Invited to visit ‘WildFly country‘ (aka the Mooi River area around Nottingham Road), The Mission’s editor Tudor Caradoc-Davies goes to KwaZulu-Natal in search of unfinished business with brown trout.

Picture one of those cinematic high speed life rewind things (with the music playing in reverse like a Chemical Brothers track circa 2000). Instead of taking me all the way from being middle-aged back to getting slapped on the ass as I was born, this pastiche follows the last 10 years, specifically the last time I visited the trout hub of Nottingham Road, in the Midlands of South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province.  

Back in 2015 it was my first visit to the area. I’d set up a fishing trip with my friend Greg and some other mates. At the same time, a girl I used to work with called Ingrid, suggested she join the fishing trip and drive down from Johannesburg. I may have suggested this plan – it’s a disputed memory. Whatever the case, I was totally up for it. Ingrid met up with me in Ballito and sparks flew. We went through ahead of the rest of the crew to Nottingham Road, stayed at Rawdon’s Country Hotel and, basically, decided we were going to spend the rest of our lives together.

JOIN THE CULT OF FLY FISHING

The guys then joined the fishing trip and while I left Ingrid on the banks of the Mooi River with Greg’s beagle, Henry, Ingrid uttered two immortal phrases, both lies, that became lore and even featured in our wedding speeches a couple of years later. “You look sexy in waders” and “I love dogs”, the latter as Henry raced off after random critters in the bushes while Ingrid (a cat person) stressed that she would lose this incredibly strong-willed bastard hound. Other than landing her, I blanked badly that trip. 

“These upper reaches of the Mooi, where the escarpment gives way to steep hills and jagged kloofs, are stunning. It’s the postcard dream appeal of the region.”

Fast forward – a wedding, this magazine, homes moved, babies now toddlers, places fished and rendezvous missed. A few weeks ago, a chance presented itself when the WildFly crew invited me to fish in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands again and on the Mooi River around Nottingham Road specifically.  I asked if I could include  a plus one. Ballito-based Greg had plus minus three to five weeks to go before his girlfriend was set to give birth so, with his world about to change and the likelihood of any fishing in his future being slim, he was in. 

Read all about the Mooi River browns in issue 52 of The Mission fly fishing magazine below for free, forever!