This week Tandym Print dropped off 300 copies of the new edition of Hunting Trout and I started filling out courier forms for pre-orders right away, a laborious but rewarding task.

The book looks and feels far better than I had hoped for, the cover, the print, the reproduction of the sketches, the paper used, all really top class. The book was put together by layout and design specialists Sean Robertson and Ania Rokita and their aim was to make it a twin of Yet More Sweet Days, although it is a slightly longer book at 514 versus the 471 pages of Yet More Sweet Days.

  

I have redone the drawings throughout the book to add interest and to better inform the content.

           

Steve Boshoff has kindly written a special foreword for this edition, although the original foreword by Nick Lyons remains. In addition, having reflected on why I came to write this book in the first place, and what the book has meant to me and to a few anglers I know, I have added a sort of preface or prologue to the new edition.

Then there were a few gremlins in the original text that we have hopefully corrected.

The book sells for R320 excluding postage.

I prefer to use a courier service for speed and security of delivery. This is an overnight service at a cost of R100. To more distant towns the cost of delivery can go up to R140 and it's best to ask for a quote.

In addition, the book will be available from Xplorer Fly Fishing, Frontier Fly Fishing, The Angler and Antelope (Alan Hobson), both Mavungana Fly Fishing stores and The Kingfisher.

To ask about my art email me sutcliffe@mweb.co.za

Gateshead Cottage and flies

Profile of a brown trout

Basie Vosloo's dam, early on a misty morning

Copies of Yet More Sweet Days were delivered to my home last week. The book is very pleasing. It has a comfortable feel of sumptuousness, the cover is pleasantly

evocative and the pen and ink sketches have been expertly reproduced.

 

 

 

 

The book is now available in bookstores and fly shops throughout South Africa, as well as directly from me should you want a personalised, signed copy. If so, please drop

me an email at sutcliffe@mweb.co.za .

 

To order please send your physical address and your cell phone number. This is for the courier company that will be delivering the books.

 

Sketch from the chapter on bridges...

 

Yet More Sweet Days sells for R320 and the courier cost is R70.

To pay for an order my bank details are:

Account Freestone Press, Standard Bank, Rondebosch, code 025009, Account number 071483861.

 

Sketch from the book chapter 'Small Stream Trout and the Notion of Innocence'

 

Orders from overseas countries

 There is a courier fee for each book, the cost determined by where in the world the book goes. I will provide you with the quote before shipping.

Payment for overseas orders is through PayPal.

 

Online sales links

Here are the online sales links:

Amazon ebook (preorder):

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07T9DM1QR?ref_=pe_3052080_276849420

Takealot:

https://www.takealot.com/yet-more-sweet-days/PLID54753643

Loot:

https://www.loot.co.za/product/tom-sutcliffe-yet-more-sweet-days/zkst-6179-g970

Exclusives Books:

https://www.exclusivebooks.co.za/product/9781928230717

Tom Sutcliffe

My new book is available

 

 

Yet More Sweet Days – Notes from a fly fisher's Life

My latest book, Yet More Sweet Days, was delivered to my home this week after a long time in the writing and in the protracted process of publishing and printing. But, happily, the finished product is lovely. The book has a feel of comfortable sumptuousness, the cover is pleasantly evocative and the pen and ink sketches have been excellently reproduced. So I am a very happy author, thanks to my punctilious publisher, Tim Richman of Burnet Media, and his professional team.

Pen and ink sketch from Yet More Sweet Days

The book will be available in bookstores and fly shops throughout the country and from Craig Thom at Net Books, as well as directly from myself. If you want an specially personalised copy, or just want to know more about the book, please drop me an email at sutcliffe@mweb.co.za

To order a copy please send your physical address and your cell phone number. This is for The Courier Guy, who will be delivering the orders for me.

Yet More Sweet Days sells for R320 and the courier cost is R70 (for up to three books per courier bag).

I can courier to the UK, USA, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand for R300 for a single copy.

To pay for an order my bank details are:

Account Freestone Press, Standard Bank, Rondebosch, code 025009, Account number 071483861.

 

 

I still have a few copies of Shadows on the Stream Bed and The Elements of Fly Tying (both R185), but sadly Hunting Trout is sold out. My publisher, Tim Richman, spoke briefly about printing a third edition of Hunting Trout, but for the moment, Yet More Sweet Days is enough to keep my undivided attention.

 

 

Title: Yet More Sweet Days- Notes from an fly fisher's Life; Burnet Media, 2019; pages 472, chapters 20, pen and ink sketches 50. ISBN 9781928230717. Distributed by Jacana Media.

The Limited Edition of Yet More Sweet Days

The leather-bound limited edition copies will be delivered soon. It is over-subscribed , so if you ordered a copy and have since changed your mind please let me know. Again the book will be couriered to you so I will need your physical address and cell phone details.       

Tom Sutcliffe    

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

- In search of Golden Dorado, a lovely Richtersveld trip, Andrew Apsey's fly-fishing journey Part Two, Jan Korrubel on stream fishing conditions in KZN, Greg Carstens reports on his fishing last week around Rhodes in the Eastern Cape Highlands and thoughts from Ed Herbst –

*

The year rushes by, the months sprinkled with touches of rain, the Cape streams looking not too bad despite the dryness of the last two winters and some good trout are still being caught.

Earlier this week I dropped in on Ed Herbst. I found Pete Brigg with him on a short visit to Cape Town, and together they were signing the limited edition copies of their book, South African Fishing Flies. Happily for them, Ed tells me all the limited edition copies are sold. Then that evening they had a busy time signing books at the Cape Piscatorial Society, but more about that later in the newsletter from Ed.

Click in images to enlarge them

Ed Herbst and Peter Brigg with a happy task at hand

It really was good to see Pete again, but sadly, due to time constraints, he had to turn down offers to do some some dry fly fishing.

Golden Dorado from Clem Booth

Says Clem:

The inaugural adventure in search of Golden Dorado in the Parana Delta north of Buenos Aires was – in a word – astonishing.

The fish are plentiful and at times almost unbelievably aggressive. Over the course of the week, it occurred to me that their behaviour was akin to a gang of thugs armed with chainsaws. Bait fish are herded into the shallows and then decimated...lobbing a fly into the melee evokes an immediate response although not necessarily hook ups as these fish have toothy and bony mouths and setting the hook takes on a new meaning! 

 There are quite a few species to be caught including the prehistoric looking Wolf Fish or Tararira and the Palometa, a beautiful version of the Piranha. 

A Palometa

 For me, the most fun was fishing the little streams flowing out of the flooded areas of the Delta; as the water level recedes, so one is presented with fast flowing, shallow water courses packed with Golden Dorado. And I mean packed! Unforgettable fishing at times. 

