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. 5 best things about where you guide? The Vaal River is a scruffy creature, broken up in sections of broad deep pools and shallow stretches [...]
"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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
African Waters' location scout, Ed Truter, reveals the origin of his pattern, the Balbyter (Ball-biter), perhaps the most lethal fly on Lesotho’s incredible Bokong river. "I was beside a rocky run, crouching over a slab of basalt on Lesotho’s Bokong River, trying to keep out of sight of the stream of fish jostling past me [...]
A pic dump of a typical Orange River trip to the Largemouth Yellowfish Conservancy with Kalahari Outventures Photographs by: Garth Wellman, Matt Gorlei, Christian Fry, Leonard Flemming and Kalahari Outventures Guest anglers featured: Bertu Barnard, Lloyd Priestman, Garth Wellman, Christian Fry, Leonard Flemming Check the full story in Issue 20 of The Mission
A story of two smallmouths and water under the 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, powerful river, [...]
This is an excerpt from our issue 4 cover story, The Legend of Fuck you Valley, which covers a trip to the Bokong river in Lesotho and its friendship-testing browns. "The plan was simple. A few days of fishing in and around the camp for the smallmouth yellows moving upriver from Katse Dam and then [...]
