The Mission Fly Fishing Magazine Issue #35 by The Mission Fly Fishing Magazine

FREE THEMISSIONFLYMAG.COM ISSUE 35 SEPT/OCT 2022 TACO THE ALIEN, THE LOBSTER HATCH, JAN DU TOIT’S, 100 FLY SEASON, KYLE SIMPSON, CLEM BOOTH, BOOZE, BEATS & MORE

- Josh Hutchins, SA Ambassador is not an

AmplitudeFAILURETitanBigWaterTaper

“When it’s time to lock up and hold on, I run SA’s Amplitude Big Water Taper. With 100-lb. monoﬁlament core, nothing gives me a better chance with the reef and an angry Giant Trevally.”

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Swiftcurrent™ Wading Jacket

Built with Bureo’s NetPlus® material, a 100% recycled nylon made from reclaimed fishing nets, the Swiftcurrent Wading Jacket is engineered to cast freely, eliminate line snag and keep water where it belongs—in the river.

Like Cape Town’s most desirable yet average burger joint circa 2012, Tudor Caradoc-Davies was jonesing for the Jan du Toits River, but he wasn’t sure why. A little earlier this year he finally cracked the nod and went up to feast on this fabled Cape stream. 100. 100 WAYS TO LEAVE YOUR LOVER What’s your 34th go-to fly? How about your 87th? Last season Protea fly angler David Karpul set himself an unusual goal – to retire every fly that caught fish on the Cape streams and never fish the same pattern again until he hit 100. Here’s what he learned.

Grappling with some unexpected health challenges, salmon guide Nic Schwerdtfeger went deep into the South African backcountry in order to lose his mind over Clannies and find himself all over again. 58. TACO, THE ALIEN WITH EXTRAORDINARY SKILLS

The guide formerly known as Jako Lucas has surfaced in Texas with a moustache, a mullet and a sweet set-up. He chats to us about guiding for redfish, jacks, tarpon and swamp donkeys in the Gulf of Mexico, friendly locals and living the Seffrican/American Dream. 76. THE DOG’S BOLLOCKS

42. THE LOBSTER HATCH During the filming of tarpon epic Atlanticus, Grant Wiswell and Dylan Rose experienced a ‘langosta’ hopper hatch in Mexico while fishing for juvenile poons. This is their account of how it went down.

22. MAP THE BELOVED COUNTRY South Africa is in the midst of a freshwater fish conservation crisis, but as fly angler Dr Jeremy Shelton of the Freshwater Research Centre explains, there is an easy way for anglers to help protect our freshwater fishes and their river ecosystems.

50. THE HEAD & THE HEART

Cover: The Pledge and The Turn as Jako Lucas swims a popper in his Texas homewaters. Back cover: The Prestige after a jack smashed the same fly. Photos. Will Graham Kyle Simpson risks a turtlegrass vasectomy as he releases a Titan triggerfish between his legs. Photo. Brian Chakanyuka 14 CHUM 20 Booze, Beats & Munchies 30 High Fives 90 Salad Bar 96 Pay Day 98 Little Guy 110 Lifer 114

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Pop Quiz

WWW.THEMISSIONFLYMAG.COM ISSUE 35 SEPT/OCT 2022 CONTENTS

The

I cannot count past my fingers and toes while on the water.

It’s relatively rare, but when this happens to me, I do what I suspect most of us do and I begin to count fish. But, somewhere around 20, I begin to lose track. It might have something to do with the physiological abacus of counting your fingers and toes as a toddler, but it’s like the little fishcounting boat of my brain sails off the edge of the known universe. I like it there. It’s a calm, golden zone where I can answer the question, ‘How was the fishing?” with a truthful yet vague (and somewhat blasé) response like, “I lost count somewhere between 20-30-40-50.”

It’s not that I cannot count to a hundred (though there are definitely solid reasons for why I do not run The Mission’s accounts), but unless I was charged to contribute to a scientific fish survey there is no way I could keep track of a score for that long. How does one even do it? Is it a tangible act, like a notch on a belt, or a click of a clickerEvencounter?ifit was one of those super-productive days, if I tried to count fish my brain would simply reject the urge.

Iwager most of us have had salad days, where the fishing was so good it distorted the very concept of what we consider a ‘good’ day to be. I don’t count the freak places in this (like rainbows at Jurassic, bonefish at Alphonse), nor do I assign it to any notable skill on my or your part. I’m talking about days on regular home-waters where everything just comes together. The pressure gods play ball, the fish are on the prod and fly fishing suddenly seems like the easiest thing in the world.

Because A) I’d be so focused on keeping in the zone with all the variables that fly fishing demands and B) I’d be too busy ejaculating (metaphorically of course) with unbridled joy at the actual fishing to pay attention to something as staid as keeping a fish count. That inner voice would be screaming, “Who cares! Fish before the wind changes!”

I guess it is part of the breadth and depth of each individual’s experience. Fly fishing, like most things in life, takes all types. Take Angel Alvarado, a hyper-coordinated Colombian 19-year-old who broke his own world record by solving three Rubik’s cubes in 4.31 minutes… while juggling them.

TUDOR CARADOC-DAVIES A NUMBERS GAME

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So, when I saw this guy’s tally in a social media post the other day describing a session of exactly 105 fish, it stuck with me for days. Not the exact number itself, nor the urge to share it (let those who hath never humble-bragged cast the first stone), but the idea of that much counting … while fishing.

Maybe Mr 105 fish is the Rubik’s Cube-juggling Angel of fly fishing?

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THE MISSION IS PUBLISHED 6 TIMES A YEAR. THE MISSION WILL WELCOME CONTENT AND PHOTOS. WE WILL REVIEW THE CONTRIBUTION AND ASSESS WHETHER OR NOT IT CAN BE USED AS PRINT OR ONLINE CONTENT. THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS MAGAZINE ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE MAGAZINE OR ITS OWNERS. THE MISSION IS THE COPYRIGHT OF SOUTIE PRESS (PTY) LTD. ANY DUPLICATION OF THIS MAGAZINE, FOR MEDIA OR SALE ACTIVITY, WILL RESULT IN LEGAL ACTION…AND A HIKE UP THE JAN DU TOITS RIVER WITH A BACKPACK STUFFED WITH ROCKS AND ONLY A SWARM OF LANGOSTAS FOR COMPANY @THEMISSIONFLYMAG EDITOR Tudor Caradoc-Davies ART DIRECTOR Brendan Body EDITOR AT LARGE Conrad Botes COPY EDITOR Gillian Caradoc-Davies MANAGING DIRECTOR Ingrid Sinclair ADVERTISING SALES tudor@themissionflymag.com CONTACT THE MISSION The Mission Fly Fishing Magazine for Soutie Press (Pty) Ltd 25 Firth Road, Rondebosch, 7700, Cape Town, South www.themissionflymag.cominfo@themissionflymag.comAfrica CONTRIBUTORS #35 Jared Kohn, David Karpul, Nic Schwerdtfeger, Kyle Simpson, Clem Booth, Tudor Caradoc-Davies, greg Gillowey, Karl Tessendorf, Grant Wiswell, Dylan Rose, Jeremy Shelton PHOTOGRAPHERS #35 Will Graham, Brian Chakanyuka, Jared Kohn, Louis Hiemstra, Platon Trakoshis, Nic Schwerdtfeger, Caleb Bjergfelt, Jako Lucas, Garth Niuewenhuis, Knut Otto, Dylan Rose, Jeremy Shelton, Jamy Silver WWW.THEMISSIONFLYMAG.COM12 Formerly Harare’s most eligible bachelor, these days Platon Trakoshis needs to warm up those BeeGee hips before lunging for fish. (Page 76)

WWW.THEMISSIONFLYMAG.COM CHUM ETERNAL GLORY, GARDEN (ROUTE) SERVICE, INVESTMENT IN GABON, SCIENCE IN SEYCHELLES, ASSSTROLOGY & COMPETITION 14

FISHING CO. Despite the economic turmoil of the past few years, fly fishing is booming. We know that it’s grown massively in the USA (no doubt due to people reacting to social distancing) and on our side of the pond there are new fly shops opening in Joburg, Harare and now… Groot Brak. Yes, this sleepy Southern Cape coastal hamlet between Mossel Bay and George has a new fly shop at Wolwedans Guest Manor opened by guide Dylan Erasmus. Expect a fully stocked shop with tackle brands like Shilton, Rio and Xplorer, fly tying materials and custom-tied flies. Dylan also offers local Garden Route guiding on his Fusion 17 and trips to Sterkfontein, Vanderkloof and abroad. mayflyfishingco.com Nile perch below Murchison Falls, Uganda Tarpon on the Gabon 18,8lbs after 20 years of toil

foot off

beach,

…ENTER…THEFEATHERS

of Clanwilliam yellowfish

AWARD. Our annual celebration of impressive fish and anglers on the African continent, the Feathers Award is not just about big fish (though that can be a factor). We’re also looking for the rare, the daring, the nighon impossible. Did you ride a train through the Mauritanian Sahara to catch Garrick on the beaches of the Atlantic? Perhaps you battled the odds and the elements to land something unusual like a proper Musselcracker, Vundu, Santer or Mpasa (Malwian lake salmon) on fly? Whatever the case, we want to know about it. Previous winners include brothers Barns and Ed Ghaui for their labeo haul in Nigeria and Leonard Flemming for his 20-year quest to catch an 18.8lb Clannie. To be in the running for the 2022 title, mail us a photo and a brief description of what went down to info@themissionflymag.com.

…VISIT…THEMAYFLY

Distributed by Xplorer fly fishing www.xplorerflyfishing.co.za / Contact 031-5647368

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KEEP AN EYE ON… … THE MILKFISH PROJECT. An Alphonse Fishing Co. initiative, The Milkfish Project sees acoustic array tags being inserted into a variety of milkfish and the data logged. Over time as the data feeds in from the project’s ping stations scientists will be able to tell if Alphonse’s milkfish population is resident or if they head off to other parts of the world. Follow @alphonsefoundation and @alphonsefishingco on Instagram for more.

THREE CHEERS FOR…… AFRICAN WATERS’ GABON BEACH CLEAN-UP. We’re regular visitors to Gabon and as amazing as the fishing can be, the beaches are littered with vast amounts of oceanic plastic carried there by the currents. Longtime Gabon operators African Waters have a new project Fifty Pristine Miles where they have committed to a massive multi-year clean-up operation on Southern Gabon coast. Employing a full time crew, and providing the management, logistics and equipment to clean a 50 to 70 kilometre stretch of coastal wilderness, they aim to return the area to a pristine state. africanwaters.net

Libra (Balance): September 23–October 23. Yayzies friend! With your karmic poephol about to expand, it’s time to harness the intensity of Mars, the profundity of Pluto and the inherent change of Uranus. That means it’s time you took some risks. Stand next to your co-ordless friend casting tiger clousers. Piss into the wind after eating asparagus. Withdraw your life’s savings and invest in a 3D printing fly reel Crypto Crossfit hub. What have you got to lose except the will to live itself?

Virgo (The Virgin): August 23–September 22. Just a few short months and then it’s the festive season holidays, which means, sun, warmth and all that fishing you have been promising yourself all year...right? Wrong. You’re thinking like a virgin, Virgo, because the festive season (to put it mildly), sucks balls when it comes to fishing. It’s too hot, there are too many tonsils on jet skis and you are more likely to stumble around in a drunken, over-stuffed stupor than fish. Rather flash that cash and make a plan now for September, October and November. Spring will have sprung, a bunch of fisheries will be firing and you won’t have to squabble over who gets leave.

