cost. We have offered this in an attempt to make the expo less expensive for visiting anglers and will hopefully help ease the financial burden for those attending the expo from far off places.

This project is a community based project, for Fly fisherman by flyfisherman. As such we are appealing to all members of the society to assist this fledgling event by:

• Providing sponsorship to help cover the costs of hiring in stands as well as flying in Exhibition tyers from other parts of the country, there are five of these tyers currently.
• Offering to host both out of town exhibition tyers and patrons of the festival

The list of tyers who will be at the festival  includes the likes of Tom Sutcliffe, the doyen of the sport in this country; Ed Herbst, our leading fly fishing academic; Peter Brigg, author, artist and small stream devotee;  MC Coetzer, captain of the Protea fly fishing team; Conrad Botes, salt water guru and his bother Herman, yellowfish specialist and creator of the legendary Papa Roach;  Ruhan Neethling a world-rated classic salmon fly tyer; Alan Hobson of the Angler and Antelope in Somerset East  whose original  patterns and techniques are changing our thinking about dam fishing;  Darryl Lampert whose CDC patterns are now essentials in our fly boxes and Matt Rich, Protea angler whose choice of patterns for local streams was recently profiled on Tom Sutcliffe’s ‘Spirit of Fly Fishing’ website.

The event is being hosted by Boland and Western province Fly fishing  in conjunction with the Lourensford Wine Estate. It promises to be the largest expo of its kind in South Africa and will cater exclusively for Fly fisherman but will in fact appeal to any outdoor enthusiast. The list of personalities who will be there include Fly-fisherman and fly tyers who have made a huge contribution to the craft. They are pioneers in their respective fields, and have all played an important part in the development of fly fishing in this country.

There will be 20 Fly tying demonstrators in all, a veritable ‘Who’s Who’ of the craft. You will have the opportunity to meet and interact with exhibition tiers and talk to them face to face about what they love best. You will watch them tie the patterns for which they are famous and have the opportunity to quiz them on their thinking and their techniques.

If the feathers talk gets a little heavy for you there will also be various other activities on show. These will include casting demonstrations, competitions, tackle exhibitors and outfitters giving you the ideal opportunity to see what’s hot and happening on the local scene regarding new products and developments.

There will also be a special Fly fishing Crafts section on show where Fly fishing related crafts will be on display including the work of some of the country’s top rod builders, net makers, sculptures, painters and writers. This countries Fly fishing Artisans are incredible, boxing far above their respective weight divisions. We have some serious talent here, who are internationally recognised for what they do.

The festival will conclude with a fly auction. We will auction off a once in a lifetime collection of flies tied by all the exhibition tiers at the festival. This will be the only collection of its kind in the country. All proceeds from the Auction will go directly to Trout SA to assist them in their work.

Entrance to the festival will be R100/person for adults and R50/person for school going children. The festival is not owned by an individual entity. It is the direct result of the fly Fishing community at large getting together to put on a really meaningful and memorable event in aid of further promoting and developing our sport.

For more info or to book a stand at the Expo please contact Gordon at  flyexpo.info@gmail.com