Cold, windy and inconsistent, Western Cape saltwater fly fishing is neither for the flakey nor the faint of heart. Within it, there are sub-divisions of difficulty. A step-up from the calm of the estuaries is the chaos of rock and surf fly fishing. It takes experience, persistence and determination to get it right. But the [...]
The wildeperd, aka zebra fish (Diplodus curvinus hottentotus) as featured in The Mission Issue 16. What: For the benefit of our non-South African readers, the literal translation of the Afrikaans wildeperd is ‘wild horse’. When it comes to these fish it means “zebra (fish)”. They're rare and more difficult to catch than their greedy little [...]
Winter solstice was on the 21st of June, so technically we’ve passed the bend and are on our way to spring. But for practical reasons, I generally consider the middle of July as the coldest, wettest and most miserable part of winter in the Western Cape. Traditionally it’s also a quiet time on the fishing [...]
I recently had a look at this short film that Jannie Visser made while fishing for blacktail and wildeperd with Michael Gradidge and myself. It really got me amped for targetting these wonderful species! With the summer season drawing to a close, I am looking forward to winter days spent fishing for this underrated quarry. [...]