THE BABER SCOPE

YOUR FISHING FUTURE ACCORDING TO YOUR STAR SIGN AS READ BY BABERMAN, THE LEGENDARY GRUMPY CATFISH.

Largest variety of styles for an even larger variety of patterns Now in easy to identify colour coded packaging available at selected stores Baitfish and bugs for various freshwater species Tie better flies with Grip’s Premium Craft Fur Tel: 013 741 2232 | info@scientificfly.com | www.scientificfly.com Trade enquiries only. A brand proudly owned by ScientificFly

2. Target Species: Yellowfish, Tiger fish, Bass 3. Fly Size Range: 2 – 4 inches 4. No articulated fly shanks are to be used. An articulated fly shank category will run at a later stage. 5. Grip Hooks: 30012, 53584BN, 21571BN

THE ‘SA’S

3. ScientificFly reserves the right to tie any of the winning patterns commercially, credit will be given to the tier. 4. Entries must be commercially tieable with regularly available materials. E.g. do not us unobtainable materials such as the ball hair from the left nut of an unborn ice bear cub. 5. Entry must include: 6. Hook style and size range 7. List of materials 8. Step by step photos 9. Photo of the fly in the vice with Grip products in the background 10. Preferably a photo of a fish caught on the fly 11. The entrant may be required to send a few samples of the fly to ScientificFly upon request. 12. Winners of each issue must send in 3 flies for grand prize 13.consideration.Submityour entries to info@themissionflymag.com 14. Cut-off date for entries is October 24. GOT TALENT’ FLY TYING COMPETITION WITH GRIP HOOKS

Ts & Cs 1. Grip Hooks must be used 2. Grip tying materials must be used but you are not limited to only Grip materials.

Think18 you’ve got skills? Want to see one of your patterns immortalized in South African fly tying like Herman Botes’s Papa Roach or Tony Biggs’s RAB? We’ve teamed up with Arno Laubscher of ScientificFly and Grip Hooks for a multiissue fly tying competition where each category winner gets Grip fly tying material prizes of R500 and the overall winner gets both R3000 of prizes, plus their fly goes into production in the ScientificFly range.

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Judges: Arno Laubscher, The Mission’s Editor-at-large Conrad Botes and former Protea fly fishing captain MC Coetzer. Round 1 of 5: Guidelines

1. Tying Category: Generic freshwater minnow

Mavungana Flyfishing Center Main Road, Dullstroom, 013 254 0270 Mavungana Flyfishing JHB, Shop 3B Illovo Square Shopping Center, 011 268 5850 travel@flyfishing.co.za www.flyfishing.co.za sT FORT - QUALITY day waters mountain lake - TROPHY TROUT CLARENS ASH RIVER - bespoke Drift boat fLY FISHING Mavungana Flyfishing

THE BEATS - SCHIZOPHRENIC TENDENCIES

THE BOOK - POTS, PANS & POTJIES

THE BOOZE - THE (BI-POLAR) PAPSAK

The finest musical export from Cape Town’s northern suburbs since Eben Etzebeth’s debt-collecting uncles dished out sweet chin music in the 70s - Jack Parow also dabbles in booze. After launching a successful brandy a few years back, he is back with a bi-polar papsak (box wine) that’s perfect for weekend warrior getaways. Fresh or salt? East or west? Hot or cold? Red or white? Why choose? With a 1.5L red on one side and a 1.5L white on the other, Heeltyd Speeltyd has you covered for whatever your mission holds. heeltydspeeltyd.co.za

Believe that you are a pretty accomplished braai guy? This cracking new book from Greg Gilowey and Karl Tessendorf (the guys behind travelling TV show, Beer Country, beercountry.co.za), will test you, push you, feed you (very well) and ultimately take your braai game to a new level. Focused on cast-iron, they have a spread of incredible recipes developed and perfected for, well… pots, pans and potjies (what we call Dutch Ovens in South Africa). Anyone can tan a chop or burn some boerie, but can you make a Black Pepper Beef Short Rib Potjie, a lamb shank Vindaloo or a Cape-ssoulet (their take on the classic French dish)? For this issue we opted for that South African classic, Monkey Gland sauce, applied to Greg and Karl’s kick-ass chicken wings. POTS PANS & POTJIES is available from Exclusive Books, Wollworths, Takealot and other outlets. WWW.THEMISSIONFLYMAG.COM

Press Play

Between us, we’re a little divergent in our music tastes at the moment. Conrad (editor-at-large) loves a bit of Ramsstellicalicious thunking in his smallmouth bass and kob pursuits, Bod (art director) embraces the ‘90s shoe-gaze and if Tudor (editor) was a dinosaur he’d be an omnivore. As a result, what we’ve been listening to of late takes you from chaos to calm, braaivleis and balm, and back again. The Animals, Rammstein, Metallica, Guns ‘n Roses, Warmduscher, Toots & The Maytals, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Thom Yorke, Elbow, Spoon, Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV – it’s all in the mix.

FODDER BOOZE, BEATS, 20

Beer Pairing: Greg says, “You need hops and lots of them to cut through these sweet and sticky wings so we recommend a Session IPA, specifically the Darling Brew 4x4 BraaiPA collab we did with them. The aromatics and bitterness are an epic contrast to the caramelised umami overload in the sauce.”

THE BRAAI 20 free-range chicken wings Oil for drizzling Cape Herb & Spice Texan Steakhouse RUB

TO SERVE 2 spring onions (green part only), sliced Pap, Lemon wedges, charred METHOD Drizzle the wings with oil and season with Cape Herb & Spice Texan Steakhouse RUB. Braai the wings over hot coals to caramelise the exterior. They won’t be cooked through, but you want them nice and charry. Set the wings aside.

A BOOK & MUNCHIES

Feeds: 6 • Prep: 30 minutes • Cook: 1 hour + standing time

MONKEY GLAND POTJIE WINGS

South Africa’s famous sweet and tangy braai sauce meets bold Texan Steakhouse flavours in this braai and potjie mashup masterpiece. Thanks to our mates at Cape Herb & Spice for the tasty hook-up!

THE POTJIE Oil for frying 1 large onion, peeled and sliced vertically 50 g butter 4 cloves garlic, chopped A knob of fresh ginger, chopped 1 C tomato sauce 1 C chutney 1 C stout 1⁄4 C Worcestershire sauce 2 Tbsp honey 2 Tbsp brown vinegar 1 Tbsp soy sauce 1 Tbsp Tabasco sauce

To make the potjie, preheat a number 3 potjie over medium-heat coals. Add a splash of oil and fry the onion until soft and starting to brown. Add the butter, garlic and ginger and fry for a minute until fragrant. Stir in the remaining ingredients and simmer the sauce with the lid off until reduced by a third – about 15 minutes. Toss the wings into the potjie and give them a stir to coat in the sauce. Put the lid on and make sure the heat is medium-low, then slowly braise the wings in the pot for 30–40 minutes. Check the pot every now and then to make sure the sauce isn’t catching. Take the pot off the heat and allow it to stand with the lid off for 10 minutes. Season to taste and dress with the sliced spring onions. Serve with pap and charred lemon wedges.

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Every four years South Africa’s National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) takes stock of the country’s biological diversity by undertaking nation-wide assessments of plant and animal life to help focus limited conservation resources where they’re needed most. The most recent National Biodiversity Assessment was completed in 2018 and the results were alarming. Freshwater fish emerged as the country’s most threatened species group and freshwater habitats, (including both rivers and wetlands), have become more degraded than any other ecosystem type. A strong message emerging from the assessment was that urgent conservation action is needed if we are going to save our threatened freshwater fishes and restore the fragile habitats in which they live. The knowledge gap that’s holding back freshwater conservation Critical to successfully conserving our freshwater fishes is a solid understanding of where the different species occur, and how their distributions are changing. South Africa is home to 134 species of freshwater fish (27 of which are non-native species introduced from elsewhere). However, our knowledge about the distributions for many of these fishes, especially the rare and endangered ones, is poor, which is holding back conservation efforts to protect them.

MAP COUNTRYBELOVEDTHE

SOUTH AFRICA IS IN THE MIDST OF A FRESHWATER FISH CONSERVATION CRISIS, BUT WHAT IF THERE WAS A WAY FOR ANGLERS TO HELP PROTECT OUR FRESHWATER FISHES AND RESTORE THEIR RIVER ECOSYSTEMS? AS FLY ANGLER DR JEREMY SHELTON OF THE FRESHWATER RESEARCH CENTRE WRITES, SNAPPING AN IMAGE OF YOUR CATCH WITH A SMARTPHONE AND UPLOADING IT TO A CITIZEN SCIENCE APP COULD MAKE A BIGGER DIFFERENCE THAN YOU THINK.

South Africa’s freshwater biodiversity crisis

24Truth be told, South Africa’s government-funded departments, institutes and organisations mandated to monitor and manage biodiversity simply do not have the capacity to do the surveys needed to track changes in the distributions of our freshwater fishes , a situation highlighted in a 2016 paper by former CapeNature freshwater fish scientist Dean Impson. That is not to say that good work is not being done. Scientists are doing what they can to keep track of which fish are where, but studies and surveys are generally limited to short (typically 2-3 year), grant-linked time scales and usually centre around one or two focal species.

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The rise of citizen science

In short, we are fast losing track of which species occur where, and of how their distributions and populations are changing. This is especially true for rare species or those that inhabit remote or difficult-to-access areas like steep gorges, overgrown tributaries and places off the beaten track.

“URGENT ACTION IS NEEDED IF WE ARE GOING TO SAVE OUR THREATENED FRESHWATER FISHES”

CONSERVATION

iNaturalist – a game-changer for mapping species distributions How the app works: Using iNaturalist is straightforward and the interface is clean, fun and intuitive. Getting started requires three basic steps: (1) download the iNaturalist app and sign up (it’s free), (2) take a photograph of a plant or animal and (3) upload your observation and suspected species identification (your smartphone will automatically share the observation date and location with the app). Any photo records of freshwater fish (taken both above and below water) in South Africa will automatically be added to an iNaturalist project called “Freshwater Fish South Africa” where experts can help with confirming species identifications. But here is where things get interesting: once a record identification has been confirmed by at least two experts, it is considered “Research Grade” and can then be used by scientists in national biodiversity assessments and conservation efforts. Moreover, a new platform called the Freshwater Biodiversity Information System (FBIS) developed by Cape Town-based non-profit the Freshwater Research Centre has engineered a way to harvest research grade fish records and inject them directly into the coalface of freshwater conservation and decision-making at a national level.

The term “citizen scientist” may sound off-putting at first, but citizen science might just hold the key to narrowing the fish distribution knowledge gap and improving freshwater conservation here in South Africa. In essence, a citizen scientist is anybody who makes an observation of a plant or animal, keeps a record of it and shares that record with scientists. But it’s really the advent of the smart phone that has revolutionised citizen science over the last decade. In 2008, a mobile application called iNaturalist was launched and within a decade it became the go-to platform for citizen scientists from around the globe to store and share their biodiversity observations. Today the platform hosts over 100 million biodiversity records, including 1 million records of fish.

By contributing as a citizen scientist, you can help save fragile fisheries and the special fish that live in them like the Clanwilliam yellowfish.

