Kokstad Fly Fishing Club Flyfishing Festival 2019

The Kokstad Fly Fishing Club hosted it’s 21st Flyfishing Festival over the weekend of 3 to 5 May 2019.

Eighty flyfishermen (and woman) descended onto Kokstad from all over the country. We were treated to a full house, with the festival being fully sold out more than a month earlier. Heavy late summer rains ensured all our dams were full to maximum. This heavy late unseasonal rain did discolor some of the dams, that would make fishing some of the water challenging.

to be very productive. Wayne Miller took the lead with a beautiful 66cm Rainbow caught out of East Hebron. Photos and Wayne Miller's winning fish

The format of the festival is catch and release. Flyfishermen were required to photograph their fish caught in a gutter against a ruler and then safely return it to the water. Trout over 50cm in length could qualify for individual honors.

The festivities started Friday evening at the Kokstad Club with registration, the briefing, and the allocation of dams. This was followed with a braai giving both locals and visitors the opportunity to sample some of the finest meat and hospitality East Griqualand can offer. Stories were told around the fires over a nice cold one while Jamie Renton entertained the folk with song and guitar play. As evening moved to the wee hours of the morning, some brave souls joined in song, or at least something resembling song, breaking the crisp autumn night air with the odd cat scurrying for cover.

Early Saturday morning vehicles carrying kick boats of all sizes and shapes could be seen heading out to the various dams to be fished. The morning session turned out witty remarks were shared of catches and more on Whatsapp, spurring on those less fortunate to keep trying. As the day progressed the weather started to change and the second session during S a t u r d a y a f t e r n o o n t e s t e d t h e f l y f i s h e r m e n ’ s e n d u r a n c e w i t h temperatures dropping and cold mist settling in on the higher situated dams.

Some unfortunate local flyfisherman, that will remain unnamed for his own wellbeing, blamed his wife for removing his warm jacket from his vehicle. He found out the hard way that you always take a jacket or two if you plan to fish EG. On the positive side he did manage to sleep in warm bed that night.

Evening saw flyfishermen, some colder than others, converging on the club to submit their catch returns. Jamie with guitar in hand, soothed the body and soul around the bonfires. Forgotten were the hardships of the day, some good food, fellowship, and lubrication for the creaky revitalizing the participating flyfishermen.

A lovely bright Sunday morning saw near perfect conditions for flyfishing. This proved to be the most productive session of the weekend with a total of 113 trout caught.

Sunday afternoon scores were tallied and the final results were in.

Freddie Marshall Smith

Greg MacCrimmon

www.saflyfishingmag.co.za Return to contents 78 In total 325 trout were caught over the three sessions. It must be noted that some flyfishermen focused more on the festivities than the required paperwork. The quality of the fishing was good with 83 trout caught 50cm or longer. A number of participants managing to get some personal bests catches.

Wayne Miller held on to his early Saturday lead and just managed to pip Jacques Woodstock and Freddie Marshall-Smith in a tight contest for first prize with a very nice 66cm trout. Freddie and Jacques both landed trout of 65cm in length. Freddie entered as a Junior and won overall third place for individuals.

With three ladies competing this year the laurels went to Chantel Joubert. The junior prize went to Joshua Sweetnam.

The team prize for the “longest team bag” caught went to “The Stockies” with a total combined length of 238 cm for their top 4 trout caught over the weekend.

The team prize for the most trout caught went to “Team Evergreen” managing to land 39 trout over the weekend.

There was again a number of lighter moments during prize giving that resulted in some healthy banter.

Stevie Hollow

Some teams did battle to catch some fish over the weekend, however with the emphasis on the “Festival” part, team “Kwa Stop” were the proud recipients of 20 kgs of uncooked rice… since they were not cooking on the water, we could send them home knowing they will be cooking a bit later.

A duckling took a likening to Stevie Hollow and adopted him on the spot. Only time will tell if this is a well hidden duck whisperer skill or whether he merely looks like mother goose. Grant Holl were lucky enough to end with a serious leak on his kick boat. But like any good captain would do, he decided he is here to fish and, if required , will go down with his boat. In anticipation he left all deemed valuable on the bank, including the camera needed to photograph the fish.

Even though he did sign the indemnity form, we felt it was prudent to issue him with some bright orange water wings to add to his fly fishing gear for future events.

Trevor “Toenkie” Shuttleworth donated the one meter (and a bit more) wooden spoon he so meticulously carved over the last year from the 30 cm long plank supplied as part of his “do-it-yourself-wooden-spoon-kit” for his “efforts” during 2018.

Hannes Strydom became the first recipient of the Toenkies’ “Floating” Wooden Spoon for all his endeavors over the weekend. Being a good sport, he took it all in his stride, albeit a short stride… Hannes has the natural ability to turn any shallow end to a deep end. From loosing gear , fish and his only Lunch Bar, he kept everyone else in his team on their toes.

To Hannes, Toenkie and the rest of the crew… A big thank you for making this a memorable festival.

We would like to thank all our farmers that made their dams available to the Kokstad Fly Fishing Club, the Kokstad Club for the use of the venue, and all our sponsors. Without their generosity and support this event will not be possible. 79

Marius Jonker Chairman: Kokstad Fly Fishing Club

The Kokstad Fly Fishing Club is celebrating it’s 30th anniversary this year, being originally established in 1989.

This all started with a itch a few years earlier in the early eighties when Trevor “Toenkie” Shuttleworth, being in dire need of some local trout on the fly, approached some of our local farmers to stock some dams in and around Kokstad. With the waters secured, he and his partners in crime, Neil Fleming and Graham “Judge” Ross, started to privately stock trout into these waters. Within a season or two the dams started to produce some good fishing… Here be trout!

Word started to spread and some local members, seeing the success of Toenkie’s hard work, approached him with the idea of forming a fully fledged fly fishing club. In 1989 the club was founded by Dr John Cornell, Dr Vernon Brown, Peter Powell , and Trevor “Toenkie” Shuttleworth. In the early days the club was run on an by invite only basis. Some got the nod , some did not.

Being a small town this small stumbling block was easily sidestepped when a second group of friends, Trevor Hollow and Gavin Holmes, started another club, the Kokstad Piscatorial Society. Aptly named after one of our neighbouring clubs , the Transkei Piscatorial Society. I do however have it from a bona fide source that they did deliberately misspell “piscatorial” to emphasize the social part of the club. They in turn secured some water and with a growing number of members started stocking waters with trout. For a few years these two organizations ran parallel to each other, raising funds, stocking trout and its members being able to flyfish new waters in East Griqualand.

In the late nineties these two clubs, through mutual agreement decided to combine their waters and efforts to the benefit of all its members. Fly fishing in East Griqualand being the ultimate winner. Some of those very early dams still forming the backbone of our club’s waters up to today. It is 30 years later, and the same itch … the one where members and visitors alike, can enjoy fly fishing for the old quarry in our beautiful EG country side… continue to inspire the younger generation to continue to build on what was started many moons ago. Here be trout... big trout!

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