Editorial

EDITORIAL

Happy days, the trout river fishing season is open! Pity about the lack of water but judging from Facebook some good fish have come out of our rivers. Be sure to check out Dave Walker’s Rhodes article and plan to go there - it is not called the centre of the universe for nothing!

This month marks another anniversary. We three men in the editorial boat that is Southern African Flyfishing just completed our first year producing the magazine. It has been a tumultuous, enjoyable and largely successful journey and we hope our readers feel likewise.

We took on the magazine believing that the ordinary flyfisher needed a voice. The steady stream of contributions from flyfishers around the world and the eagerness with which the magazine has been read all bear testimony to the success of this vision.

We have learnt a few important lessons on the way. You can produce a decent flyfishing magazine with minimal advertising revenue and on the smell of an oil rag. Pizazz attracts in the short term but real honest to God content underpins a sustainable publication.

We are very grateful for the support of our contributors. They have kept the magazine full of a diverse range of stories that speak eloquently to our aims of speaking to the kind of flyfishers that most of us are.

We stared thinking that we would theme editions dealing focusing each edition on a particular aspect of flyfishing. Well, that did not work out. Our contributors drive content and we like contributions from authors who are moved to write rather than having to do so. We like the sense of immediate authenticity this gives but it does make pre planning impossible. We are insistent on keeping the magazine largely local and keeping hero shots to the minimum.

Our learning curve is by no means over. We are continuing to evolve both the look and content of the magazine.

This edition demonstrates the broad range of our offering. We bring you a fisherman’s look at the delightful mixed fishing venue that is Verlorenkloof. We look at the divine bamboo that comes out of Edwards Bader’s Studio together with the kind of minimalist tying that is catching Salmon in Denmark.

We then switch to a more traditional vein and take in another of Peter Brigg’s heritage fly offerings. Tom Sutcliffe’s book is reviewed. There is a very good “how to” on catching grunter on fly. Advocates are still working on the trout fight and we focus instead the complicated issue of sharing the fishery as a public resource and what this could mean looking forward. Of course, there is lots and lots more.

Ian Cox

www.saflyfishingmag.co.za