“WE ARE FAST LOSING TRACK OF WHICH SPECIES OCCUR WHERE, AND OF HOW CHANGING”POPULATIONSDISTRIBUTIONSTHEIRANDARE

FLY FISHERMEN

To date, the numbers of iNaturalist records in South Africa for groups like insects and birds are impressive, totaling ~150K and ~130K respectively. Freshwater fish on the other hand, have a mere 1600 records uploaded thus far, with limited contributions by fishermen. However, it’s the fishermen, especially fly fishermen, who are out there on the water catching and observing fish more often than anyone else, frequently in remote and difficult-to-reach places where knowledge of fish distributions is particularly poor. There is thus great potential for fly fishermen to ramp up these observations for the benefit of freshwater fish and ecosystems. Fortunately, the app also has built-in options to obscure or hide exact record locations for cases where one may want to keep the location of the exact location under wraps. As citizen scientists armed with the iNaturalist app, South Africa’s flyfishing community has an opportunity to vastly improve our understanding of our country’s freshwater fish distributions in a way that will help prevent extinctions, keep track of invasive species and better conserve priority freshwater habitats, ultimately promoting more sustainable local flyfishing into the future.

HOW CAN

HELP 29WWW.THEMISSIONFLYMAG.COM

A tale of the tape as Kyle measures the ‘Up Yours!’ end of an Indo-Pacific permit.

1. When a guest arrives with all the gear and I am in the middle of permit land and they start Spey casting with a single hand rod. ”Okay guys, let’s go to this coral head”.

LOW KEY, BUT HIGHLY RESPECTED BY ANYONE WHO HAS EVER FISHED OR WORKED WITH HIM, KYLE SIMPSON IS ONE OF THE STALWART GUIDES OF THE SEYCHELLES, A FREAKISHLY GOOD FLY TYER AND A PRE-EMINENT INDO-PACIFIC PERMIT WHISPERER.

5. Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD). You have to have it.

Photos. Brian Chakanyuka 5 best things about where you guide?

5. Blue Steel Anti-Chafe Cream, so that I don’t start walking like a cowboy. 31WWW.THEMISSIONFLYMAG.COM

HIGH FIVES SIMPSONKYLE

1. Definitely having my family with me and watching my little boy, Maks, grow up and being around all this fishing.

1. Spawning Shrimp. 2. Pillow Talk.

4. Working with a team that not only enjoys guiding and fishing but also understands conserving and protecting this perfect paradise. The tagging projects we get involved in are incredible. Added bonus … we get to catch the Gts and milkfish.

5 fishing-connected items you don’t leave home without before making a mission?

4. When walking an area and your guest is holding his rod across your field of vision. We need the vision for sight fishing.

3. My Yeti bottle with ice cold water… only if the beers are finished.

2. Having the option of moving to all the destinations that Alphonse fishing Co. Has to offer such as Cosmo, Astove, Farquar Alphonse and in particular Poivre Island. I even have the coordinates tattooed on me in case I forget.

5 indispensable flies for saltwater?

4. My Hatch pliers because, for some reason, my teeth stopped biting through 130lb leaders.

3. Trying to get guys to keep their rods down when setting the hook and not to ‘STRIKE’. But, if you are going to ‘STRIKE’ then do it properly.

5. Beer and more Beer. Seybrew at the end of the day is world class. Would have been my number one 1 but thought I would go with the family thing first. Happy wife, happy life.

5. Line management. Good grief! This is by far the worst. Or rolling your boot over your beautiful fly line on the casting platform.

3. Always having the option of catching bone fish if the other bigger species won’t play along.

5 of the most difficult guiding experiences so far?

2. Trying to get someone to see a fish and they don’t speak English. It’s not their fault. It’s just hard. There is only so much I can extend my arm with a fly rod.

1. My Costa Green Mirror sunglasses. I can’t deal with the bright sun. 2. Cataflam and Myprodol. Years of guiding have caught up with me. Some help is needed.

3. Personally tied Alphlexo. 4. Bucktail-tied GT baitfish patterns.

Kyle with a behemoth barracuda caught cruising the Seychelles flats.

1. Grunter. I still can’t catch that thing. 2. Tarpon in the mangroves. 3. Red fish. 4. A tank Atlantic permit. 5. Rooster fish. 5 of the most underrated species in your book? 1. Bones. They are incredible. 2. Boha Snapper. They are an incredibly strong and aggressive fish. 3. Yellow lip and Blue Spangled emperor. 4. Redfanged triggers. 5. Yellow dot or flats trevally. “For some reason my teeth stopped biting through 130lb leaders.”

1. Lots of new friends. 2. A grass hat that had been floating in the ocean for I don’t know how long. 3. Learning different techniques of fly tying from some absolute legendary fly-tiers. 4. Wisdom and appreciation from some of our older but young-at heart-guests. 5. My wife. 5 of the worst things you have picked up from guiding? 1. I think all guides can agree with me on this one - guide’s bad back a real thing. 2. I’ve started to wear Crocs. 3. Biggest hangovers I’ve ever had due to certain groups of guests… you know who you are. 4. Chafing or rash from walking on the flats. Wow, it gets bad. 5. Drinking too much beer. 5 flies to pack (in the smuggler kit under your driver’s seat) to cover most species? 1. Micro Alphlexo. 2. Curlytail (WMD). 3. My flexo. 4. My flexo. 5. My flexo.

1. Christian and Lea Kitchell, we have a connection and we don’t seem to fail. 2. Bo and Kajsa Larsson, absolutely legendary people who I love to be around. 3. Chantal Chone, our grandma of the island who will put most anglers to shame. I this lady on to my biggest permit. 4. Cameron Diaz, because who wouldn’t want to guide her? 5. My brother Brad, because he loves drinking beer with me and talking rubbish. 5 fish on your species hit list?

WWW.THEMISSIONFLYMAG.COM 35 5 of the best things you have picked up from guiding?

5 people you would like to guide?

5 things you are loving right now?

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“MY

FLIES TO COVER MOST SPECIES? FLEXO, FLEXO,

1. Not trusting or listening to their guide. When he says taking beer on the flats increases fish catch, he is being serious. 2. High sticking on big fish. 3. Trying to land a bonefish on their own ... resulting in a broken tip. 4. Bunching up their line while walking on the flats. It’s a disaster waiting to happen. 5. Not putting sun screen on the backs of their hands and feet. If you’re not use to the Seychelles sun, it could ruin your week. 5 essential ingredients for an incredible mission? 1. Beer and extremes. 2. Good gaps in the weather. 3. Wheels that stay on the boat trailer 4. Close mates that will have one in the morning. 5. A bakkie full of fishing tackle, half of which we won’t use. 5 destinations on your bucket list? 1. Mexico. 2. Florida. 3. Exmouth, Australia. 4. Jurassic Lake. 5. New Zealand 5 things you would take up if you weren’t always fly fishing? 1. Indoor cricket. 2. Competitive rock and surf fishing. 3. Surfing . 4. Watching movies. 5. Fishing more. Your last five casts were to…. 1. Permit. 2. GT 101cm. 3. GT 104cm. 4. Permit. 5. Permit.

MY FLEXO”

1. Cheap beer back in South Africa compared to Seychelles prices. 2. Fishing rock and surf. I love doing some bait chucking. 3. Being able to watch YouTube and watch series online with our coconut wifi. 4. Spending time with family at home. 5. Having a nap. You’ve got to love a good nap. 5 common mistakes that most clients make?

A clever little patch to soothe the itching and swelling associated with insect bites. THEMOSKINTOINTELLIGENTPATCH R ITCHING? 24 Plaster TRYMOSQUITO?MOSKINTO! Moskinto is distributed by Olney Marketing and is available at all Transpharm leading pharmacies. For more info, go to transpharm.co.za

‘LOBSTER’THEHATCH IF YOU BOOK A TRIP TO A JUVENILE TARPON NURSERY ON THE MEXICAN COASTLINE, YOU MIGHT GET VERY LUCKY AND ARRIVE AT THE SAME TIME THAT A SWARM OF HOPPERS DESCENDS. IT’S AN EVENT THAT OCCURS EVERY FEW YEARS AND IT HAPPENED DURING THE MAKING OF TARPON FILM ATLANTICUS. FILMMAKER GRANT WISWELL AND DYLAN ROSE OF FLY WATER TRAVEL WERE THERE. By Tudor Photos.Caradoc-DaviesDylanRose

Grant says, “He said we were going to catch 20 fish a day and that it would be a lot of fun, because they’re pretty much just the smaller version of these big adult beasts. On average the fish we were catching varied from 5-8lbs on the small end and on the big end, probably 25 pounds.”

Remember Atlanticus, the incredible 2017 film where Grant Wiswell, the man behind Castaway Films took us on an epic journey to Gabon, Mexico, Costa Rica etc. in search of massive tarpon? I went to each of the South African Fly Fishing Film Tour events in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg and distinctly remember that some of the biggest crowd reactions came not from the giant poons as you might expect (though those got predictably loud ‘yohs’ and ‘jislaaaaaiiiks’ too), but from scenes where juvenile poons smashed huge, green hopper flies.

What no one could have predicted was how good their timing was, because shortly after they arrived a Biblical hopper hatch kicked off.

There’s so much that we are blissfully unaware of in the natural world that when something unpredictable and unusual happens – like a massive swarm of insects descending on an area seemingly out of nowhere – it’s hard to understand where they came from and why. Whether it was temperature, wind, soil, food availability or something else, one morning when everyone woke up at Tarpon Cay Lodge, things were…different.

For Atlanticus, Grant was trying to get away from the overly obvious tarpon locations like the Florida Keys. He says, “We had reached out to different people trying to find unique tarpon destinations. Dylan Rose and the guys at Fly Water Travel hooked us up with some folks in Panama, at a place called Tarpon Villa. That’s more of a big river mouth estuary, brown water fishery, which was a neat experience. Once we hooked up with them they said, ‘You have got to go meet this guy named Marco Ruz.”

“Dylan says, “It was this weird thing were there were suddenly these 4-6 inch hoppers crawling on the walls of the lodge, in the marina and they were all over the water, trapped in the film. They’re huge, not at all agile and terrible fliers, like B52 bombers.”

Grant says, “I just remember waking up one morning and there’s these huge grasshoppers all over the place. They weren’t there the first morning. I remember talking to the guides asking, “What is this?” and they say, no, it’s ‘langosta’ which in Spanish means both ‘lobster’ and If‘hopper’.”youget aroused by Latin names, according to the homework Grant has done on these hoppers, he believes they are Arphia pseudonietana or red-wing grasshoppers in the common tongue. They hatch periodically (every four to seven years) in humongous swarms in southern Mexico’s Yucatan region.

THE HATCH

“THE FISHERY SITS IN A PROTECTED BAY WITH SHALLOW TANNIC WATER, MANGROVE SYSTEMS, BEACHES AND SOME FLATS”

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Grant and Dylan linked in with Marco who runs Yucatan Fly Fishing (yucatanflyfishing.com) and visited one of his four fly fishing operations, Tarpon Cay Lodge. The fishery sits in a protected bay with shallow tannic water, mangrove systems, beaches and some flats. While Grant and Dylan were there they ran the boat for about an hour and a half to a specific spot where Marco pinned a 150lb tarpon, so you can target larger migratory tarpon if that’s all that gets you out of bed in the morning. Snook and barracuda are also on the menu. However, Tarpon Cay is first and foremost a tarpon nursery. You go there to tackle juvenile poons on lighter tackle than you would use for migratory Accustomedtarpon. to the troughs and peaks of migratory tarpon fishing, Grant was expecting more of the same - long slow days with the odd fish every now and then. Marco told him to expect something quite different.

