Ramblings and Reminscences of a salty Bugger by Graeme Neary

Once upon a time or a long, long time ago always sounds like a good place to start a story. This however started just less than sixty years ago (Long time ago I hear you say). My salt water fishing started in East London where I grew up. My dad has never been a fisherman but would happily take me down to the beach regularly to pursue my interest.

Some areas close to town and others a little way out. Gonubie, Yellow Sands, Glen Eden, Queensberry Bay and Nahoon to name but a few. What makes these venues special is that they are all on tidal river mouths, and have some fantastic gulleys and ledges in the area. This fishing was mainly rock and surf type and techniques were picked up from experienced fisherman over some time.

In 1980 at the age 25, Wendy and I decided to relocate to Durban for better employment prospects and hopefully a good future. Due to work commitments and small children, fishing was not a too common occurrence but still enjoyable when it happened. In 1986 I met my friend Pete who was at that time a competitive angler and fishing with him really upped my game. It was through spending time with Pete and some of his team mates that learning to read water became easier and I got to know some really good spots. Without a basic knowledge of this you will be dead in the water (pun intended).

Early in 1990, Pete told me that he had seen some guys fly fishing in the Durban Harbour. My reaction was that it must have been an hallucination, as surely you don`t fly fish in salt water!

A trip down town to the then Kings Sports and a long chat with the late Jack Blackman, we both came away with a fly fishing kit. This came in the form of a Kingfisher Malachite 9 weight with an Okuma reel and a Cortland 222 line. The rod and reel are still in the garage today. Talk about the blind leading the blind. Ignorance by the bucket load and lots of laughter and teasing. In amongst all this we signed up for a fly fishing clinic with Uncle Jack. This took place over a weekend where he put us through theory as well as casting tuition, really very valuable. We ended up spending many hours fishing some great spots up and down the coast and of course, the Durban harbour and in the company of some already accomplished fly fishermen.

These guys are still around today and still enjoying wielding the long rod in the salt. Alan O`Connor, Mike Wentzel, Hoosen Bobbat and Richard Schumann. My first salt water fish on fly came at the Mzamba River mouth just below the Wild Coast Casino. The fly used was a Beady Eye and the fish, one of the bigger Large Spot Pompanos. It was only 35cm long but left me wobbly kneed for a while. These are the days we tend to remember for ages.

In 1992 I became a member of Durban Fly Tyers and the above mentioned guys were already there. Invaluable lessons learned at this club as we used to spend a lot of hours fishing and testing the flies we had tied. This club exists to this day and I am still a member and still enjoying it.

Around this time I went on my first trip to Cape Vidal with DFT. Oh boy, the start of a love affair that has carried on to this day. This place is just so special that I have tried to get there twice a year and sometimes more often, but unfortunately not in the last while though. We have enjoyed some fantastic trips here and caught many species of fish. One particular weekend comes to mind when six of us landed over 400 fish. The fish landed here are mostly small to medium size. Most commonly caught are Shad, Large spot pompano, Cape moonies, Threadfin mullet, Stonebream and Blacktail. In our earlier days up there, we used to catch a lot of Kingfish but unfortunately not so over the last ten years or so. No one seems to have an explanation for this. In the early days there were a good number of us that would drive to Vidal for the day on a Saturday and due to the fishing being so good we would drive back up on Sunday again! Fortunately logic does prevail and we started spending three day weekends there.

It was during 1998 that I stopped the ski boating and rock and surf angling in favour of fly fishing only. This has always been

predominantly salt water, but I do enjoy a bit of fresh water fly as well. During the nineties my work took me to Richards Bay for 2 to 3 days a month. It was during this time I got to know the guys from the Oxeye Fly Fishing Club very well and ended up doing Durban Fly Tyers weekends there hosted by them. It was during this time that I spent a lot of time fishing and finding my way around this harbour.

I think one could spend a week fishing this bay and not fish the same spot twice. Groynes, flats, drop offs, piers and channels. It`s all there and fish in abundance too. I am still good friends with some of the guys there and still get to fish here regularly. One very nice thing is that on our overnight stays here we get to live on board a friends catamaran on the water in the yacht mole.

The North Coast area including Balito, Westbrook, Mdhloti, Tinley Manor, Salt Rock and Sheffield beach are also spots that have been worth visiting over the years. These areas have always produced some really good size Rainbow and Ladder Wrasse, that really give a good account of themselves.

While talking of areas and spots, one cannot leave out Durban Harbour. Without contradiction I think all of us salties started out fishing in the ``BAY``. The bay, now compared to those days, is a very unfortunate mess. The litter and pollution levels are so high that it is quite unpleasant at times. Many species have been caught here on fly. Springer, Torpedo scad, Pick handle Barracuda, many species of Kingfish and never discount the ``Durban Bay Bonefish``. This is the nick name given to Sand Gurnards or correct name Bar Tailed Flathead. With a face only a mother could love, this fish gives a really good fight and they get up to a good size too. If they come to the party, in a session you can easily land a fair number of these fish between 15 and 40 cms.

If it is a quick hour out the house you want, then Casino Beach or the Snake Park beach is a good bet. Due to there being no structure here you are mainly going to catch Large Spot Pompano (Wave Garrick), Cape Moonies and Thorn Fish. No big fish but on the day, they can be plentiful.

If you wander off down the South coast, two good spots are Illovo and Carridene with Carridene being the better. Unfortunately this is no longer a very safe spot to fish due to vagrants living in the dunes in the area posing an ever present threat to safety.

A bit further down the road is Scottburgh, Park Rynnie and Rocky Bay. These stretches offer some really good rocky areas interspersed with sandy beach areas which create some good channels and holes as the tide runs out. Over the rocky places you are liable to encounter the same species as on the North coast and always in plentiful supply are Yellow tail or Black tip kingies and Big eye kingies. These fish will always let you know who is boss and fight you till they are on the beach.

Unfortunately nowadays access is limited to a lot of the good spots both North and South due to development having gone ahead in leaps and bounds along the coast, and in many instances residents not wanting people parking in their neighbourhood because of inconsiderate folk and safety and security issues. A little further down the road we get to Uvongo and the Orange Rocks area. These are the home waters of the gents from South Coast Fly Anglers and I am certain they would be very pleased to host any one who would like to fish this area .

I have also fly fished the East London, Port Elizabeth, Sedgefield and Wilderness areas with varying levels of success and the Cape Town area with very little success at all. I do think the lack of success is probably due to very little time spent in the region.

Over this time this hobby/pastime has brought me into contact with some truly interesting people and I have had the honour

and pleasure of fishing with and learning from some really talented fly anglers. There are days when the fish come to the party and days when they don`t. That is why it`s called fishing and not catching. During the initial clinic with Jack, one thing he said sticks in my mind to this day.

"Your fly rod will take you to some wonderful places, and mine has".