Fishing the little streams flowing out of the flooded areas of the Delta

 My old friend, Luciano Alba, of ELV Lodge, Lago Strobel fame and his delightful father Roberto, recently started what looks to me to be a highly successful venture - Golden Dorado River Cruiser – on the mighty Parana River system; I travelled with a few friends including Pete Cockwill who will be remembered by South African fly fishers for his visit here many years ago together with Lee Wulff, Gary Borger and other luminaries.

Golden Dorado River Cruiser

I needed to answer the question whether bamboo would work on these voracious predators; it does! My 8-weight from Chris Carlin in Alaska accounted for many fish! 

 

Absolutely wonderful trip and in the words of General McArthur “I shall return! “ 

Dawid Rossouw writes:

Dawid Rossouw

My son Daniel and I had a lovely Richtersveld trip, but alas, the big ones ignored us. I’m not sure what the reason for this was. The water in the Orange River was extremely clear and we had a glorious full moon in the middle of our time there. At De Hoop the water clarity was such that one could see about two metres down when the sun was high. The water level and the flow were about normal for this time of year. It was clear that the yellowfish were much more skittish than they were when under normal conditions when the water is slightly turbid.

Daniel Rossouw a happy young man

 In the slower and deeper runs we could clearly see really big smallmouth yellows holding, but nothing we did could entice those. Also, it was unusual not to find many smallmouths in the rapids. The water was so clear that short line nymphing only worked in the really fast water.

 

In the slower water I used a nymph suspended under a strike indicator and got a few medium smallmouths that way. It was great fun sight-fishing for yellows, just like trout, but it was not easy because they are difficult to approach without spooking them.

 

I also had one big take in a deep pool on a black zonker from a largemouth but sadly lost it all too soon. In all, we caught a heap of fish, but no big ones, for no reason that I can figure out. Most were smallmouths, but we also got a few mudfish. Daniel caught a tiny little tilapia (kurper), a first for us. It is quite pretty. We caught no largemouths.

Daniel with a tiny little tilapia

 We got all our fish on caddis-type Czech nymphs and Brassies. Flies with an orange bead seemed to work well. I got fewer fish on exact imitations than I have in the past.

 An interesting occurrence was mudfish spawning in the extreme shallows on the edge of a rapid that we observed one evening just before dark. Literally a hundred fish congregated, all dark grey in spawning colours. Their splashing is what attracted our attention. They were completely oblivious to our presence and we skirted around them. An hour later when we passed again, there was no sign of them.

In quieter moments we enjoyed reading South African Fishing Flies – An Anthology of Milestone Patterns the new book by Peter Brigg and Ed Herbst

Andrew Apsey's fly-fishing journey Part Two...

Andrew writes...

 I recently returned from the American leg of my fishing adventure, having spent just over two months exploring central Colorado. I was based out of the picturesque little town of Crested Butte, about four hour's drive west of Denver and located in the county of Gunnison, which has 2000miles of fishable waters alone!  It was an unforgettable adventure with everyday on the water providing nonstop learning, stunning scenery and incredible dry, nymph and fall streamer fishing. Browns, rainbows, cutbows, cutthroats, brookies and even a few Kokanee salmon were kind enough to fall for my flies. 

I was fortunate to fish some amazing waters; Rivers like the Gunnison, Taylor, Eagle and the Arkansas, which ran crystal clear and full of fish. Backcounty creeks like the Chochetop and the Spring that meander through pasture meadows and whose browns had a particular liking for a duo of an Ed’s hopper and a sunken ant. A special highlight was camping in the vast National Forests and hiking up to some of the spectacular alpine lakes, many of which lie at over 3000metres. Sight fishing to Colorado Cutthroats with small terrestrials patterns was worth every lung busting step of the hike.

Fortunately, there were no scary animal encounters, but plenty of deer, elk, beavers, muskrats, Golden and Bald Eagles. The fall colours of the aspens, willows and cottonwoods were nothing short of breath taking.

 

The hues of golden yellows, bright oranges and deep reds painted the vast mountain ranges that making the whole experience even more memorable. Someday I hope to explore more of Rockies with a fly rod in hand. There is just so much to see and so much water to fish!

 

 

 

I am pinching myself on a daily basis as I prepare to head off to New Zealand for the last leg of his amazing piscatorial journey. I will be sure to send a few fishing reports as I fish my way around the South Island over the next six weeks.

Again on behalf of the readers of this newsletter, I wish Andrew well.

Quote of the month

'I'm not a collector: I'm just not good at throwing things away'

Fred Buller, angling collector, historian and author, as taken from 'Buller's Last Words' an article by Keith Elliott published in Classic Angling No 106 March/April 2017.

Fred's last book, Domesday and Beyond – Memoires of an Angling Historian, sounds a really fabulous read.

Greg Carstens reports on his fishing last week around Rhodes in the Eastern Cape Highlands

Greg called me to say the Eastern Cape rivers around Rhodes were in fine condition, especially the Sterkspruit. He thought that the Bokspruit was a little low and glassy and the trout were touchy and nervous, And he gave the Bell a miss when it washed slightly grey after a storm.

 

The Coldbrook looking so good you could pat it as it goes by.

He and his nephew, Shaun Carstens, caught fish consistently over a number of days on the Sterkspruit, right the way up from Birkhall to the Coldbrook, all wild fish of 12 to 14 inches, and all fat. Interesting was that Shaun hooked a monster on Branksome, a trout of easily five to six pounds. Not unexpectedly it snapped the tippet. Greg tells me the fish was holding in knee-deep water and that Shaun likened it to the sort of trout you'd expect to get at Highland Lodge, where the youngster has apparently caught plenty.

 KwaZulu-Natal report from Jan Korrubel

Says Jan:

With my rain gauge at home touching the 180 mm mark by the middle of October, I had high expectations for my first (confirmed) guide of the river season (another had bailed earlier due to a bad weather forecast that never materialised...).  Unfortunately it appeared that the river (Bushman's in this case) hadn't risen at all since my Opening Day visit of 1 September!  A couple of possibilities might explain the situation : a) there has been less rain up top than what we got down below (we received over 200 mm for October in Nottingham Road, but I don't have a reliable source for rainfall up at the top), and b) what has fallen up there has gone straight in as a result of the previous drought conditions ... not a bad thing, as this will be topping up the water table, BUT we still need more rain to get the flows up.

On the day, however, the fish were willing and rising happily to the dry fly.  Both Travis, and his dad Mike, were new to the river game, having just recently acquired 3wt outfits and struggled to get the fast rising brownies to stick. The Golden Rule of Guiding is that "The Guides Don't Fish", but after a good couple of on-off's, I had a rod thrust in my hand and a "Show us...".  With reputation at stake, I lucked into a nice 10-incher on the third drift with a Para-RAB Emerger ... and then of course the chirps start : "So there are actually fish in this river that can be caught!"  Such is a day in the life of a guide...reminds me of the title of Dave Ames' brilliant book "A Good Life Wasted: Or Twenty Years As A Fishing Guide"...