Personally, I think about those scenes at least once a week. I think it’s because - whether you grew up going for trout, yellows, bass or bluegill - fish annihilating terrestrials is something thatmost fly anglers can relate to. Seeing juvenile tarpon (which to be clear are roughly the size of adult Atlantic salmon), smashing hoppers the size of your hand, it’s a louder, relatable echo of something you already know and a style of fishing you probably love.

THE LOCATION

“THE JUVENILES DO THE EXACT SAME THINGS THE BIG ONES DO – THEY CAN BE AGGRO, GO AERIAL, BE CHALLENGING OR EASY.”

Grant says, “You never really know where they’re going to hatch, but when these things come, it’s like millions of them. Farmers hate them, because they destroy crops. I remember when I was younger, my dad would take me to the Henry’s Fork. We’d go fish salmonflies in the box canyon. You know when you’re fishing and all of a sudden you get hit on the back of the neck by one of these things? These hoppers did the same. When they fly into you they have a real mass to them. They were everywhere, flying in, landing in the mangroves or forming little colonies. Then they’d take off in a group, but end up in the water. I don’t know if the tarpon were keyed into them specifically or if they were just opportunistic but they reacted to these things kind of panicking on the water.”

THE FLIES While the arrival of langosta swarms is not unheard of, guides’ fly boxes were not stocked with any imitative patterns. At the time no one aside from Marco seemed to realise that the hoppers might trigger the tarpon so on the morning the hoppers appeared he sent Dylan and Grant out for the day with a bunch of big green poppers. While those flies caught fish, it was a couple of weird, googly-eyed gurglers sitting in one of Dylan’s fly boxes that did the damage. You know the kind of flies you tie that sit in your fly box for years and stare back at you, but that you never really fish? Those flies. Grant says, “Dylan became the most popular guy in camp, because for some reason he had these green and yellow

WWW.THEMISSIONFLYMAG.COMgurglers.”

Grant says, “How the fish reacted depends on each fish’s personality. Baby tarpon are like adult tarpon, just a 10th the size. I remember being in Florida and having a hundred pound tarpon, sipping something off the top, just like a trout might take a mayfly and then other times you’re going to lose the rod out of your hand because they pull so hard. Fishing the hopper hatch, sometimes we would leave our flies out there dead drifting and they would come up. But, for the film we were trying to have something that was more exciting so we mostly fished popper-style. That would get them energized and they’d come up and whack it.” For both the film and his own kicks as an angler, the experience was a special one for Grant. Having travelled all over the show to shoot the footage for Atlanticus, he had sacrificed tons of fishing time in special locations.

“WE MOSTLY THATPOPPER-STYLE.FISHEDWOULDGETTHEMENERGIZED AND COMETHEY’DUPANDWHACKIT.”

Does that mean you should ignore fisheries that are all about juvenile tarpon? Well, put it this way. If trout anglers can delight in small fish as much as they can Jurassic bows, why the hell would you not want to dance with mini-poons, especially when they eat hoppers?

Dylan frames it this way. “In terms of saltwater fly fishing, I’d say this is the next step up from a bonefish trip and the one you do before you do a permit or migratory tarpon trip. It’s affordable and a lot of fun, because the juveniles do the exact same things the big ones do – they can be aggro, go aerial, be challenging or easy. Plus, we’ve just heard from Marco that the Langostas are back this season!”

THE TAKEAWAY Do you need/want a three-figure tarpon? Of course you do (after all…how else will you achieve peak Andy Mills goals?).

“Usually with fishing I’m that guy who is always a week late. I think if I had a penny for every time that somebody told me, “you should have been here last week”, I could probably finance the next fishing trip. Experiencing this hatch was just a weird thing that I feel really grateful for. We really were giving everything we had to the film. It was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. We could have gone there two weeks later and completely missed that experience. I think there was some divine providence smiling down on us.”

THE ACTION Armed with 8-9-weight rods and their gurglers and poppers, Grant and Dylan set to work imitating drowning Langostas.

Obviously, insect swarms are too unpredictable for lodge owners like Marco or travel operators like Dylan to market trips guaranteeing the phenomenon. However, don’t bet against science soon changing that. By analysing soil moisture and texture, plus dispersal wind patterns, scientists are getting pretty good at predicting when swarms of hoppers and locusts will hit and where they will go. Hell, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation even has someone who’s job title is ‘senior locust forecasting officer.’ Our point (other than that you should start tracking global hopper hatches)?

If you visit this area you may just hit the jackpot and get there amid a hopper infestation. At the very least you will still get to smash juvenile poons hand over fist in shallow water.

For more information and to book a trip to this fishery email Dylan at dylan@flywatertravel.com

Photos. Nic Schwerdtfeger, Caleb Bjergfelt

Praise for Satthipatana Sutaa - Anālyo I was zoned in. I’d just come back from my first ever trip to the majestic Orange River where I’d pinned my first largemouth yellowfish and smallmouth yellowfish. I finally had time, enough cash to fill the Land Cruiser and a girlfriend willing to follow me wherever the fishing conditions looked good. I should probably mention where my head was at as well…

GRAPPLING WITH SOME UNEXPECTED HEALTH HURDLES, SALMON GUIDE NIC SCHWERDTFEGER GOES DEEP INTO THE CAPE BACKCOUNTRY IN ORDER TO LOSE HIS MIND OVER CLANNIES AND FIND HIMSELF.

mutant alternate version of Nic. Too weird to live, to rare to die. I was held hostage by inescapable feelings of despair and that everything was bound to fail. Panic attacks would hit me while grocery shopping with my girlfriend, Sarah, turning minutes into what seemed liked hours in a state of paranoia and fear. Fishing was a form of escapism, both physically and mentally. I learned to appreciate just being somewhere beautiful and not letting my head get the better of me. And, to be brutally honest, it took away the delusions of wanting to drown myself. Ja. It was bad. At a certain point the fish became irrelevant. You hear a lot of “But a good

During the height of lock down 2020 (where I was held captive in my own garden) and after having forged permits to travel over provincial borders, every opportunity to fish became worth so much more. Fishing offered me great solace at a time when I was in the deepest, darkest hole I have ever found myself in. Depression and anxiety tormented me on a daily basis. Throw in being separated from family and friends and my efforts to come to terms with a recently diagnosed heart condition and my head was in a pretty bad place. I wasn’t myself but some abstract

“Such a joy it can be When the mind is free Even if Temporarily”only

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ANDHEADTHETHEHEART

mission is still good” and “Whoever has the most fun wins” but, let’s acknowledge that we all have a wet spot for a fat (insert your target species here) in the lap. I simply didn’t care. Just getting out and rigging up a rod was a massive accomplishment at a time when getting out of bed at the crack of noon felt like the apocalypse. A week after returning from that mega successful semi DIY trip on the Orange River, I had thought it would be cool to at least try and chuck a fly for a “Clannie” (Clanwilliam yellowfish) which are endemic to a small area around the ancient, rugged, mountainous landscape of the Cederberg and northern desert areas bordering the Northern Cape.

As ridiculous as it sounds, having never caught a clannie (apart from on a piece of salami when I was in eight on a Christmas holiday) I was confident that I was all of a sudden going to bhepa one of South Africa’s most tricky fish on fly. At least that’s what my ego told me after my success on the Orange. I didn’t even know what the bloody things ate, let alone their feeding patterns.

What a stage to chase fish that were elusive, rare and very full of shit. I had planned a little road trip to an established clannie spot. The goal was to do some roof-top tenting and show Sarah, a Norwegian, some other parts of our beautiful country.

It was a valid comment but, having seen a few drowned vehicles before, I wasn’t keen to try. You either make it here or you don’t. I waded the river to check, which one should always do when attempting to wade a 4x4. Walk the channel. Take a stick. Poke in the ground as you walk. Always account for the substrate sinking or moving. Don’t be that guy. Because if you’re that guy, I’m the guy that has to save your Ford Ranger and you’ll owe me a pack of lamb chops! No way. The shallowest part through a bad line was at least belly button deep which, on a raised 105 series Land Cruiser with the tyres deflated to 1.0bar with a snorkel, is over the window line. No bueno. Shit. After finally accepting defeat and with a swift departure planned for the next morning, I relinquished my fantasies of golden scales and a bent 6-weight. Disappointment had long since floated by and I had accepted that I was probably just going to be spending time outside with Sarah. Then that evening a very interesting conversation occurred between myself and our friend from the road, “Yeehaw” De Villiers.

“You’ll probably make it.”

Okay, pause. I need to fill you in on this dude’s appearance. Think Mad Max meets No Country for Old Men. He had some cowboy boots, the wild Oakleys, a home-made waistcoat of sorts and some faded tattoos that were probably also home-made. A “toppie”that had definitely, “seen some shit,” he lit one Winston Red off the previous one as he explained with his belt-sander voice that I either had to have some serious balls or be prepared to potentially lose a vehicle in the river.

This living fossil of a man coughed, eyeing the Land Cruiser up and down as we slowed to say hi while passing each other on the narrow gravel road.

WWW.THEMISSIONFLYMAG.COM “TWO BAREFOOT ROGUES WITH HEADS FULL OF SKETCHY IDEAS, AND 33” ALL-TERRAIN TYRES TO TAKE US THERE.”

I’m deliberately being secretive about the location of these places due to their sensitive nature. They’re in pristine environments that cannot handle a lot of fishing pressure. I do not claim ownership or have any sense of entitlement towards these places and I’m happy to take a friend or two, but no more. They guys that know about these spots also know not to talk too loudly about them for the same reasons. The attitude is based on conservation and maintaining relationships with current land owners to ensure that until such time that Cape Nature and the powers that be take proper action to ensure the wellbeing of the biosphere, our lips remain sealed. This spot can’t afford to have three Hiluxes braaing and spinning off the bank leaving beer cans and plastic in their wake. If you would like to go fish there and your attitude harmonises with mine, slide into the DM’s and let’s make a mission.

52We set out none the less… roof tent folded down, rods packed back in tubes and off we went. We were two barefoot rogues with heads full of sketchy ideas, and 33” all-terrain tyres to take us there. Sarah, loves a good mission, generally the wilder the adventure the longer she can stay awake riding shotgun. Having looked at Google Maps and Tracks4Africa, together with my sheer planning genius, daring spontaneity and “don’t worry, I used to live here when I dropped out of school to go climbing” attitude, I got us properly stuck. Hours of driving on horribly corrugated dirt roads, dust, heat and frustration were the key ingredients to make a pleasant countryside cruise an actual misery.

“Make what?” I asked. He lowered his Vin Diesel inspired head-wrap-around Oakleys and pointed to a thicket of acacias. He proceeded to tell me about the chest high torrent on the other side that was pushing over the only road to our final destination.

I was pissed. Four hours of driving on shite roads and then this. Stopped cold in my tracks. Me. The adventure planner. The organiser. The operator. The ‘always have a back-up plan’ guy. Stopped by a river.

Sarah, meanwhile, was loving this. “Just go, we have a snorkel.”

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“Oh really. That’s interesting. Please tell more,” I said while calmly tucking my proverbial spontaneous fish boner into my Wakingwaistband.upthe next morning, sitting with toes in the sand and instant coffee in hand, I decided that instead of the hasty getaway I had planned, we would have a chilled breakfast, and then I would rig up a rod and take my box of Orange River largie flies for a walk.

The smaller of two special Clannies Nic caught on consecutive days.

“So, are there any fish in this spot?” I asked casually around the “Ja,braai.afew bass here and there and these other yellow things, yellowfish, eeehhrrrm, I think Clanwilliam yellowfish.”

