MARCH 2011 NEWSLETTER

20 MARCH 2011 NEWSLETTER

THE WILD TROUT FESTIVAL IN RHODES

I would have been at this festival if the prospect for rain had not been more likely than any prospect I have to take additional leave later in the year. So I cancelled and now plan a trip somewhere near the middle of April – subject to the weather of course.

But I got emails and some pictures from Sharland Urquhart who is up there. Here is what she has sent so far:

Day One

Today the rivers were unfishable, a great pity for me, as I had Peter Briggs as a guide. All was flooded and we could not access many causeways and bridges though we tried. Do hope the weather improves although I doubt the water levels will drop substantially for the duration of the festival.

Day Two

The Bokspruit on Birnham taken a week ago by Tony Kietzman

Weather today was heaven sent. Peter Brigg, Jan Korrubel and I fished at Gateshead – fat rainbows really full of themselves. A truly wonderful day that will be written in my memory book forever. Rivers were still very full – could hardly cross the main causeway to Gateshead – water rushing over.

SCREENSAVERS

Perhaps as soon as next week I will be offering 50 fly fishing pictures I have taken that you can download off this website as free screensavers.

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FROM MAITLAND KNOTT

Maitland, as many will remember, was the co-owner of The Fly Fisherman with Roger Baert. He is now working in Asia. Here’s an interesting excerpt from his most recent email to Ed Herbst:

One of my fly fishing buddies here is from Singapore. Their situation is both interesting and totally anarchistic in a way.

They are not legally allowed to fly fish and they spend their lives trying to stay ahead of rangers if they are fishing in public places.

They fish mainly therefore in a number of private ponds, for both fresh and salt water species. Most of the indigenous fish have disappeared due to over fishing - both salt and freshwater and the area is now populated by exotic species that have often been introduced and stocked by the fly fisherman themselves; Peacock Bass, Barramundi, Mekong Catfish, Ox-eye Tarpon, various Tilapia, Largemouth Bass, Snakeheads and even a couple of Marcia and Amazonian species. They seem to have just dumped whatever outgrew their private aquariums. And we worry about a few reasonably and naturally controlled salmonids!

TACKLE TIP FROM TOM LEWIN OF FRONTIERS.

Ever suffered the frustration of trying to tie on a fly at last light or tried to make your way back to the car in the dark? The Hatlight Plus from Streamworks clips on to your hat and the articulated LED head-light focuses light where you need it. The low profile design won't block your view and the battery powered LED runs for over 36 hours continuously. Ingenious!

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http://www.frontierflyfishing.co.za/

FLY FISHING IN THE KAROO

Angler on the Little Fish River, Somerset East

I will be adding to this newsletter, hopefully in the very near future, when I get a piece from Alan Hobson, a R.E.F.F.I.S. accredited fly fishing guide who owns the Angler & Antelope Guesthouse in Somerset East on the edge of the Karoo. It’s hard to believe there is any fly fishing at all in this area, let alone for trout! Watch this space.

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Mountain Dam, above Somerset East

Trout taken from the poplar pools on the Little Fish River

Here are the links to this fishery and the Angler and Antelope guest house

www.anglerandantelope.co.za

www.wildflyfishinginthekaroo.co.za

NOTE FROM ROGER BAERT FROM MONFLANQUIN IN FRANCE

(Roger and Brigitte Baert have just moved into their new home. His most recent email about it was very interesting.)

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I mentioned in my Newsletter about our new home that there were no visible signs of fish in our pond. But then again you cannot expect much in the middle of winter and I have been keeping the camera mounted on a tripod and aimed at the dam on every sunny day, mainly for shots of ducks and herons.

Somehow, while I was hurriedly trying to focus on a hunting heron a few days ago, I accidentally and fully unknowingly, snapped a total heart stopper. I'm enclosing it. It could amuse you.

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OMINOUS REMINDER FROM ANDREW CARTER

The other day we were stopped alongside one of the many roads around Bethlehem that are being upgraded, changing a tyre that had punctured just before a boom, manned by two gentlemen who told us that the "wait" before going into the section being repaired was 30 minutes.

In the distance we heard two diesel-engined vehicles giving it a go and after a while they appeared up the road, racing each other – both high end LDVs'. Eventually they saw the queue, stood on their brakes and drew up.

Both drivers immediately turned-off their engines. When the boom was opened we were still battling with an ineffective jack (courtesy of upmarket German sedan), when the drivers of the LDVs started their vehicles. One managed to get 100 metres beyond the boom while the other wouldn't start at all!

Reason? Turbo-charger burn-out! This happens when the diesel motor has been driven hard or put under undue stress (towing caravans, heavily loaded trailers etc) and is not allowed the time to idle for at least two to three minutes before shutting the engine down. This allows the oil in the engine to cool the red hot turbo-charger which prolongs the life of both the engine and the turbo itself.

BOOKS I RECENTLY BOUGHT FOR MYSELF

1. RUNNING WATERS by DATUS PROPER

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In this lyrical collection of essays, the late Datus Proper, author of the classic book, WHAT THE TROUT SAID, takes you to where, as they put it, you and the fish and the fly meet in that window between the stream and sky – whatever that means. RUNNING WATERS, though, is 176 pages of very enjoyable reading and some astute observations on fly fishing as well, not the least of them on the renaissance in American dry fly history ignited by Vincent Marinaro in 1950. Datus sadly drowned in 2003 while fishing one of his favourite rivers in Montana. I had the pleasure of knowing him and once fished the spring creek that ran through his garden. I also noticed the book was dedicated to another good friend of mine, fly fishing book publisher Nick Lyons, now retired and living in New York State.

2. HEMINGWAY ON FISHING

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This is an eclectic collection that begins with BIG TWO-HEARTED RIVER, widely regarded as one of the finest pieces of angling prose ever written. It’s a two-part, short story published in 1925 as an account of a healing process the central character, Nick Adams, undertakes after returning from WWI. In the story, Nick goes back to the place of his boyhood camping and fishing and to his favourite stream. Hemingway uses the trip to highlight Nick’s return to nature to heal from the devastation of war, though this is never explicitly stated. It’s a powerful, must read story.

The rest of the book is, well, very typical of the sparse, precise prose of Hemmingway. Saltwater fishers will particularly enjoy the chapters on Cuba and, Yes, there is a large slice from THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA, Hemmingway’s last major work of fiction and perhaps his most celebrated.

3. A FINE AND PLEASANT MISERY – Patrick McManus

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McManus’s books need to be sold with a health warning that should go along the lines, ‘Reading this may cause death from laughing’. He is without doubt the funniest writer of essays on outdoor life and fishing ever, easily in the league of Ed Zern. His other books include NEVER SNIFF A GIFT FISH. Then there’s KERPLUNK!: STORIES, also NIGHT THE BEAR ATE GOOMBAW and more recently, INTO THE TWIGHLIGHT, ENDLESSLY GROUSING. But be warned. Darryl Lampert kept his wife awake half the night laughing out loud reading A FINE AND PLEASANT MISERY until she grabbed it from him and kept him awake the rest of the night!

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