I’ve been flirting with the idea of putting together a fly fishing magazine for quite a while. About a year ago I got talking to Tudor Caradoc-Davies, a freelance writer, editor and fly fisherman who had much the same idea to create something fresh and new focused on Africa (but with stories from further afield too). Tudor, who works for a number of magazines from GQ, to Men’s Health, Getaway and Country Life roped in Brendan Body of Session skateboarding magazine and The Lake, who simultaneously had also been thinking of doing the same thing (how many great minds think alike?). The timing was great and the team was formed. We all overlap, but Tudor focuses on the words, Brendan on design while as editor-at-large I weigh in on art direction and specific fly fishing obsessions. Call it fate, luck, serendipity or whatever you like, but together the three of us moved from the talking into the doing and started creating the first issue of The Mission.

As the name implies, much like Feathers&Fluoro, fly fishing for us is not just about the fish, but about the adventure, the missions up distant valleys, beaches and salt flats going after big fish, small fish, obscure fish and our standard, all-time favourites. The process of putting The Mission’s first issue together was much the same – a mission of meeting after meeting, strategy and content, editing and fine tuning, coffees and the odd beer. But, similar to the satisfaction of an epic fly fishing mission, it was well worth it.

I am proud to announce that the first issue will be released on the 15^th of December.

It’s a free magazine both in print (limited to 3000 copies available at fly fishing stores, clubs and guide companies) and available simultaneously online with extended features. Yes, FREE so you can save your precious Randelas for your next mission.

Our launch is at The Labia Theatre in Cape Town in conjunction with the Cape Town premier of Flycastaway and Confluence Film’s latest full length feature film PROVIDENCE.

When: 15^th of December, 6PM-6:30PM start.

Where: The Labia Theatre, Orange Street, Cape Town.

What:

• The Mission Issue 1 (free).
• PLUS a short film for The Mission by Flybru (3 mins).
• PLUS the main film PROVIDENCE by Confluence films & Flycastaway (70 mins). The fifth largescale fly fishing film project by Confluence Films after Drift, Rise, Connect and Waypoints, Providence was filmed in the Seychelles, on remote Providence Atoll. This full-length feature film focuses on four weeks in the autumn of 2015 when the atoll was reopened for the first time after being closed for six years due to piracy issues. Providence has always been legendary for its amazing numbers of Giant Trevally, bonefish, triggerfish and bumphead parrotfish. The filmmakers and fly fishermen luck enough to be there got to experience it at its best. This fishery is as healthy, untouched, productive and amazing as anything found anywhere in the entire word of saltwater flats fishing.

If you’re around Cape Town, we hope you to see you there. If not, we hope you enjoy reading the mag either in print or online as much as we enjoyed putting it together.