I disappeared into the fynbos and shale-scattered landscape in search of an entry point to the river. I was anxious. But for a change it was the good kind of anxiety, the kind before you go fishing - excited but focused. It was a refreshing change to get my head into a new space after weeks and months of long, mostly panic-filled days. My trick for managing my “bad” anxiety was to be present, to be aware, to be in the now. That required acknowledging all of the senses, the sights, sounds, smells, tastes. Meditation, not medication is what worked for me to be able to have the clarity to find this calm. After walking a fair bit, I looked at the water colour, depth and speed at the little hole in the tree line where I could make a few difficult casts. Salmon fishing has 54

I was boxed in by trees that I had to creep through to get to the water’s edge. No plan there. The only option was getting wet. I was waist deep and stretching the rod around some trees watching my backing disappear very quickly. I was really getting spooled. I tightened up as much as I could on the 12lbs fluoro I had on. It slowed. Slowly. Very gently that fish came to a stop and turned out of the fast main current. I had less than 10 winds of backing left before the tiny naked arbor of my reel. I had to operate now. I had to get some line back, and I was winding furiously on the tiny reel to fill that spool as quickly as possible. I got to within 10 metres of the fly line and she picked up and took off again. Same story. Palms sweaty, mom’s spaghetti. I was genuinely excited but also nervous because any fish, no matter what it was on the other end, would have to be worth its salt to peel off so much line so quickly. I’m always fascinated to look at fish up close and this unexpected steamrolling I was receiving peaked that fascination.

After the second run I managed to get some line back again and the fish came to the surface to give me a glance at the shape and colour. Shit. A big carp. Dammit. I had so hoped it was a clannie. Regardless, this was a big carp, new PB territory big. I was stoked to land it and snap a pic anyway. Five minutes later, after very precariously having to tail the fish on a tiny little bank, I realised this wasn’t a carp. It was a plump, gracious, hydrodynamic machine that glistened gold and hues of olive. I had a 10lbs Clanwilliam yellowfish lying at my feet and I lost the plot for a few seconds. I just sort of stood there, puzzling at this amazing creature that I had spent the better part of 15 mins having an altercation with. My reel was in the sand, but that didn’t matter. I was wet, but that didn’t matter. My hero shot of the fish was shit, but that didn’t matter. I had just caught the fish of a lifetime after 10 casts. That mattered. I let that set in. I had caught three yellowfish species within a week. The most difficult one being a trophy-sized fish. I was aware of what I had just done, present in the moment. The fish safely released, I sat there for a bit just staring into nothingness, absorbing it all and trying to calm down enough to gather my Thethoughts.trifectacomplete.

The river pig turned and aimed straight downstream taking with it an entire flyline and 20 metres of backing in the first run. I was being smoked. This was a good fish. I was stuck.

taught me a whole lot when it comes to reading water in rivers, and I decided to swing the fly around some bigger submerged boulders I could see. I made a few short casts in the head of the pool, just getting a feel for the olive Muishond I had tied on. I made a few casts to try to imitate the fly falling into the water from a higher rock or tree, then let it sink a few seconds and I had to keep mending the belly of the line to get the fly down. I made a few longer casts but was very wary of the kameeldooring trees that surrounded me. The fly came round on the last swing and I bumped it a few times on the straight line before that ever-cautious first strip. As I thought, I had waited too long and the fly had fouled somewhere on submerged trees. I lifted the rod and put some tension on the line to free it. Then the submerged tree woke up. One head shake, two head shakes, BOOM BOOM. KNOCK KNOCK. SET THE FUCKING HOOK NIC. I set properly with two big yanks on the 6-weight and then it was sheer chaos.

Yellowfish ticked. It’s not like this quelled the urge to go try hammer more fish. I messaged clannie expert Leonard Flemming and asked, “Hey dude, what’s considered a good sized clannie?” He didn’t need to answer. I knew I had smashed it.

A year later, somewhere downstream on the Orange on another epic DIY-ish trip I was hosting for my close mates, my good friend Glen gave me a small mountain of psychedelic mushrooms that would, unbeknownst to me at the time, change my life. After weeks of exhaustion from living a double life by “having to play it cool” on the outside while living in a perpetual nightmare on the inside, I would say the transformation has been nothing short of breath-taking. The path of spirituality that has chosen me has been a refreshing start to live with right intention, right speech and right action. Me being the best of version of myself, not only for myself, but for those around me.

As I sit here proof reading this jumble of words in the guide house on the Gaula River in Norway after having the best guiding season of my career so far, I have to thank Leroy Botha for inspiring me to pull finger and write this. His piece in a previous issue speaking about his bi-polar superpower reminded me that mental illness isn’t a disability. I’m so proud of myself for baring my soul and my inner demons to the world. Every day I am empowered, humbled and grateful and living with the prospect of heart surgery.

I haven’t had a severe anxiety attack in many, many months. But all of that’s a story for another time, and boy it’s a good one.

I’m Nic and I don’t need a cure for me. 56

I cleaned my reel and walked home. The next day I took Sarah with me. I changed the fly and I hooked another fish within five minutes of fishing. It was slightly smaller but honestly more beautiful than the previous day’s one, and Sarah was there to capture that moment properly. This is the fish I came for, the one I planned for, and it worked perfectly. Maybe I wasn’t a shit fisherman. Maybe I was in the right place, at the time and I didn’t fuck it up. I did everything right. And sometimes, that’s all we need to do, simple as it may sound. When you break it down, and don’t overthink - maybe I should have added a rattle to that, or more flash to this - you just need to fish. Stop puzzling, get out and start fishing more. Later that evening, I went on a recce downstream. I saw fish but had no desire to catch them. I just observed and observed as a 12-13lbs clannie grubbed in the shallows next to a drop of. I was content with how my situation had gone from bad to worse and then to the best fish I caught in 2020. As I sat, I was channelling my inner Len, trying to assimilate this knowledge into tools for the next trip back I was already planning. I wasn’t anxious. Finally, I wasn’t depressed. A moment of calm and inner peace flooded over me as I just took in the last 48 hours and I was in awe of the scenery. I had defined my own success and kicked myself out of my comfort zone and done something that had brought me happiness, something that had become so foreign of late.

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TACOTHEALIENWITHEXTRAORDINARYSKILLS MOUSTACHE – CHECK MULLET – CHECK SLIGHT TWANG TO THE ACCENT, AS IF HE’S A TEXAN WITH BILTONG FUTURES IN PRIESKA OR A SOUTH AFRICAN GUIDING IN TEXAS – CHECK. FISHIN’ ‘DUNGAREES, BIG-ASS TRUCK, KICK-ASS BOAT, PLUS A BUNCH OF OTHER ADJECTIVE-ASS NOUN STUFF. CHECK CHECK CHECK CHECK. LIKE A CATERPILLAR INTO A BUTTERFLY, THE INDIAN OCEAN FLATS GUIDE AND FILMMAKER FORMERLY KNOWN AS JAKO LUCAS , IS GRADUALLY TRANSFORMING INTO A TEXAN CALLED TACO . WE CAUGHT UP WITH HIM AT HOME IN PORT O’CONNOR TEXAS TO SAY, ‘HOWZIT BOET?*’ Photos. Will Graham, Jako Lucas

JL: Blue Book. Mariette and I are starting the citizenship process in September and the only reason for my answer is because of the access an American passport gives you from a traveling point of view. We are definitely going for dual citizenship. I would never give up my South African citizenship. I consider myself 100% South African.

JL: Boerie. TM: Bokke or Eagles? JL: Bokke. TM: Afrikaans Bray or Texas Twang?

“THE OTHER SNEAKY THING ON THE TEXAS COAST IS A TARPON FISHERY - IT’S VERY FICKLE. YOU NEED TO KNOW ALL THE ELEMENTS FOR A GOOD TARPON DAY”

JL: One of my guide friends, Owen Gayler, has daughters who couldn’t pronounce Jako, so they have dubbed me ‘Taco’, so now my name is Taco. My wife Mariette even calls me Taco. It’s become a thing. Taco Lucas. Captain Taco. TM: From guiding in the Seychelles to moving to the USA, how did you land up in Texas?

JL: No, we’re living the American Dream. We’ve got two homes now, one in Port O’Connor and one in Austin. As funny as the politics and all the craziness of the US is, the opportunities to make a great living and set yourself up for life are so good. My guiding schedule is busy now because I have always had a mindset that I picked up from other people I admire and look up to. That is that I always try to be the hardest working person in the area. If the other guides stop guiding at 3 o’clock, then I want to stop at 4 o’clock. If they get up at 5am, I want to get up at 4am. I want to make sure that my clients know I am going the extra mile for them. Mariette is based in Austin where, within three years, she became director at a law firm, just through hard work. We’ve recently finished building the house here which I’ll use as a guesthouse and a second home for Mariette when she wants to break away from Austin. We’re very privileged and very lucky. Also, we don’t have stuff like loadshedding...

The Mission (TM): Howzit. Jako Lucas (JL): Howzit. TM: Lekker. JL: Kief. TM: Good, small talk aside, first-off we need a rapidfire citizenship test. JL: Shoot, questions… not guns. TM: Boerie or burgers?

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JL: Bray. TM: Green Mamba or Blue Book passport?

In Texas I got to know local guide JT van Zandt and some of the guides that are Yeti ambassadors. I explained that I would really like to continue guiding, but that I couldn’t do the long stints overseas in remote locations. I would like to be with Mariette, but I would like to have my bread buttered on both sides, to be able to guide and be with her on weekends back home. So, I started studying the Texas coast and ended up in a little town called Port O’Connor. I looked at a lot of different places like Port Aransas and Rockport, but what I saw out there in terms of the potential of the guiding brought me to Port O’Connor and that’s where we are now. We’ve just finished building a house here that I can accommodate my clients in. I’ve got my skiff here and the guiding is full on. Having guided here for only five years - not to flex in any way - my schedule is completely booked out for 2022 and 2023 is nearly full. That’s thanks to a combination of Covid helping people realise what fishing they have close by and by hard work.

JL: We’d always wanted to move to the US, but we knew it was a very hard process as a South African citizen and not having any other passport. Neville, the South African owner of Thomas & Thomas, helped us with that whole process. With a lot of the work I have done and the different companies that I work for, plus Neville’s help and a lawyer, we managed to get an 01 visa, which is called an, ‘alien with extraordinary ability’. We went over to Massachusetts to Greenfield where Thomas & Thomas is based, set up shop there for a little bit, helped with marketing, social media and new rod designs. We ended up in Texas after I was invited by the Yeti guys to come to Austin for one of the Fly Fishing Film tour events. Because Mariette and I had such a great time there - Austin was one of the quickest growing cities in the USA at the time - we decided to move there. I was actually on a photo shoot fishing trip with Christiaan (Pretorius), Oliver (White) and Blane (Chocklett) in Baha, Mexico, while Mariette flew over to Austin and bought us a new home. We drove down from Massachusetts to Texas, unpacked and ten days later I went to Mongolia to guide.

TM: So are you both based full-time in Port O’Connor?

TM: Hmmm, 3/4, it’s a pass but the jury’s out Jaco. Or, should we call you Taco? What’s with the new name? Operating incognito?

Whether Jako or Taco, Captain Lucas will engage in his trademark ‘Jakoing’ wherever he fishes.

JL:stones!Okay ja, you’re right. We were lucky in that our home had the right service provider. In all honesty, one of the reasons Texas is such a great place is that it’s the closest feeling we have to South Africa in terms of the weather and the diversity, especially in Austin with the different kind of people and different ethnicities. People are friendly.

