You're standing right above them, on a bridge, the water is crystal clear and about a metre deep. Its flowing quite strongly and the carp are sifting along the bottom, nose into the oncoming current. We've all been tempted to drop a fly off a bridge somewhere along the line, we can see fish clearly [...]
Having to channel all my fishing desires into fly tying like many others in these strange times I have been honing some pattern ideas for carp. One fish food source that is abundant in most freshwater bodies is tadpoles and around here they are about all year round. Like many creatures, hundreds are born to [...]
Everyone should be well aware that carp on fly is now entering that ‘booming’ phase - that exponential growth phase in popularity when most trout anglers discover just how nice and challenging it is to catch something else on fly, like tarpon...While reading up on the carp fishing history in our country I realised that [...]
I recently bought a spey rod, not for searuns, steelhead or salmon, but for carp on fly...You see I live in South Africa and we can cast across most of our trout streams with a 3 wt (and we don't have any searuns, steelhead or salmon). While I'll definitely also be hurling flies into the [...]
This has everything to do with fishing. All dressed up with nowhere to go in the time of COVID-19... Now that some of the dust has settled on the first ever Absa Cape Epic that saw no dust, I felt it was time to pen some words. As I bash away at my keypad we [...]
The Berg River is close to my heart. Yes, I fish in it, but there's more to it than that. I live about 100m from it in Paarl, so I walk my family and I use it and the area around it a lot. I walk the dog along its banks, I teach my children [...]
A story of two smallmouths and water under the Gouritz River bridge by LeRoy Botha in issue 19 of The Mission "14 November 2012. It’s incredibly hot and the wind is shunting. I’ve come prepared for a day or three’s fishing: food, tent, beer, gear. The Upper Gouritz River at this point is a wide, [...]
Our issue 16 Troubled Waters. Whether it’s trout, carp or saltwater species you are in to, one of the Western Cape’s great rivers is struggling like never before. The Waters We love the Berg. It’s one of our closest rivers and it has a storied history in the annals of Western Cape fly fishing. Primarily [...]
"My approach to split screen fishing imagery is based very much on a KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach. I’m typically fishing and shooting at the same time so, while I would love the time and luxury of hauling around a big beautiful DSLR and a full size housing to try and shoot the best [...]
Here is a little carp home movie I recently made - special thanks to Andre van Wyk and Tudor Caradoc-Davies for their contribution with camera work. The theme of the movie is 'Carp Giant' because they are not celebrated as much as they should be in the fly fishing scene - carp are in fact [...]