A nice 10-incher on the third drift with a Para-RAB Emerger

As the year rushes to an end, the Michaelhouse Fly Fishing Club (MFFC) recently held its end of year and awards dinner, and I was asked to make up fly lapel pins as gifts for the young anglers.  With the school colours being red and white, and time somewhat of the essence, I came up with a simple old-school hair-wing streamer that was well received by the Club members and their parents. 

Michaelhouse lapel pins

I then had a follow up request to design and tie another pin as a birthday gift for one of the young anglers - his favourite colours being green and blue – and a feather-wing streamer pin was born.

A feather-wing streamer pin

MFFC Club Master, Righardt Kotze, has taken the Club from strength to strength over the couple of years that he has been in residence, the MFFC producing no less than 3 Protea Youth anglers and the current SA Youth Champion in the last 2 years alone!

At the dinner, Righardt mentioned an interest in river fishing, so we arranged a day on the Bushman's River recently.  I was even more dismayed, however, to see that the river had dropped by some 2 inches from when I was there mid-October.  I seem to take pictures in pretty much the same spot every time I am on the river (see the comparison images below) only 2 weeks apart and note the drop in flow rate (less white water) and height (more rock sticking out).  Note also that the veld at the back of the Reserve is still brown, while The Midlands around Nottingham Road is looking lush and green with the rain we have had.

Comparisons

As a result, the fish were holding in the deeper pools and slots, very few in the usual pebbled runs.  Righardt also initially struggled to keep a reign on the quick browns, but his first fish landed was a cracking 11 inches on an Elk-hair Caddis, and then after a number of on-off's, followed by a solid 9-incher on a Klinkhamer.  Unfortunately a hat-trick third fish evaded us on the day.  But the small stream / dry fly bug has bitten him properly, and we have another date later in the month.

Righardt Kotze triumphant

The KZN weather has certainly been up and down over the last month – the initial summer heat wave of September gave way to couple of cold spells in October; there was even snow forecast one weekend!  We are now back to the summer heat, with temperatures in the Midlands exceeding the 30deg.C mark.  With Spring Grove Dam sitting at 77%, there is a good flow being released into the Mpofana, which flows into the Lions River, and then into the Umgeni River feeding Midmar (currently at 75%).  With the good flows, and warming water, the Natal Yellowfish (or scalies) have started to move, the first report of fish coming just this week.  I am looking forward to tackling a few of these “freshwater bonefish” myself this summer.

Umgeni River feeding Midmar – home of scalies

Looking at the long-term forecast, the Norwegians have us receiving a bit more rain over the next while...so here’s hoping that trend continues before the heat polishes off what we have already received.

Ed Herbst writes...

Do light-line Spey rods have any application in South Africa?

Lyndon Webb, editor of Fly Lines, the monthly newsletter of the Victorian Fly-Fishers’ Association in Melbourne wrote in an email:

'I’ve had a lot of fun recently playing around with a Redington 11’6” 3–weight micro spey rod. The 3-weight two-handed rod corresponds to a 6 weight in single-handed rods (the rod numbering system for two-handed rods is three less than for single-handed rods). The Redington is only about 4 ounces in weight, and you can cast it as a single-handed rod where it throws a line a country mile with that extra bit of leverage, but it also casts beautifully with proper spey lines and spey casting. It truly is a very pleasant item to use. We only really have one river in Victoria big enough to justify two-handed rods, and that’s our Goulburn River, but I do fish still waters a lot, and I am confident it will be effective there.'

Would a Trout Spey rod have an application on our dams, estuaries and bigger rivers?

All the major rod manufacturers, Sage and Winston among others, have models on sale and a Google search provides several YouTube clips of them in action.

Meeting the publishing team

Peter Brigg and I have spent some enjoyable hours meeting the publishing team at Penguin Random House who produced our book, South African Fishing Flies –An Anthology of Milestone Patterns and then spent an evening signing copies at a Vice Squad meeting at the Cape Piscatorial Society.

It was a celebration of fly patterns which had their origins in the Western Cape. Peter demonstrated the techniques he has used to make Leonard Flemming’s Wolf Spider more durable and quicker to tie, Leonard demonstrated his Sand Flea imitation which he developed for mullet, Darryl Lampert showed his Hi-Vis Midge which matches the hatch for Net Winged Midges and I demonstrated my imitation for the Simulid larva. Each of these flies is featured in the book.

Leonard Flemming tying his dry fly for mullet – the Sand Flea

Two copies signed by Peter and I have been donated as lottery prizes for the annual CPS River Festival which is being held this year on Ernst and Anchen Stofberg’s farm on the Holsloot stream near Rawsonville. Tudor Caradoc-Davies interviewed Peter and I for the Mission Magazine website on how the book came about.

Hackling with a difference...

The internet has played a significant role in the evolution of fly tying and I am indebted to Peter for giving me a link to a fascinating but simple hackling technique for dry flies and parachute patterns.

Tiemco's magnetic bobbin holder

The new Tiemco magnetic bobbin holder has greatly enhanced my fly tying in the past month and I feel that it is a significant improvement on traditional designs. It is very comfortable to hold and the tension on the thread can be finely adjusted so that it comes off the bobbin with exactly the right pressure.

I think we're in for some wonderful fishing in this part of the world over the next few months.

Tom Sutcliffe

 

 

 

EXTRACTS FROM MY SEPTEMBER 2017 FLY-FISHING NEWSLETTER - A fussy trout; Stream of the month, the Swith in the Eastern Cape Highlands; Pierre Swartz on the Wolf River near Hogsback, Eastern Cape; Jan Korrubel's opening season in KZN, Clem Booth's happy discoveries on the Avon...

 

A fussy trout ...

 

Last week I saw a trout lying deep in a smooth glide of clear water. Its slow, weaving movements suggested it might fetch a well-placed dry fly. I dropped a RAB ahead of the fish. It rose to it as gracefully as a ballerina, turned sideways to the fly, drifted under it in a long inspection, then abruptly broke off and slipped back to its holding station.

 

After resting the trout I tried a second cast, but other than showing a slight quiver of interest, it never moved. So I changed to a smaller pattern, a CDC and Elk Hair Caddis, and again had the same response.

 

While I was pondering this fish it suddenly rose; a confident, no nonsense rise, although I could see no insects on the surface.

 

I suspected my tippet may be a little short so I added a length of 8 X and cast again. The trout immediately rose and took the fly; in fact, the same fly it had refused just the cast before.