The way I have approached this was to overwhelm them with kindness. Eventually they couldn’t not wave at me anymore, at the risk of looking like douchebags in front of clients. Now, after this five year period, they welcome me. Still, nothing is spoon-fed. You have to figure out the fishing yourself and stay out of their way. The one thing I did was, if I ever saw them on the flat or in a certain area, which you do often, instead of going in close by, I would leave that area and make a new plan, even if it changed my whole idea for the day. I simply had to do that. Social media does not reflect that stuff.

People think they need to be welcomed from the get go. You have to grind it out. You get sworn at. I got told ‘fuck you’ many times. It is what it is. That stuff fuels me to show these guys who the hell I am.

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TM: How friendly are they when you are an outsider coming in to guide? Surely that takes a little bit of time to win people over?

Texans are loud and proud about being Texans, but they are good people.

They slowly started seeing what I was about. There were lots of times that I would wave to them and try and be polite and they wouldn’t wave back.

TM: Bollocks, Texas got loadshat last year. Don’t throw

TM: Forrest Gump-style on the shrimp boat waving at Lieutenant Dan? Exactly, the full dummy face and just waving, that’s me!

Texans are really kind people, but still I cannot fathom when you wave at someone and they do not wave back.

JL: My experience of it is, in a place like this, in saltwater, that you have to earn it. Before I started guiding I checked with as many people as I possibly could, reached out to some of the OG guides who have been guiding here for 20 plus years. In the beginning there was no friendliness, no kindness. They were like, “Okay cool, we’ll see what you can do, but you will probably not make it here”. They make you work for it, but again I did it very politely. I told them who I was, that I was here to make a living and I didn’t want to just take from the area and go away from it.

“JACKS ARE STILL REGARDED AS A TRASH FISH BUT I WANTED TO TAKE THAT STIGMA AWAY FROM THEM”

TM: What drew you to this area specifically? Did you go out with someone like JT van Zandt, have a great experience and go, “Holy shit, this is where I want to be!”?

WWW.THEMISSIONFLYMAG.COM

The other sneaky thing on the Texas coast is a tarpon fishery.

However, it’s very fickle. You need the right conditions. So even if people know that the tarpon are out here, you would need to know all the elements that make a good tarpon fishing day. The tarpon that come here are ones that migrate through from Mexico. They can vary in size but there are some giants here. When the tarpon fishing is on fire here it is on FIRE. They eat anything. It’s not like the Islamorada or Florida Keys tarpon that are picky. These things eat anything you put in front of them. I used GT flies the other day, big brush flies, sempers… all that stuff was working. They would come right out of the water to eat them. The biggest one this season so far was 171lbs, but we’re still getting into our prime tarpon season. For that I have to give a shout out to a good friend of mine who I got to know really well here, Noah Thompson. He’s from Austin and has fished Port O’Connor for a long time and showed me some very cool stuff.

“A redfish is one that goes from a baby to 34 inches. Once they go above that they are just referred to as bull redfish.” 66

JL: There are a lot of options. It has tough fishing as in any other fishery and it’s a very difficult fishery to get to know because it’s such a vast piece of water. There are a lot of shallow areas and in places you can’t see because the water is dirtier. I would say it’s the most difficult place for me to learn how to navigate that I’ve ever been to.

JL: Yes, I went out with JT before moving here. He specialises in, and is very good at, shallow water red fishing, which is spectacular. They’re like bonefish with their tails out. We call them belly-crawlers where they will swim in water so shallow their backs are out and all they can do is crawl their body around. I loved that sightfishing element. For a Yeti backpack shoot we went along the beaches and I really liked that, fishing in the surf. I spent a little bit of time in that area but I noticed that there wasn’t access to different species of fish. As soon as I came to Port O’Connor I started noticing deeper water areas and easier access to the Gulf of Mexico. Then you start looking at all sorts of other species. Some of my favourite ones are the big jacks. They are insane. They are my GT away from home. They act the same, fight the same, everything. At a certain time of the year, we have access to really big redfish. Something that a lot of people don’t understand is that a bull red and a redfish is the same thing. A redfish is one that goes from a baby up to 34 inches. Once they go above that they are just referred to as a bull redfish. I’ve landed bull reds here up to 52 inches, which is calculated close to 50lbs+. These ones come in here to feed hard and we caught one the other day that was definitely 45lbs. Just giants.

TM: What sort of a fishery is it? All shallow stuff, some deep-water fishing too?

“THERE ARE A LOT OF SHALLOW AREAS AND IN PLACES YOU CAN’T SEE BECAUSE THE WATER IS DIRTIER. IT’S THE MOST DIFFICULT PLACE TO NAVIGATE THAT I’VE EVER BEEN TO”

“THE BEAUTIFUL THING ABOUT BLACK DRUM IS THEY’RE A VERY VISUAL FISH. THEY WILL BE TAILING ON THE FLATS AND YOU’LL SEE THIS MASSIVE FLIPPER COME OUT.”

TM: What about other species?

JL: The Swamp Donkeys! They’re in the same family as the redfish. Black drum get even larger, up to about 100lb. The biggest one I got on the flats here was around the 60lb mark, there are some absolute giants. They don’t put up a hard fight, that’s a little bit of a let-down, especially for their size. They will bulldog around but they don’t run or do all sorts of crazy stuff. The beautiful thing about them is they’re a very visual fish. They will be tailing on the flats and you’ll see this massive flipper come out. They are not easy to feed so you have to cast on the right spot. I think their eyesight is not great so it takes a little time for them to find the fly, but I really like them. It adds options. Even if you have a tough day and don’t catch anything, if you can keep seeing things to fish for and cast at, that all adds to a really good day. Even the little drumlets from 5-15lbs are a hell of a lot of fun.

JL: There are a lot of fish that have not really been in the limelight because people like to catch fish to eat. People don’t want to catch jacks because they fight long and they

Other than that, it’s got huge potential. The only reason why we keep it quiet is that it’s still a fragile eco-system. I’ve noticed in the last three years that the volume of boats is frightening. Everybody is allowed to enjoy fishing but the key thing is to respect the fishery. A lot of the fishermen are very old school Texans. They are great people in person but they do not know how to handle fish or release fish well. They want to keep a lot of fish. It’s that old mentality which is a little bit frustrating.

TM: Tell us about those massive Black Drum. They look incredible.

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As David Magnum says, “It’s hard for guides to not have jacks as a top three fish, because they save the day, they are visual and they blow clients’ minds.”

Sheepshead (above) and Swamp Donkeys/Black Drum (below) add to the fly fishing variety of the Texas coast.

break your tackle and you can’t eat them. It’s the same thing with drum. They are kind of slimy and gross. People like to eat the medium ones but the big ones get left alone. It’s nice to have that stuff for ourselves. Speckled trout is the bread and butter for all the conventional anglers to catch and keep. The sheepshead are like our Texas permit. They’re sort of in the same realm as grunter and all those fish in that they make you want to pull your hair out. You can see a thousand sheepies and not hook one and then there could be one that turns around and slams your fly. I started fishing for them a lot more like I do for triggerfish and being a little stealthier. You get the fly down onto the bottom and they will try and crush it down with those big old sheep teeth and eat it. I have started getting more success with them now but got served proper humble pie the last couple of months.

TM: Is there an off-season off sorts or is it pretty much all-year round?

TM: I know guys like Alvin Dedeaux are into the native bass species in Texas. Have you bothered with the freshwater stuff or is it all salt?

JL: You can fly in to Austin, it’s about a 2 hour 45 minute drive to Port O’Connor. The easiest fly in is to Houston because it’s a slightly shorter drive and there are usually more direct flights. You would get a rental car and drive down to Port O’Connor where the accommodation is all set up. Most of my clients fish with me for about four days so, if any internationals want to come and fish with me, I usually recommend some other add-on stuff for their trip, whether that’s fishing in Florida or elsewhere in Texas.

JL: The plan is still to do X number of international trips a year. I’ve got a group that I am taking to Bolivia in September and then I am going to Brazil, back to Xingu, in the middle of October with four South Africans. In November myself and Oliver are in Oman with Nick Bowles and Costa Sunglasses to potentially tick off our fourth species of permit, the Africanus. In December I am going back to Mac Bay for the Striped Marlin. The reality is that I still love travelling and doing hosted trips but, to be honest, with the guiding available here, I can see why the guides here don’t travel as much. Firstly, it’s awesome, there’s a lot of cool fishing and you can be on the water every day. But, to be really candid, it’s also a heck of a lucrative thing. The kind of cash you can make here as a

JL: Guiding-wise it’s all been salt but I have played around in the Colorado River, fished with Alvin and fished with Joe Kuhle from Yeti and it’s a lot of fun. There’s the Guadalupe bass, which is the native bass from there, largemouth bass, striped bass, garfish, carp, smallmouth buffalo. It’s a fun fishery. One fish I still have to crack is the Rio Grande cichlid. It’s a small fish so it’s not about the fight, but they are pretty technical to catch, very colourful in the spring. I need a bit of time to go fish for them.

TM: If a South African wants to come out your way and fish with you, having to book for 2024 or 2025 because you are cough, cough, so in demand, how do they get to you?

The beautiful thing is that it’s a year-round fishery. The nice thing about the fall and winter time is that a lot of guys focus on duck-hunting so there’s very few people that fish. The water gets very clear, the fish are comfortable and it’s just beautiful out there. The weather is a little more up and down so, when a cold front moves through initially, the fish will go crazy and then they will move into the deeper water. As it warms up, again they will go shallower.

TM: If people are coming to your neck of the woods and they have four days fishing with you, what else should they experience?

Shrimp/crawfish broils. There’s a certain time of year when they do it more but it’s such a cool event where they do the broil and literally throw all the shrimps and everything out on a table. People stand around and eat. It’s a very social event. BBQ is the same. Austin has a ton of really good BBQ places. If you drive from Austin to Port O’Connor, you’ll go through a place called Lockhart which is where one of the original BBQ joints is, Black’s BBQ. It’s really good. As South Africans we love meat so you’ll be happy in a place like this with lots of different kinds of meat. It’s a good idea to have a couple of days in Austin to go to a BBQ joint and go fish for bass in the river. The other thing that’s awesome, is to try to catch one of those big Alligator gars. That’s in the Trinity River closer to Dallas. They get up to 200-300lbs. There’s a specific place where you can actively target them on a fly rod. You do see them rolling around, but you are fishing sinking lines, so it’s not the most visual thing.

TM: Has your usual globe-trotting stuff tapered off a bit or are you still doing a fair amount?

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guide, compared to other places, it’s a lifestyle. You can definitely build things up well here with what you can earn, especially if you fill your calendar.

TM: What’s happening on the filmmaking front?

TM: Well, now that you have given up the name Captain Jack for Captain Taco, the name is free…

JL: I’ve been working on a film about jacks for two and a half years. It’s been a long time coming. I wanted people to understand that there are jacks available everywhere. It can be very inexpensive to go fish for them and they are as cool as the dream of going to fish for GTs in the Seychelles. We’ve got some incredible footage. The only difficult part is to consolidate it all into 12-15 minutes max and make it really good while still having a strong story. I’m working on it with RA Beattie to release it early next year. Jacks are still regarded as a trash fish but I wanted to take that stigma away from them, so the title that I have sent out to the sponsors is just ‘Jack’.

