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 [...]
With international air travel off the cards for the foreseeable future, many South African fly anglers will be looking closer to home for their trips in 2020 (if you were not doing that already). Assuming that both inter-provincial and regional travel will be allowed relatively soon (a big assumption we know), one of the most obvious options for your freshwater yellowfish fix is the mighty Orange river. A few months back, one of our own Peter Coetzee, joined up with the Mavungana Flyfishing team, plus esteemed reprobate Francois Botha, on a drift targeting smallies. To whet your appetite for the world class fishing available under our noses here in SA, here's Mavungana's great little flick from that float.
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.
From chasing largies and smallies in her home waters of the Vaal to MacGuyver tactics, art and some fine wine recommendations, we catch up with Parys area guide, Anthea Piater.
"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 [...]