 

Perhaps I'd just got lucky, but I like to think I had identified the problem and solved it; clear-water micro-drag, fixed by adding about 40 centimetres of 'drift-loosening' (if you'll excuse the term) monofilament. In this case, Trout Hunter's monofilament. It's liquid limp and knots up well.

 

In my brief spell on the stream I took three more trout, all on the CDC and Elk, all feisty, and all in good condition, despite the bushfires and droughts that so recently ravaged this pretty ravine.

 

Click in images to enlarge them

 

All in good condition

 

Pierre Swartz writes of the upper Wolf River near Hogsback in the Eastern Cape. With images by Pierre and Devin Isemonger.

 

Says Pierre...

 

The reason I am writing to you is to share some pictures from a recent trip up to the Wolf River in Keiskammahoek.  I was invited by ECFFA member and friend Devin Isemonger from East London to join him on a hike upstream to fish the headwaters of the Wolf. 

 

We drove up the mountain through thick pine plantations and stopped near a section of the Amatola hiking trail that led us into the valley and after a very long hike we finally reached the river. 

 

Amatola hiking trail

 

This section of the river flows through grassland and small pockets of indigenous forest climbing quite steeply creating lots of pocket water which holds the odd rainbow. 

 

 

There are a lot of waterfalls on this first section and we had to bypass a gorge that was impossible to get through but once we reached to top of the gorge the landscape changed completely. 

 

 

We had to bypass a gorge

 

We found ourselves out of the woods and onto a grassland meadow complete with grazing cows and the trout we came all this way to find.  We were tired after the long hike and had not landed a fish all day. We were just about to turn around and head home when I saw two small trout lying in a run the size of a bathtub. The fish took the size 20 Adams Midge first cast.

 

Trout on a small Adams

 

The river got smaller and smaller the further we hiked up and we managed to land a fair number of the most beautiful wild trout in an amazing little stream.  Devin knows the area very and spends a lot of time on the water.  It was a real treat to fish with him.  Unfortunately we spooked a lot of fish since we were so eager to explore the stream that we acted a bit hastily in our approach. 

 

The headwaters of the Wolf is a beautiful stretch of river with a very healthy population of wild trout and is well worth the long hike to get there. 

 

The headwaters of the Wolf

 

I include some pictures for your reader's enjoyment.

 

Images from a South African fly stream ...

 

This month I have chosen the Swith, a stream that flows straight off the eastern slopes of the southern Drakensberg in a place called the Pitseng Valley around 60 kilometres inland of Maclear. This is one of the most beautiful landscapes in South Africa.

 

A Pitseng valley landscape.

 

Ed Herbst and I discovered the Swith serendipitously back in the mid-90s and I have fished it countless times ever since.

 

Ed Herbst on one of our earlier days on the Swith.

 

It is a remote and pretty stream and, above all, productive beyond words. It is rarely fished, accessible to anglers staying at Vrederus , a nearby venue well known to many South African trout fishers as a working guest farm and a superb stillwater and small-stream fly-fishing venue.

 

Angler's cottages at Vrederus.

 

The farm Höningskloof has the best of the Swith, mile after mile of typically quick-flowing, high-altitude freestone water. You couldn't fish all of it in two weeks.

 

Luke Rossler hooks a rainbow in the tail of a typical Swith run on his first visit to the stream.

 

Its rainbow trout are exquisite and in many way unique in their colouration, being richer in colour with tapestries of olives, lilacs and blues and the greenish hints of oxidised copper.

 

Tapestries of colour.

 

 If you don't mind a short hike through riverside scrub it's worth making visiting a small cave just off the riverbank that is liberally decorated with of San rock art, including one of the most unusual pieces you'll see in a long while.

 

At the tiny cave of rock art. Notice the art behind my right shoulder. The best of it is on the wall in front of me.

 

A most unusual piece of art.(I don't ever get much argument about that!)

 

This is a quintessential dry-fly stream, but when these trout won't come up, small nymphs work well. It's a perfect stretch for anything from 0- to 2-weight fly rods.

 

The author fishing on the Swith in icy weather, wind and intermittent rain. Still we caught trout. (Billy de Jong photograph.)

 

...and the riverside landscapes are inspiring. Don't ever forget your camera on this stream. Billy de Jong photograph.

 

Access to the Swith, and to the San art cave, should be arranged through Juan Marie Naude of Vrederus. (See above.)

 

Opening of the KwaZulu-Natal fly-fishing season. Report from Jan Korrubel...

 

The days leading up to 1 September were filled with much excitement and anticipation, and high hopes for a great start after the late rain and snow fall of mid-August.  September 1^st being a working Friday, I was hoping for have the rivers to myself, but as rumours of a number of other anglers also heading out started to concrete, I thought I had better reach out and make contact so that I wasn’t fishing in anyone’s footsteps...and so it was that I planned to meet up with Grant Visser at 7a.m. at the Giant’s Castle entrance gate to fish the upper Bushman’s.

 

I had tied up a couple of extra flies doing a dry fly order 10 days before, but was 'relieved of them' by a mate the day before Opening!  So I ended tying up a few more the night before - my choice of trout food being a Para-RAB emerger and Parachute Coachman – Who fishes Opening Day of the streams with a nymph after all! 

 

Para-RAB emergers and Parachute Coachman

 

Finally the day dawned, but while driving up the Kamberg Road I was taken aback with the near gale force winds blowing in the valley. It didn't bode well, but at Giant’s Castle there was not a breath of wind!  It started to puff however, as we tackled up in the day visitors parking area and I put aside my first choice of the 1-wt as the Opening Day wand, opting for something a bit more beefier in a 10ft 3-wt.

 

Grant Visser on the upper Bushman's

 

A small herd of eland nervously kept their distance in the field below as we made our way down the hillside path to Bannerman’s Bridge and the river. Once at the bridge, we decided to head downstream to cover a few of the seldom fished pools.  As we turned to start fishing back upstream, the wind really started – icy downstream blasts –making me regret my choice of the 10ft.  Coupled with the rustiness of not having been on the river since last year, my initial casts landed pretty much back at my feet. Then to our pleasant surprise, the wind died away and it was game on!

 

First fish (above) and second fish (below) both on the Para-RAB

 

I opened my river account with a healthy 27cm fish that rose to the Para-RAB emerger, followed by a 24cm fish just a few pools later.  The fish were looking up, and Grant was also raising fish on a variety of other dries. In the well-known Red Rock Pool, Grant latched onto a submarine, but unfortunately couldn’t get it to stick.  The Para-RAB had proved its mettle, so I switched to the Para-Coachman and took a few more smaller fish. 

