Christmas has come early this year as Mavungana FlyFishing are giving away a Loop Cross 9-foot, 5-weight, 4-piece rod worth over R10 000.
Designed and engineered with LOOPโs signature Cross Core Technology System, each model features corrosion-free titanium stripper and snake guides as well as the CROSS reel seat and superior quality cork handle.
HOW TO ENTER
In order to stand a chance to win, you need to do the following:
- Follow both Mavungana Flyfishing and The Mission Fly Mag on Instagram and Facebook. You can get them, here and here and you can find us here and here.
- Look out for the rod giveaway posts. In the comment section, tell us about someone youโve introduced to the FlyFishing lifestyle.
- Already follow both? Answering the question gets you in the draw.
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I arrived on Andros Island in the Bahamas during October 2017 as a dive instructor ready to teach the world to scuba dive. Small Hope Bay Lodge also caters for fly fisherman looking for the ghost of the flats. The first night I met an extremely eccentric American gentleman named Jon and within the first minute we realized we share the same passion for fishing. He stayed on the resort for two weeks and did DIY fly fishing in the sounds and bays of Andros Island.
Jon did his best to tighten my loop and get a 25 foot cast out of me. I ended up catching one of the multitudes of Puffer fish that occur on the flats during one of our DIY missions. On the last evening before Jon flew back home, he decided to leave his rod and reel with me until his next visit, the following year.
This was the beginning of my fly-fishing journey.
My off days morphed into packing my fishing gear into my backpack, borrowing a bicycle from the Lodge and cycling the 16km round trip to Sommerset beach – the perfect place to try my hand at fly fishing. After many practice shots, wading the flats and spooking everything around me, I spotted a shadow cruising in my general direction. I placed the fly as best I could in front of the Bonefish. With a slow strip, my prawn imitation bounced along the bottom, the Bonefish stopped mid-fin and its tail started to vibrate excitingly. Shooting forward it inhaled my fly and I strip set my hook. With my excitement at breaking point, the same thing happened with my tippet. The tippet had snapped at one of the many knots that had appeared during all my practice casts…
Suddenly life happened and romance bloomed on the Island. The girl wanted to find out what is drawing me back to Sommerset Beach on every possible occasion.
Sarah wanted to see what the fly fishing hype was about and of course I was quite willing to teach. The floating boat platforms, three boats and various other obstructions were the perfect place to practice her cast. What felt like ages of too much wrist and too little elbow I saw a bonefish cruise over the bed of sea grass towards us. With a very wide loop Sarah dropped the fly into the fishโs path. It was as if the fish had decided to sacrifice itself for the sake of our relationship. Sarah beautifully set the hook and the bonefish darted off between the boats into open water, I couldnโt believe how this fish missed all the well placed obstacles, slack lines and too tight drag to, after a short fight beach itself next to us.
After the customary photos we quickly released the Bonefish to scour the ocean for more prized morsels.
Another fly fisher was bornโฆ