JL: That’s it. To me ‘Jack’ is simplistically cool and will, I hope, lift the old trash fish stigma away from them. I’ve noticed, over the last few years, with people tagging me in jack videos, that they are starting to become cool. I’m happy to see that people are giving them some credit. My biggest jack so far around here is 117cm, so they get large. They are legit hard fighters. Luckily you don’t have to keep them away from coral. They’re pretty clean when it comes to obstructions and we’re on a boat so you can follow them. I’m still trying to track a place down where you can follow them on foot. I have a few places where I see them regularly in the shallows but when they go on the flats, they go from being aggressive and crazy to becoming a permit. For some reason they become super hard to feed in the shallows. It’s cool to see them hunting. It’s the same thing as with GTs with the back and the fins coming out as they search for stuff to kill. I love them. As David Magnum explains in the film, it’s hard for us as guides to not have jacks as a top three fish, because they save the day, they are visual and they blow clients’ minds. ‘How are you my good fellow?’

“IT’S A GOOD IDEA TO HAVE A COUPLE OF DAYS IN AUSTIN TO GO TO A BBQ JOINT AND GO FISH FOR BASS IN THE RIVER.”

S A V I N G S A N CONSERVING SOUTH AFRICA’S MOST WEB SERIES SPONSOR A

N D F I S H MOST THREATENED MIGRATORY FRESHWATER FISH A SANDFISH LEARN MORE

Photo: Jeremy Shelton Co-founder Fishwater Films

THE BOLLOCKSDOG’S CURIOSITY, THE WEIGHT OF EXPECTATION AND TROUT TOOK TUDOR CARADOC-DAVIES TO THE FABLED, RESTRICTED ACCESS JAN DU TOIT’S RIVER. AFTER A FEW NIGHTS UP THERE, HE CAME DOWN A LOT LIGHTER. Photos.Platon Trakoshis, Tudor Caradoc-Davies

With limited access and a limited menu, for me, the Jan du Toit’s was The Dog’s Bollocks of rivers. I’d heard about it, come close to getting a seat at the table and yet never got in. Finally, after waiting the better part of ten years to see for myself, I now had a shot.

Platon watched, looking somewhat shocked, like a priest might if he rocked up to an exorcism only to realise he’d left his holy water and crucifix at home.

There was nothing I could do except groan, swear and shake, as the tremors seemed to take over my whole body.

Over the Easter weekend Platon Trakoshis and I climbed high into the Cape Fold Mountains, through the bundu and up and over the boulders of the Jan du Toit’s River.

I attempted to raise myself up off all fours from the floor of the cave and tried to wallop my thighs into submission, but that just set off my calves and my glutes and seemingly every other shred of meat I consist of. Minutes-hours-eons went by as I thrashed and jerked upwards then supplicated myself in a downward dog of miserable twitching muscle.

“What makes this river so special?” My wife, Ingrid, was trying to establish why I was so excited about spending the Easter long weekend fishing and camping on the Jan du Toit’s River. It was a fair question because, on paper, this river is nothing special. It’s very close to my usual haunts, namely the other Western Cape streams run by the Cape Piscatorial Society (CPS).

The quarry is rainbow trout like most of the streams in the area and the fish are not exactly known for being that big. In fact, what they are known for is being in-bred resulting in the odd fish with a facial deformity. That didn’t matter. If anything, like a prize, asthmatic pug, their inbreeding only made me want them more.

UP ALL NIGHT, DEMONS TO FIGHT

If someone had stumbled upon our camp right then, the lamp throwing troglodyte shadows on the cave wall, as I had a fit and Platon picked his teeth with a spork, they would have turned tail and run off petrified at the human sacrifice in the offing.

I didn’t really have a definitive answer for Ingrid. The best analogy I could make was to remind her of The Dog’s Bollocks, a Cape Town burger joint. Unlike the rest of the city’s restaurants, when it opened a decade back, it was almost as if this place aimed to disappoint. It served these giant (average-tasting I might add) burgers and nothing else (no, no fries) and only 30 burgers were made a night. You could not book and the only wine was the proprietor’s own boxed plonk. Capetonians loved it, mainly because, in the early days, you could hardly ever get in. Scarcity equals value, right?

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Heavy packs left behind at the cave, with that unique South African feeling of relief knowing that no one, save for baboons, would raid your camp, we moved lightly up the gorge. Holding onto a cliff while following a faint path of cairns, there were times where we had to take it very carefully. A branch would come loose, a small rockslide tumbled into a pool, a greasy trickle threatened. The cave mouth, that massive sloping overhang IS like a mouth, the dirt floor the tongue of a sleeping giant, the roar of the river its sleep apnoea.

The evening started off fine. Tired yet happy after the hike in, after a dinner of rehydrated stroganoff, we lay on our backs towards the edge of the cave. I say cave, but really it was more a massive overhang, one that must have been there for millennia, somehow improbably holding a mountain up above it. Lying there was the most comfortable solution to ease our aching leg muscles, but it also gave us a chance to watch the night sky change as if in a planetarium, because the field of vision was smaller than it would have been staring at the full night sky. As up became down, it was as if we were staring at a slow-moving river of stars, the river’s banks consisting of the edge of the cave’s roof and the ridge on the other side of the mountain. Across this channel the constellations flowed. As we tried to identify the bears and scorpions and dancing BeeGee warriors of Greek myth, we discussed inter-planetary exploration, Muskian enterprise (and ego), war in Ukraine and our luck to be where we were and not elsewhere in a trench with a gun in our soft, cityslicker hands. I have a pretty good idea what triggered the mass cramp attack. When I tried to get up to top up my whisky, some combo of lactic acid build-up, a lack of magnesium and potassium and probably dehydration (as well as getting old and not being fit enough) set it off. Lying there afterwards, afraid to move again, I remember wondering, ‘What would our ancestors have diagnosed?’ As you do when you inhabit a cave, even briefly, we had been discussing the progress of man, our predecessors and the very nature of rarely visited valleys. So, once my legs calmed down to a panic, it occurred to me that centuries ago what had just happened might have been seen very differently. If someone in the tribe was racked by spasms, was it just assumed that the mountain spirit had taken over? That the shrooms had kicked in? That the transformation had begun?

I lost a friend last year. Dale went missing on the Injasuthi River in the Drakensberg. No one knows exactly what happened. There was some kind of weird accident while swimming and his body disappeared, vanished somewhere within the mountain and the river. Just like that. It’s made me look at nature a little differently. I’m more aware, more tentative now and I could feel that change on the Jan du Toit’s.

THE CHRIS DE BLADEN HYPOTHESIS

We give natural threats names, Scylla and Charybdis, the Bermuda Triangle, Poseidon’s wrath, to give them shape and meaning and to make sense of our smallness when the facade of invincibility slips. It slipped for me when the rocks I was standing on at the crest of a dried-up waterfall section gave way beneath me and I dropped a couple of metres into a hollow, narrowly missing having my knee crushed by a dislodged boulder. After that, and Platon’s enforced ‘rest’ the previous day (could have been a heart condition or gas…hard to say), I was starting to regret not having a third person with us.

A fly shop guy the week before swore that I needed a few small Wooly buggers. You know… just in case. So, like the Podsol T-shirt about Wooly Buggers called, Evil in My Pocket, I had them in my fly box. I also had nymphs and squirmies and a whole Pandora’s box of Cape streams contraband. Just in case.

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Up a steep valley, perspective is warped. The straight up and down of our world, of houses and highways gives

On the Jan du Toit’s, I knowingly, willingly, naively, refused to try anything other than dries and then made dumb remarks like, “Perhaps they all got washed lower down the valley in the last floods.” It felt plausible at the time, given the waterfalls and the large drops between the massive boulders punctuating the pools, but it was a way to explain our lack of fish. Like the red-coats, we wanted the fish to play by our rules. They were having none of it.

Apparently, when the Boers employed guerilla warfare, it came as quite a shock to the Brits because here was an enemy who did not want to stand up on the battlefield and trade blows with an army with superior firepower. They, weirdly enough, preferred to take potshots at the red-coated Brits and then slink away into the bush to live to fight another day. Today we call this common sense, but back then it was a slightly scandalous break from the rules of gentlemanly warfare.

We pressed further and further up the kloof. It was beautiful up there. We worked our way through this fold in the mountains, around boulders as big as houses. Waboom proteas grew downwards like vines and great shaggy curtains of moss dripped off cliffs that sat in perpetual shade. We felt so disconnected from the real world it was as if we had stepped momentarily into the pages of Jules Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth. There is something different about going to places that don’t see too many humans. Even the signs – paths that are so faint they evaporate into bush or dead-ends, charcoal-stained rocks from illegal fires, a singular sweet packet - are few and far between.

No wonder people have spent millennia going to the mountains to have visions and to get closer to their gods.

WATCH A SHORT FILM OF THIS MISSION

Just two sections in, and as I was about to lift my fly off the water in a stunning pool fed by a waterfall, a cock fish nipped at the dry and broke the duck. The curse lifted, it set us off on a winning streak, plucking fish from every second

HONGER IS DIE BESTE KOOK (HUNGER IS THE BEST CHEF)

On our way in the previous day, we crossed a smaller tributary that in the naming style of the Jan du Toit’s we dubbed the ‘Chris de Bladen River’. Legend has it that artist Chris Bladen went to fish the Jan du Toit’s with Drew Kennedy, but went up the tributary by mistake. Only after spending a night and a day fruitlessly fishing a tiny stream with no fish in it did he realise the error of his ways. Now, as we prospected unsuccessfully for rainbows in strangely blue crystalline pools and runs lying in near constant shadow, we considered the possibility that the joke was on us. This was meant to be the story that wrote itself. Longing, toil, deprivation, delayed gratification and then voila-boom-sploosh – deliverance.

Confidence personified, I was quoting Happy Gilmore while filming Platon and trying to put him off his game. Several fish down, the monkey off my back, my dries no longer drifting unmolested, the tremors in my thighs behaving and my mind free of bombs in the Dombas, to-do lists within other to-do lists and our inter-planetary insignificance, this was a different game. Due to some poor planning, we ran out of gas to boil water for coffee that morning, so broke camp early and hiked downstream to test our theory that the fish were lower down the valley. Where the valley started to open up a little, we stashed our packs, turned around and said a few silent prayers to our legs to carry us upstream again to fish for just a few more kilometres.

“I tell you what, we’ve been stealthy as all hell. If there are fish in there, they’re dead or they have all moved Platondownstream.”comesfrom Cypriot stock and, as a nation, they love camo, which might explain why the birds on Cyprus are mostly shot out. When he said we’d been stealthy, we’d been stealthy. Yet, despite blending in and approaching pools like ungainly slow-mo parkour mimes, through the course of the second day we did not spot a single fish.

My RAB drifting drag-free yet unmolested in the bubble lines of this unfathomably pretty water, I wasn’t looking for visions, epiphanies or gods. I simply wanted some retarded rainbow trout, but I was starting to wonder if it was all a ruse.

WWW.THEMISSIONFLYMAG.COM86way to ancient rock. It’s smashed in places, bent like a phonebook stuffed in a post box in others. Look up and it’s all twisting towers, buttresses, and spiny ridges of sandstone. Look down and it’s vertigo and flow. Mountains are also associated with rites of passage. In certain traditions, boys come of age and become men by leaving the tribe and surviving in the wilds for a bit. Mountains are also associated with safety, refuge and sanctuary away from your enemies, something that often came hand in hand with starvation. That’s probably why what comes from the mountains, both people and creatures, are generally smaller. Like the Cape Leopard. Or Sherpas. Live in the open pastures of the flatlands? Grow big and beefy like the Dutch or other agrarian behemoths. Hide in the hills? Hook up with your sister like the in-bred trout of the Jan du Toit’s and have stunted offspring that battle for survival in skinny, nutrient-poor streams.