 

Bushman's brownie on Para-Coachman

 

The author on the upper Bushman's taken by Grant Visser

 

The weather was now turning worse. We lunched briefly at the confluence with the Twee Dassie Spruit and pushed through the gorge on the Bushman’s side below Main Caves.  My plan was to scout the water all the way up to the foothills of the ‘Berg, but the upper stretches looked quite thin.  The wind having picked up we decided to bail and join the group of Warren Bradfield, Leevashin Ramnaryian, Andrew Mather (Gehard Goosen arrived later from Mthubatuba) who were staying at Snowflake Cottage just outside the Reserve.  I stayed to fish, but Grant opted to head home.  With the weather not playing game, the afternoon session was a blank – but it was a great morning's Opening to the season.

 

 The following day, I fished the upper Mooi River in Kamberg Reserve.  Arriving at 7:30, it looked a pearler of a day, and I had the place to myself – could you ask for any better! 

 

The Mooi all to myself.

 

However, it was not to be and I couldn’t buy a fish!  While appearing somewhat more skinny in places, there was still some good pocket water like we'd had to the Bushman’s the day before.  There certainly seemed to be plenty food about – the rocks I turned over showed a good population of nymphs. 

 

Enough food on the rocks

 

I fished my way, or more correctly, cast my way right up to Game Pass, taking the left branch (the main Mooi I believe) up to the waterfall – about 12km round trip - a wonderful day to be out, few fish notwithstanding.

 

The Mooi, like the Bushman's, looking fresh, crystal clear, slow flowing...

 

and cool!

 

Having received the late rain and snow mid-August, I can report that the rivers are looking fresh and clean – the flush having removed the usual post-winter algal mats and sediment.  Both the Bushman’s and the Mooi are gin-clear and still on the cool  side.

 

The upper Mooi

 

Warren Bradfield's 47 cm brown trout from the Bushman's

 

It was a great Opening weekend overall, with some excellent fish coming out elsewhere as well.  Warren Bradfield latched onto a fish of 47cm on the Snowflake section of the Bushman’s, and Brett Moller reported that their Riverside section of the Mooi was fishing superbly, young Daniel Duane landing a monster 51cm fish.

 

Daniel Duane's Mooi River monster from the Riverside beat

 

 Here’s to the rains coming and more of the same!  I look forward to staying in touch with you all.

 

 Lovely piece, thank you Jan.

 

The Avon...

 

Clem Booth writes...      

 

Yesterday was another wonderful Avon day with a bunch of thumping brownies and a smattering of the beautiful lady of the stream, the grayling. I have to pinch myself that this glorious river is but an hour from our home in Ascot! And, one might even drop in on the master cane rodmaker, Edward Barder, en route; he is based in Newbury. Yesterday, one of his wonderful wands accompanied me as is most often the case. The Stradivarius of bamboo rods in my estimation.

 

The beautiful lady of the stream, the grayling

 

Thumping brownies

 

Among the fish was a salmon parr and what a nice moment that was.

 

A salmon parr

 

Salmon breeding far up the Avon is a heartening signal. I stopped to think about this little fish. Born in the Avon, it would hang about for as long as it needed to become seaworthy; it would them head down the river to the estuary, turn left at the sea and swim off to Iceland. There it would grow bigger and stronger and then a couple of years later, it would set off back to the UK, turn right at the Avon estuary and hopefully start its own family. Astonishing really! A voyage of discovery far beyond anything we humans are capable of!

 

Wonderful news and wonderful sentiments Clem. Thank you. TS.

 

Tom Sutcliffe

 

 - Most Enjoyable Articles from 2016's Newsletters...

I asked a number of friends to review The Spirit of Fly Fishing's 2016 newsletters and select their favourite articles, images, flies, quotes, or whatever else had struck a chord with them; a thankless job, but they came up trumps. I did not influence their choices and made no selections myself, but, interestingly, the similarities in their choices were remarkable. All I had to do was group their inputs under appropriate headings, like best quotes, best travel, best flies, funniest article, book of the year, best photo essay and so on. Then someone suggested December 2015 be included to make it a calendaryear, and I agreed.

 

I have added the month each newsletter appeared (for your reference in case you file your newsletters away, as some apparently do). Unfortunately, I couldn't include all submissions for lack of space, and where an article was too long, I abbreviated it. But if you want to read the full text you can always type a reference into the search engine on the upper left-hand side of the home page on my website and it will pop up for you.

 

I added a few new pictures here and there, so at least some of this newsletter is new.

 

Here's what came out in the wash!

The Best of December 2015...

 From Hugh Rosen in La Jolla California:

 Hugh is a medical research scientist and a keen fly fisher and fly tier, who often graces this column with his articles. He sent this lovely image of two classic dry flies perched on a Wheatley fly box; a Kite’s Imperial in grey (left) and an Olive Variant (right).

Click in images to enlarge them

To get the picture, Hugh used a Nikon D610 camera with a 105 mm Nikkor macro lens, stopped right down. He set the camera on a tripod with the mirror locked up, and used a cable release to allow fora really long exposure.

 

Most Talked About Flies for 2016

 Philip Meyer's Para-RAB (frequent mentions), Christian Schmidt's experimental Klipspringer Hair Emerger (February), Marcel Terblanche's Sunken Fire Ant pattern (May), Peter Brigg's Spider – latest variant, (September) and the Peeping Caddis from Clem Booth (November).

 

The Para-RAB (tied by Mark Krige).

 

Christian Schmidt's experimental Klipspringer Hair Emerger.

 

Marcel Terblanche's back-to-front Sunken Fire Ant with Ice Fibre legs.

 

A 17-inch rainbow deceived by a Sunken Fire Ant in the Smalblaar River.

 

Peter Brigg's Spider Variant.

 

Peeping Caddis (Lead Head) patterns tied by Clem Booth.

 

*

 Voted the Best Quotes

 

By Christopher Camuto from his book In Praise of Wild Trout (April 2016).

 

'I think of trout as an affair of landscape – not something in it, but something of it. In Chinese, the term for landscape, shan shui, means literally "mountains of water." Roughly speaking, if you rub a mountain with cold, flowing water, you get a trout. This is to take a compressed view of geology and evolution, but mythic and scientific ways of thinking about things converge in extraordinary expressions of being, like trout.'

 *

Then there were two quotes from Nick Lyons' book, The Seasonable Angler. (July 2016).  

The first is on discovering fly fishing:

 ... one spring day when a brisk Hendrickson hatch was on the water, I took my first trout on a fly, and I saw it was possible, and then I traded my spinning rod and all my lures and lost my heart to

bamboo and a hat full of flies.'

 

The second quote from Nick is on fishing the dry fly (and, as it happens, probably my favourite quote of the year.):

 'I like the 'lawfulness' of the classic hatches, the technical problems of 'matching the hatch', accurate presentation, the avoidance of drag; but most, I think, I enjoy the incomparable rise, the abrupt

opening of the stream, the dramatic splash, the electricity from stream, to eye, to hand.'

