To further bury an already very dead cliche, ‘I’ve had the privilege of’ interviewing some greats over the years. GOATS the likes of Kelly Slater, Greg Minnaar and Kilian Jornet. Seven-time world champion Conrad ‘The Caveman’ Stoltz, Christoph Sauser and my skinny-ass bro from Hout Bay, Ryan Sandes, who just happens to be one of [...]
I dig fishing big dry flies with long 'legs' or rubber appendages for extra movement. The bigger flies are more buoyant and therefore also highly visible, they float longer than tiny dries and they can work charmingly well as 'indicators' when a dropper nymph is attached (I prefer 'New Zealand style' for this). Big dry [...]
From body-boarding to skateboarding, exploring the Vaal River and its tributaries for amazing yellowfish action, or inventing fly patterns like the brilliant Papa Roach, whatever our issue 21 Lifer Herman Botes does in life, he does at full tilt.
In issue 21 Tim Leppan wrote about 'The Foam Dungeon,' his go-to articulated streamer for largemouth and Clanwilliam yellowfish. Here's Tim with the Step-By-Step. "After sharing this pattern with a group of mates, I received a lot of questions back about how one ties it and how to fish it. In saying that, I thought [...]
"Never again will I be unprepared for an ant hatch" were part my thoughts on the drive home after watching sceptic Clanwilliam yellowfish refuse some of my 'buggy' nymphs over the weekend. The fishing was phenomenal, best I had ever experienced in the Tankwa Karoo, but I missed out on about three extra yellows that [...]
I've encountered swarming termites too many times on fishing trips to ignore them as important food items for fish in Western Cape rivers (the fish also started feeding like crazy during the termite swarms). Other, buggy flies worked well to catch fish during these ant hatches, but there were also picky fish (and some really [...]
Over the last few days I tied a small army of Skeleton Minnows to try out on our larger, more aggressive yellowfish and bass over the next year or so. In the process of tying them I enjoyed playing with different colours of flexo tubing, fluorescent beads (which may add the desired colour and weight [...]
While bored at home and dreaming about fishing for yet another day during 'lockdown' I took out my fly tying stuff (again) and fiddled with streamers for our yellowfishes...After spending an entire morning in front of my vise (while trying to keep the kids happy in between, cooking breakfast and lunch for them and feeding [...]
When Frontier Fly Fishing brought out a bunch of new rods from their in-house brand Horizon, we stuck our hands up to conduct some long-term reviews. There was definitely an element of nostalgia behind such a magnanimous display of selfless volunteerism. Many of us still have or have had Horizons. It’s been around a while [...]
Picture this: 9 km of river with big, crystal clear pools full of big sandfish, yellowfish and sawfin feeding on bedrock and sand...Drool, drool, drool. This image of a magic fly fishing destination could become reality with the Saving Sandfish conservation project. The possibility of a weir in the Biedouw River Valley, that will make [...]
