The life and soul of Walkerbouts Inn (walkerbouts.co.za), the Wild Trout Association and Rhodes village, Dave Walker is an institution in the world of South African fly fishing. --- My first fishing experience was fishing for “Bullies” or “Klipvis” in rock pools at Cape Aghulas using a length of cotton and a bent pin with [...]
According to my knowledge, in fishing terms 'bloodworm' may refer to three different things: 1) Red midge larvae, 2) reddish coloured freshwater annelids (aquatic oligochaetes that are the freshwater analogs of terrestrial earthworms) including tubifex worms (sold as 'bloodworm' in frozen blocks to feed aquarium fish), and then 3) the well known marine bloodworm (a [...]
Cypriot/Zimbo/South African film producer and fly fishing guide, Platon Trakoshis, not only fishes like a machine, he also has the reputation as one of the nicest people you will ever spend time with on the water. He was our issue 25 High 5s guide target. 5 best things about where you guide? The Cape [...]
The ongoing pandemic has been detrimental on a worldwide level and continues to, sadly, run its course in 2021 thus far. It’s truly difficult to see the silver lining during such a tough period but at least there’s been some light at the end of the tunnel for both myself and Philip Geldart, both junior [...]
Lockdown - I'm tired of hearing it and avoid the subject these days. But during the lockdown, my fly tying station was my psychologist. Years ago my tying desk was in something close to a cellar, the living space was two floors up. My wonderful wife, Belle, wouldn't have any of this so she bought [...]
On fly fishing on the Orange River... Were we going to get lost? That was one of our main concerns leaving Cape Town. Our mode of transport was Warwick Leslie's Alu-Cab Hilux, the ultimate overland machine, we could have gone to Cairo in it. But we weren't, we were on our way to the Orange [...]
There’s been quite a hullabaloo about Douglas Outdoors’ new Sky G rod, so we asked local South African agents Wading Waters (wadingwaters.com) for one to test. We paired it with Herman Botes, one of the country’s hardest working fly anglers who we knew would put it through its paces, and then some. Here's the the [...]
While the rest of us went through Netflix re-runs this year, freelance guide James Kirsten escaped to Red Rock River Camp on the Orange where he lost himself in the gorge. The Gorge near Red Rocks on the Orange river "Lockdown!! The world gone mad. Everything is locked down; cities, suburbs; public transport [...]
A Fishwater Films movie about the Orange River, showing the current water clarity, the fish and catching them on fly.
Sometimes the weird guys in yellow (smallmouth yellowfish) ignore their interest in entomology entirely. This is something that, if you'd told me about, I would have laughed off. It is however the second time I've seen it on separate systems. In both accounts there was a large amount of wind and shrubs in bloom. Packs [...]