*

Most Joyful News! (January 2016)

 From Basie Vosloo, owner of Birkhall, a farm on the Sterkspruit River in the Eastern Cape Highlands, at the epicentre of their terrible drought:

 

The Sterkspruit River at 8.45 am on 12 January, 2016.

 

The Sterkspruit River at 9.45 am on the same day, just one hour later!

 (Photographs per kind favour of Basie Vosloo.)

 *

 From My Introductory Paragraphs to Each Newsletter. (September 2016. Text abbreviated.)

 On an outing last week the trout were difficult, despite a clear day and good flows, but after recent rains and a dusting of snow on nearby mountains, the water was a cool 12 degrees C. And we had to contend with a really tricky upstream breeze that teased the leader this way and that, mostly just as the fly was landing. My companions were Robin Douglas and his son, Keith, and we'd decided on dry fly only, and stuck with it, though there were times when we just knew, or at least could seriously surmise, that a deep-sunk nymph would have taken trout from likely lies that produced nothing on the dry fly.

 

There was a hatch of one sort or another all day; a few tiny mayfly spinners, a couple of smart-looking September Brown duns, micro-caddis, net-winged midges and plenty of those ubiquitous tiny black bugs you just can't even guess at.

A September Brown mayfly dun photographed on the day.

 

Here and there we saw a fish rise, but the rises were strangely sparse given the number of bugs on the water, though when we did see a fish come up, we invariably caught it. On some outings I set out with a particular plan in mind, and yesterday it was to get a series of photographs of a trout being released, never an easy task and one that requires that you carefully set up the camera, take note of where sun is, position the angler accordingly, and sort out a heap of other incidentals, well ahead of shooting the actual sequence. It worked out well enough.

 So we chalked up another lovely day on this tiny Cape stream, and spent time remarking on the beauty of its trout with their hues of blue and lilac and shades of apricot and spots spread as randomly as stardust. They're that pretty it's no wonder we don't care they aren't any bigger.

 

Hues of blue and lilac, shades of apricot.

 

*

 Memorable Insect Pictures of 2016

 

The mayfly Adenophlebia dislocans. (November 2016. Tom Sutcliffe photograph.)

 

Simulid larvae, Lourens River Somerset West. (March 2016. Robin Douglas photograph.)

 *

 

Best Fly Ties of the Year

 

Ruhan Neethling's African King. (November 2016).

 

Gordon Van der Spuy's traditionally dressed Fra Diavolo. (July 2016, Fly Fishing Expo).

 *

 Strangest Happenings

 From Clem Booth. (April 2016).

 'Interesting day on the Loddon! I'm minding my own business fishing one of my favourite pools today when suddenly there is an almighty commotion on the far bank at which point a deer falls in! The water is deep and fast flowing so thoughts of plunging in to save it soon abate. Instead I made like a sheepdog and chased it upstream where it was able to find some shallower water and escape. That was a first! I had to evade a snake a couple of times on Cape streams, but never a deer! Couple of nice fish completed a most interesting day. never a dull moment on the water it seems...'

 

*

 Fly-Fishing Book of the Year. (September 2016).

 It is Andrew Fowler's much celebrated book, Stippled Beauties – Seasons, Landscapes & Trout. To order a copy email Andrew at truttablog@gmail.com.

 

*

 Most Popular Destination Articles

 Nick Taransky described a few small-stream gems in the Snowy Mountains of NSW, Australia. (June 2016).

 (I've shortened this piece, but the full text is available if you type Snowy Mountains into the search engine on my website.)

 Says Nick:

 'We have three main areas that we fish, with overlapping times when they are at their best.  I’ve never gone to the trouble of writing down a season overview of these places from a 20,000 foot level, but thought it might be useful to your readers (as well as useful to me)!  The website of my fishing mate Paul Bourne (a full-time guide) is also worth a look, as it has a month by month fishing report on the region as well: http://www.snowymonaroflyfishing.com.au

 

Snowy Mountains

High Country, freestone streams, mostly in the Kosciuszko National Park, of different sizes.  Larger rivers (still not large by international standards) like the Eucumbene, Thredbo, Murrumbidgee, and a large number of tributaries.  A mix of browns and rainbows (often together in the same stream), with one notable stream with wild Brookies too (as well as rainbows).  

 

Snowy Mountain streams, above and below.

 

The fish are for the most part unselective, with a range of dries (terrestrials, mayfly, caddis and “standard") usually being productive. Same for nymphs.

Monaro

This is not wilderness beauty of the mountain streams, but they have a pastoral charm to them, and each has their own character.  It’s all sight fishing and stalking, often best with a second “spotter” concealed up on the bank somewhere calling out instructions to the person with the rod.  The fish are mostly selective (among several species of mayflies) and nearly always very spooky.  It’s our Blue Ribbon fishery and world class in my view, as much of the action is dry fly, heart-in-your-mouth stuff, to fish from 1½ to 6 pounds or more.  

 

Monaro streams

Delegate Region

This region is south of the Snowy Monaro, sort of the shoulder of the mountains, but cooler than the Monaro.  The streams run through peaty forest, and are again mainly on farmland (with access never an issue). The largest river (still a stream, really) is the Delegate, along with many other smaller rivers.

 

Delegate Region

 Other Highly Commended Destination Articles

 Alex Hathorn's Grayling Fishing in the Yorkshire Dales. (November 2016.)

  *

 Most Talked About Fly-Fishing Destinations

 Walkerbouts Inn, Rhodes, Eastern Cape Highlands

 This popular venue, and its proprietor, Dave Walker, were often featured in newsletters during the year.

 

Dave Walker. Tom Sutcliffe photograph.

 

*

 The Angler and Antelope Guesthouse, Somerset East.

 Run by Alan and Annabelle Hobson, this venue has become an important bucket list destination for many anglers in South Africa and was mentioned many times in 2016 newsletters. (See The Angler and Antelope Guesthouse, Somerset East, mid-Karoo Eastern Cape, http://www.anglerandantelope.co.za)

  

Angler and Antelope Guesthouse at sunset.(Photograph per Alan Hobson.)

 

Alan Hobson, mine host, consummate fly tier, and fishing guide.

 *

Gateshead Lodge

 This iconic venue was mentioned in newsletters throughout the year.

 

Gateshead Cottage, one of the Holy shrines of South African fly fishing. (Tom Sutcliffe photograph.)

 

*

 The Perfect Home? (May 2016.)

 In a back issue of Trout & Salmon I came across my perfect home. Advertised as a 13th-century thatched mill cottage fully restored, it straddles the Arle, a chalkstream tributary of the Itchen. The kitchen is built over the stream with a glass viewing panel in the floor!

