THE FEATHERS AWARD I N O N LY T H E S EC O N D I T E R AT I O N O F T H I S C O M P E T I T I O N , W E W E R E S E R V E D U P O U R F I R S T D R AW. B U T W E H AV E I T O N G O O D AU T H O R I T Y T H AT T H AT ’ S L I K E K I S S I N G YO U R S I S T E R , S O W E FO U N D A WAY T O F I N D A W I N N E R .
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e love the Feathers Award because of all the amazing fish we get to drool over, but in other ways we hate it because it means making hard, incredibly subjective calls about which fish and angler trumps another. This year was no different with some amazing fish submitted and some VERY difficult decisions. Very honorable mentions go to the following: – Richard Langford for his incredible 82cm FL largemouth yellowfish from the Orange river, which was the cherry on top of a phenomenal week where he and his friends caught more fish than they could keep track of, with several 20lb + fish. – Ryan Wienand who caught an immense tarpon estimated at 250lb in Gabon on a trip with our favourite psychopomp guide Arno Matthee whose clients make a habit of catching mega-poons. – David Reverdito’s two largies caught on a tenkara rod. They weren’t the biggest fish, but the way he caught them was not at all easy so he got extra points for melding ancient Japan and Usain Bolt vibes. Ultimately, it came down to two fish, both submitted by two members of Feathers & Fluoro (a reminder about the rules – if a member of Feathers & Fluoro enters the Feathers Award, they are immediately removed from the judging process). Peter Coetzee entered his epic GT caught from shore (somewhere between Tanzania and Durban) and Leonard Flemming entered his amazing Clanwilliam yellowfish from deep in the Cape Fold mountains. In their own way, both of these fish are absolute unicorns, which is why they stood out from the others. Pete’s because a GT of that size along the southern African coast is so rare these days and so difficult to pull off. The man lives and breathes DIY fly fishing and this fish is a testament to that ethos. About this fish Pete says, “Nothing will remind you of fly fishing ineffectiveness like big surf. I’d resorted to looking for structure and a neon blue shape I’d convinced myself couldn’t be a GT turned out to be one, on a sand bank inshore of a rocky bay. I messed up the shot and figured that would be it for this trip, again. There was hope of a repeat of this behaviour under the same tide but nothing materialized, and so it was back to grudge blind casting (I hate it), until I caught some nervous water out the corner of my eye and what I swore was some colour even on a dull day. I got closer and it was clearly a GT. A weirdly blue one. I waited for the suds of a wave and dropped a cast well ahead in the white water. The fish missed on the first attempt but not on the second. Unfortunately for him it was all sand for a good distance. Fishing solo meant my trusty paracord could keep the fish wet as I set up the interval timer for the shot, which so often comes out badly. But more luck was on my side this day.”
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W W W. T H E M I S S I O N F LY M A G . C O M
