THE ALTERNATIVE ABSA CAPE EPIC RACE REPORT
This has everything to do with fishing. All dressed up with nowhere to go in the time of COVID-19… Now that some of the dust has settled on the first ever Absa Cape Epic that saw no dust, I felt it was time to pen some words. As I bash away at my keypad we […]
Zen and the Art of Following Your Nose
You look at where you’re going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you’ve been and a pattern seems to emerge. ― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values I used to be fucking susceptible to #FOMO. I’m not […]
The circle of life – let the Leeries live
Ah the garrick, aka ‘leerie’. It’s like the starter game fish that gets so many hooked on the light-tackle and fly game. And then, even as other species take preference, somehow keeps giving almost as a default back-up of sorts, year on year, season on season. Or not… Alarming recent reports of kills in the […]
When the olive grunter sang
On a balmy summers day Two sons went out to play With fly tackle and a leaking raft They headed to sea to catch a ray. In search of fish with feather craft They dropped anchor in False Bay Where they moved their hinds fore and aft Taking turns to inflate abaft. While sitting in […]
Follow Feathers
Some fish trigger an OCD (obsessive catch disorder) in me. Right now I am after a skipjack. I need to catch one on fly… Skipjack/ladyfish/springer (whatever you fancy calling them) do enter Western Cape estuaries and fly anglers have the opportunity to catch really big fish in fairly accessible places, such as the Knysna Lagoon. […]
Twinkle, two slams and the legend of the turd burger
Saltwater fly-fishing in the western cape can be a very unforgiving affair. Blank days are very common; in fact, it’s part of the parcel. But we all have those days when the river lifts her skirt and everything seems to fall into place. A while ago my buddies and I experienced this bounty. But nothing […]
GT Ice Cream
The history of the ‘GT Ice Cream’ surface lure By Barry Wareham from BasilManning lures The first GT Ice Creams were made on a lathe I inherited from my grandfather. I had experimented with many different shapes and sizes, but it was the cone chisel-nose that proved to be very successful. Manufacturing the plugs out of wood […]
Rising of De Mond (January 2015)
De Mond is a tiny lagoon that can produce exceptional catches. The most memorable ones are those from the past, such as the 30-odd-kg kob taken in the river just below the hanging bridge. It has always been a sad thought for me that most of the big fish we hear about were caught many […]