  Sharland Urquhart, in her selection of the most-liked articles for the year, was very taken with this home and sent a comment and a delightful poem that she had written on it – off the cuff!

 Says Sharland:

'The photograph of this 13^th century thatched mill cottage made me dream – a perfect dream until the telephone rang…' 

 I sat and dreamt a dream…

 

Of fish beneath my kitchen floor

 

A river running wild outside my wooden door

 

For those who fly fish

 

Who could we wish for more?

 

*

 Most Memorable Function of 2016. (July 2016.)

 No horse in the race. It was the resoundingly successful Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Expo organised by Gordon Van der Spuy and held at Lourensford Estate outside Somerset West.

 

Herman Botes demonstrating his Papa Roach at the Expo.

 

Gordon Van der Spuy in 'compelling auction-mode'.

  *

 Enjoyed Fishing Trip Articles

Andrew Apsey on Fishing the Dart. (October 2016):

I include a few pictures and a little of the text. The full article is available on my website under Andrew Apsey.

 'On the first day I investigated the main East Dart, starting downstream from the little town of Postbridge. Described as 'providing miles of classic brown trout fishing set amongst beautiful moorland', it did not disappoint.

 

 The Dart

 Despite the absence of hatches I had an urge to fish small emerger patterns for the wild brownies that inhabit these rivers. I have to be honest; I don't think any of these little beauties tested my 3WT to any great extent, but each and every one brought a smile to my face.'

 

The Dart's wild brownies

 *

 Clem Booth on Patagonia. (February 2016.)

 Says Clem:

 'Back from another wonderful trip to Estancia Laguna Verde at Lake Strobel in Patagonia. The weather wasn't always great with strong winds to contend with, but we also enjoyed some good days and, in any case, there is always a way of getting the fly into the water! On the calmer days I fished a bamboo rod was purpose made by Chris Carlin in Alaska and  it worked a treat. Coupled with a reel by Joe Saracione, it was more than possible to deal with some pretty huge fish. The rainbows in the lake – 'chromers' as the guides call them – are the finest specimens one could imagine; silver and with a girth which confirms the adequacy of the food source! Smaller flies did well this year and I had good results on smallish Teeny nymphs which I tied up on very strong, heavy gauge hooks.' 

  

Clem with purpose-made Chris Carlin bamboo rod, Saracione reel and one of the chromers. Photo per Clem Booth.

 *

 Greg Carstens on fishing around Vrederus and Rhodes. Text and images by Greg – May  2016.

 This essay is about discovering new and remote small stream fishing grounds that surround Vrederus and Rhodes, catching trout in testy conditions and Greg's happy discovery that bamboo fly rods beat anything else for fishing small streams. It is on my website under 'Vrederus April 2016'.

Magical Streams 

Vrederus at sunset

 *

 Fly Fishing Argentina and Chile on a Shoestring Budget – with Text and Images from Paul and Marion Frost  (February 2016.)

 This article was judged by many as one of most useful for those wishing to do exactly what the title says. The full article is available on my website.

 *

 Most Popular Photo Essay  (May 2016.)

 Ritchie Morris, a fly fisher and keen amateur photographer, wrote of a trip to Rhodes, Maclear and Hogsback and added a fine photo essay. As always, Ritchie's images are excellent. The text is on my website. Just type Ritchie Morris into the search engine. 

 

Snow on the Barkley Pass.

 

The Little Pot River at Woodcliffe.

 

Mertoun beat on the Bell River.

 

A home in Rhodes looking for someone to love it.  

 

And Rhodes in peak-hour traffic.

 *

Most Humorous Article

 From Hugh Rosen in La Jolla California (April 2016).

 Says Hugh (text abbreviated):

 'I wanted to share with you some wonderful new gear with a software tool for the relief of ennui in the Armchair Angler.  The images below of the trophy wild rainbow can now be acquired without the inconvenience of the 450 mile drive from San Diego to the High Sierras, or the braving of inclement El Nino winter weather, nor the hit and miss of many hours on-stream looking for suitable fish to target with little nymphs. Neither rain nor runoff impacting on water clarity have any material impact. I have acquired a selection of two dozen lifelike 3-D polymer trophy trout with articulated jaws from the outstanding trout conservation non-profit www.allfishermanareliars.org. They cover many different species from rainbow, brown, golden, cutthroat, Lahontan cutthroat, steelhead , sea-trout, and various salmon species from Atlantic to Coho. Marble trout and huchen are available by special order. For the maintenance of a credible on-line presence,  I use a randomization schedule that reflects the prevalence of rainbow, brown, cutthroat or brook trout in the appropriate river.

 

Owens River rainbow. (Oh really?)

 The photograph is then prepared by dressing in full fishing regalia and posing with the polymer fish spritzed with water on a green screen background. State of the art CGI is then used to superimpose the image on a river background. Allfishermanareliars.org provide comprehensive software support with a library of high-resolution images covering the best pools in Blue Ribbon trout streams of the world...'

 *

Image Most Deserving of a caption! (July 2016, Fly Fishing Expo)

 

Annabelle Hobson photograph.

A tongue-in-cheek picture of fly fishing guide Alan Hobson taken by his wife. Your suggested captions would be welcome – and 'Oh, f*%#*' will not be considered a suitable entry!

 *

 Best under water shot of the year. (September 2016.)

Paul Colley; is he already in a league of his own in underwater trout photography?

Yes, I think he is. I came across an image of his on Earth Shots, a weekly photography newsletter I subscribe to. (see Earth Shots.org). then I had a look at his website and I was left in no doubt that he is a master of the art of underwater photography generally, not just trout. See his website http://www.mpcolley.com and click on 'The Trout Project'.

 *

Best Trout Image (November 2016.)

 

From Tim Leppan, Western Cape fly stream rainbow.

Season's Greetings …

  

 Tom Sutcliffe, December 2016.

 

With an afternoon free recently I fished a small Cape stream alone. In the first 100 metres it seemed the trout had disappeared, but eventually a few fish made a timid and tentative appearance. I was relieved to see them, given the drought we've had here in the Cape. One fish rose and drifted so slowly and for so long under my dry fly that by the time I lifted the rod to set the hook she was close enough to net. In the play she disturbed a nice-sized trout that arrowed across the pool. I released her and rested the pool for 10 minutes. Then I dropped the CDC midge where I thought the second fish might now be holding. I was in luck. The trout rose to the same fly I'd caught her neighbour on. In hand she was a lovely fish that somehow managed to appear aloof, as if unconcerned about her fate. I released her gently into the brightly pebbled run.

Click in images to enlarge them

Later, when the wind turned coldly downstream I left, seven fish to the good after a brief but delightful interlude.

 

Quote of the month

In a technical sense, the cast is the soul of fly-fishing. When you have it down, you're there. In a non-technical sense, you can then begin to figure out where "there" is.

John Gierach. Death, Taxes and Leaky Waders.

 

From Clem Booth in London...

Says Clem:

These days, I seem to be more fascinated by matters piscatorial than the state of the global economy and apart from the odd creaking joint, I can seriously commend semi-retirement to anyone contemplating exchanging pin stripes for Simms waders.

Keeping one's eyes open and actually seeing as opposed to just looking seems to be one of the main benefits of a less cluttered mind. It's easy to see a mayfly or caddisfly on top when nothing beats fooling a fish with a dry fly. Yet, what happens on the riverbed is at least as important and interesting, if not more so. It's always been intriguing to me to consider why some fish attain great weights while others remain more modestly proportioned and the common denominator seems to be "get into the pantry and stay there" when it comes to the leviathans.

Understanding currents is half the battle if you're targeting big fish, whether sighted or not. Getting familiar with food sources is another critical element. The caddisfly, whether in the larval, pupal or hatched form, is a big part of the diet of fish in my neck of the woods.

Over the past 15 odd years I've been experimenting with cased caddis patterns fished right down on the riverbed, and to great effect. Now, the caddis larva which makes a portable case out of all available, mostly not edible, materials might not be considered a tasty morsel by us humans, but the trout and other species seem to relish them!

Let me acknowledge Hans van Klinken for having devised the Peeping Caddis, a fly which thoughtfully fished produces great results.

 

Here are a couple of big Chub, the top picture being a 6½ pounder which ate a Cased Caddis during the summer of 2015. The one below it is into the 4's. Likewise, trout also love this fly; it's the equivalent of a nice piece of spicy Nando's!

The Protea fly-fishing team in Vale Colorado

Just to let you know that at the 36th Fipps Mouche World Fly Fishing Championship the South African team did really well, coming a commendable 9th overall. Daniel Factor ended in 23 place.

Daniel Factor, Matt Gorlei, Matt Rich, Christiaan Pretoruis, Ronald Smith, MC Coetzer (Coach), Gerrit Redpath (Manager), Nic van Rensburg.

Many thanks to the generous sponsors of the team!

From Robin Douglas...

Says Robin:

Really missed you on the river the other day as it was truly lovely. Slight upstream breeze and a river seemingly packed with dry-fly-hungry trout. I battled initially using a Para-RAB and an Adams, then switched to a yellow-bodied mayfly that I tie (sort of like a Pale Morning Dun). The trout loved it, but not enough to eat it. After many last minute refusals, I remembered something you once said about this stream and the Elk Hair Caddis. Needless to say, that was the magic password.

 

Best fish of the day. Photograph per Robin Douglas

Once I had caught a number, I tried switching back to other patterns – nothing! I put the Elk Hair back on and was in business again! Truly an amazing few hours. I was using an Elk and CDC pattern. Best fish was probably 12” with a few around 10” and many at 8”-9 “.

From ace fly tier Ruhan Neethling

Says Ruhan:

I recently spent a lovely and much needed day fishing with Gordon Van der Spuy, which inspired me to finish The African King I had started.

The African King

(Beat that tying if you can! TS.)

Earlier this month from Nick Taransky leading Australian bamboo rod maker...

Nick who lives in the Monaro Region of New South Wales writes:

I cracked and went fishing today when I should have probably been making rods, but life is too short. I went to a small farmland creek, about two hours drive from here.  

The small farmland creek 

A little embarrassingly, it’s the first time I’ve actually fished it!   A mix of trout cruised in the pools with some sort of on station, others mooching around.  A few small and large black spinners were around. My fly box was bare so I used mostly a parachute Iron Blue Dun.  

I got maybe seven to eight, including four between 16-20 inches - all wild browns.  Fought like champions in the small water and weed.  Lost a couple, missed a couple on the strike, and popped one on the strike too - whoops!  

Wild brownie. They 'fought like champions'.

You can see a fish rising in front of the little bush on the left bank in the picture above. There were fish moving everywhere when I got there (10:30 am) but it shut down totally around 1:30 pm. A fun day nonetheless.  I saw an Echidna (native monotreme anteater), platypus, and a big fat wombat.  

Back on the rods tomorrow!

Later in the month Nick wrote to me on a day's fishing with his wife Miri saying...

I’m just back in the door from fishing with Miri.  She hasn’t been fishing a lot lately so it was lovely to spend a day on the water with her.  We went to one of our fertile lowland streams, renowned for its selective browns.  She started the day with a lovely brown that sipped down her little black spinner, and she hooked another nice fish later in the day too.  In the middle the wind blew twice as hard as forecast, but we did find a sensational brown cruising through weed in the tail of a large pool.(after an 8 kilometre walk), and Miri literally fell asleep while I fished to it for an hour!  

In the end I somehow hooked it and had to call out to wake her up, when she went into overdrive with the camera.

I landed it so it was a wonderful day for both of us!  Even better as I caught my brown on our new Jeff Wagner rod and reel.  

Jeff Wagner rod and reel

The only thing better still would have been if Miri had caught it!  I just compared a photo of this fish with one my mate Paul sent me just over two years ago.  From the spots you can tell that it’s the same fish!

Same fish caught two years ago!

(American bamboo rod maker Jeff Wagner, Nick Taransky's mentor, has just visited Australia where he was the guest of 'Cressy Cane' (http://www.peterhayesflyfishing.com/page13274354.aspx) at a three day bamboo rod making conclave and workshop held at Peter Hayes' Lodge on Brumbies Creek in Tasmania. Jeff stayed on for a few days, fishing with Nick in Tasmania and on the mainland.)

Images on the month...

These lovely images of trout caught recently on Western Cape streams were taken by local anglerTim Leppan.

Final quote of the month; this one is from Nick Taransky on quality versus quantity...

I do think more and more these days about quality over quantity.  The other day when I went to that little creek on the farm, I caught a lovely fish at maybe 1:30 pm.  It was a gem of a fish, around 20 inches, from a narrow, weed lined glide.  At the time, I paused for a few moments, and nearly, nearly turned around and headed for home with my cup already brimming full.  But I continued on.  I caught another smaller fish or two, then missed another solid fish on the strike. And then I said to myself “OK, just one more”.  Two hours later I was still stumbling my way up the stream, with the wind now blowing hard and nothing much on the water.  So I turned back. Still a wonderful day, but I’d had the opportunity earlier to end on a memorable high note!

From an email he sent me dated 18 November 2016. They clearly have some delightful stream fishing in many parts of Australia and, of course, Tasmania is a world class fishery.

To subscribe to the my monthly Spirit of Fly Fishing newsletter click on the 'Subscribe to my Newsletter ' icon on the right side of the masthead on the home page of my website, http://www.tomsutcliffe.co.za .

Tom Sutcliffe