“You’ll never make that putt ya jackass!”

or third pool. On any other day on any other stream I’d have been pleased with that fish but not over the moon. Now, the words of my old science teacher, Oddjob, rang in my ears, that “Honger is die beste kook’ (Hunger is the best chef). He would say this while breaking dried spaghetti into a pot and mixing it with strawberry jam on a school camp. It was his ‘dessert’ and this was a long-awaited trout burger from The Dog’s Bollocks of streams, but I understood now. We should all do this more often. Hike a mountain, have a fit, sleep in a cave, cling to a cliff, fall in a river, search for a trout and emerge on the other side tired but renewed, with a fresh appreciation for both remote, wild places and the comforts of home. We drag shit up the mountain and we come down lighter. To enter the Jan du Toit’s lottery, become a member of the Cape Piscatorial Society at piscator.co.za

“HIKE A MOUNTAIN, HAVE A FIT, SLEEP IN A CAVE, CLING TO A CLIFF, FALL IN A RIVER, SEARCH FOR A TROUT AND EMERGE ON THE OTHER SIDE TIRED

RENEWED”BUT

SHOP

We know what you might be thinking - why you would need one of these if you have a headlamp? The thing is, having a headlamp is often overkill. It can also be quite anti-social when you turn yours on blinding your camp-mates Homelander-style. With this tiny lantern, we could pop it on a rock in a mountain cave and not only did it throw a huge amount of light, but the settings (from Low Power to Mid Power, Power, Boost and Blink) gave us options. When switched off, it held a luminous glow for when needed again. The nifty carabiner at the top allowed us to clip it onto handy objects too. We pre-charged it and after three nights of solid use it was still going strong (it does take batteries too as a backup). Long story short, it may be small, but we’re big fans. awesometools.co.za THE PACK - PATAGONIA GUIDEWATER HIP PACK & STEALTH WORK STATION Would a normal sling bag have sufficed for this mission? Probably. But would it have protected my phone and car keys, when I slipped on a snotty trickle and slid deep into a freezing pool high up the valley? Unlikely. Patagonia’s new 9L Guidewater Hip Pack is a fantastic piece of kit that stays out the way and allows you to keep your arms and shoulders free for casting and climbing. Compatible with the Stealth Work Station that straps to the outside, you can keep nippers, forceps, tippet and go-to flies handy while safely stashing a jacket, lunch and valuables. An integrated slot keeps your net out the way till you need it. patagonia.com, xplorerflyfishing.co.za

JAN DU TOIT’S THE MISSION

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THE LIGHT - LEDLENSER ML4 WARM LIGHT LANTERN

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Reel - Epic 3 / 4 Weight

THE SETUP

With the most essential tools you expect from a Leatherman - great pliers, a combo knife (saw and blade), a bit driver, bottle opener etc – the Skeletool has everything you need for camp cooking, slicing biltong or fighting off invaders, but with much less weight. The carabiner clip keeps it handy at all times. awesometools.co.za

The Backcountry Reel. epicflyrods.com

THE TOOL - LEATHERMAN SKELETOOL

- The Pour Over and Mug. Wake up groggy, remember you’re in a cave and then wait for the other guy to get up, because ‘he who gets up first makes the coffee’. Fortunately, this gizmo with its easy-to-clean removable filter makes it super easy. Simply throw coffee in the filter, add boiling water and …that’s it. In next to no time the filtered coffee drips down into your mug (Stanley’s Legendary Camp Mug fits perfectly, but regular tin mugs fit too). No mess, no fuss and it only weighs 300gms. awesometools.co.za

Line - Scientific Anglers

THE WHISKY & COFFEE SITUATION - STANLEY’S PREPARTY SHOTGLASS + FLASK SET, PERFECT-BREW POUR OVER & LEGENDARY CAMP MUG - The Flask is easy to fill with phuza before you leave home thanks to the wide mouth and indestructible. I left the included stacking shotglasses behind to minimize weight but took the carry case which doubles as a camp cup.

De Canard Cap,

The Fastglass Fly Rod. epicflyrods.com

RodEpic 3-WeightStudio370

GRIP - CRAFT FUR

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Love building a fluid, natural movement into your flies? We’re talking streamers that move like the real thing or shrimp and crab imitations that look alive. Grip’s Premium Craft Fur is a material that needs your attention. Available in eleven different colours – black, blonde, brown, chartreuse, grey, olive, purple, red, rusty brown, tan and white – this craft fur is much denser than usual and boasts longer fibres, making it excellent for making brushes. If you’re whipping up largemouth yellowfish flies, bass bugs, saltwater streamers and brush flies, you’ll want a solid stash at hand. scientificfly.com

LATEST

You don’t have to be an angler to see first-hand the damage climate change is wreaking on our fisheries and the planet in general, but because of where our wading boots take us we probably see more than your average punter. Doing their bit to protect their homewaters and keep plastic out of marine environments, 87% of Patagonia’s range uses recycled materials. Their Take a Stand Trucker Hats are no different. Featuring a brim made of Bureo’s fully traceable NetPlus® 100% recycled fishing nets, this classic midcrown trucker features an organic cotton front, a recycled polyester-mesh back and an adjustable snap closure. As expected with Patagonia, it’s also Fair Trade Certified™ sewn. patagonia.com, xplorerflyfishing.co.za

RELEASES SALAD BAR

Oh hello! Stanley, the OG of OG flask and drinkware brands is instantly recognisable for leak-proof, dropproof, adventure-proof reliability and its own very specific shade of Hammertone green. Now they are mixing things up with some cracking new colourways. If you’re the kind of fly angler who likes to sit in a bush for three hours waiting for a very specific 20lb clannie to cruise past (you know who you are), then Stanley’s collab with renowned camo outfitter Mossy Oak is for you. For those that like things a little brighter (or people who hunt with Dick Cheney), then we recommend reaching for the Blaze Orange. Available across some of their most popular flasks from the Classic Wide Mouth Flask, the Trigger Action Mug, the Legendary Classic Bottle and the Master Vacuum Bottle 1.3L (which keeps bevvies iced for up to six days), whether it’s whisky on a frozen lake, slaking a thirst with ice-cold water on a scorching day or hot coffee for the road, you’re covered. awesometools.co.za

PATAGONIA - TAKE A STAND TRUCKER CAPS

STANLEY - ORANGE BLAZE & MOSSY OAK

LOOP - Z1 SINGLE HAND ROD

Why wear bush camo if you can wear fish camo? This Sage brown trout gaiter collab with Montana-based artist and angler Casey Underwood, might as well come with gills. The soft, stretchable fabric is made from Reprieve post-consumer recycled polyester which helps keep bottles out of landfills and waterways. With laser cut anti-chafe edges and UPF 50+ sun protection, this neck gaiter will keeps the elements out and hopefully bring you a bit of big brown juju too. farbank.com ,frontierflyfishing.com

If you are already a fan of Loop’s Cross series, then hang onto your britches because these new, enhanced Z rods are their lighter, stronger spiritual successor. Loops says the Z series has the “smoothest, most powerful action of any circular shaped rod we’ve ever come across”. That ‘circular’ reference is an important distinction because of course they have the heptagonal 7X range. The Z1’s advancement is thanks to Loop’s state-of-the-art nano resin technology with each rod using 40-45 ton nano graphene carbon fibre of the highest specification available. The series also features the highest possible grade cork handle, specially designed lightweight reel seats, ceramic lined titanium stripping guides and titanium plated stainless steel snake guides. If you’re looking for a medium-fast rod that gives you distance, control and accuracy, check out the 5-weight and 7-weights available from Mavungana Flyfishing. looptackle.com, flyfishing.co.za RIO ELITE SUB-SURFACE - CAMOLUX

SAGE - BROWN TROUT NECK GAITER

“WHY WEAR BUSH CAMO IF YOU CAN WEAR FISH CAMO?”

The water is crystal clear and still as a millpond. It feels like you could spot (and hear) a mayfly fart at fifty feet. You’re sitting deep in an inlet fishing the weedy margins and while there are big fish around, they are more cagey than Edward Snowden’s browsing habits. You need a stealth weapon. Enter the Rio Elite Sub-Surface Camo-Lux, an intermediate sinking line built for camouflage and stealth with lowstretch, ultra-slick performance thanks to Rio’s SlickCast additive. Featuring a sink rate between 1.5 and 2 inches per second or hover option at less than 1 inch per second, this line is built with a unique camo coloration in the head that is extremely effective when targeting wary fish in clear water. It’s particularly efficient for fishing between 2ft and 6ft depth. The line also features a “hang marker” approximately 20ft from the front end for fishing the hang, or judging when to make the cast. Those sneaky lunkers don’t stand a chance. farbank.com, xplorerflyfishing.co.za

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Have you ever been in a situation where you are trying to re-rig, the fish are going crazy and you’re wasting time stuffing around with blunt, cheap nippers just as the fish you really want looms into view? We have. That’s the scenario that comes to mind when considering a nipper upgrade. These Orvis-designed nippers (powered by the tool gurus at Loon Outdoors) are a noticeable step up. More durable, with a long-lasting cutter edge, they are made from top quality stainless steel with machined grooves and finished edges for a better grip. And yes, they feature a hook-eye cleaner for those flies you were too lazy to clean up at the vice. orvis.com, flyfishing.co.za

SALAD

–ORVISFLOW NIPPERS

LATEST RELEASES BAR

C&F – UNIVERSAL SYSTEM FOAM & CHEST STORAGE

XPLORER - SA STRIKE INDICATOR TOOL KIT

If you’re struggling with your strike indicators either not being buoyant enough, no being visible enough or slipping down your leader, consider trying out Xplorer’s Strike Indicator Tool. Simply create a loop, slip it through one of the supplied ferrules (both large and small sizes available), stuff a wodge of New Zealand sheep’s wool (available in four colours) through the loop and secure the ferrule over the bottom of the wool. Trim off the excess and you’re good to go with an ultra buoyant strike indicator that will land gently so you don’t spook fish and won’t slip down the leader while casting. xplorerflyfishing.co.za

Sterkies one weekend for smallies (beetles and hoppers), Dullstroom the following weekend for stillwater trout (streamers and buzzers), a mission to the Tugela chasing scalies (nymphs of assorted sizes), followed by a few days pursuing skinny water trout (small dries) deep in the Drakensberg? If your fly fishing tastes are a little omnivorous, you’ll know the feeling of chaos that comes with constantly chopping and changing fly boxes and packs between trips. It really hits home when you get to a prime piece of water only to discover you packed all the wrong fly boxes. Japanese fly box specialist, C&F, have developed a clever solution to those problems with their Universal System Foam and Chest Storage. First up the foam. If you start with a basic C&F fly box, you can clip in or out C&F’s various foam inserts depending on where you want to take that box. They have specific inserts –e.g. dry dropper, streamer, attractor, saltwater etc – for all sorts of applications. The Chest Storage is perfect for wearing on your front if you like to wear a backpack, the main idea being that it covers almost everything you will need for the day’s fishing. It comes with two standardequipped foam changers - a large size standard system foam and a large size midge system foam that you can swop out as needed. There’s also a tippet holder that can store three tippet spools, a built in linecutter on the front, a hook case that stores small indicators and split shots and an oval magnetic fly patch on the front for drying off flies and keeping go-to patterns handy. c-and-f.co.jp, frontierflyfishing.com

SALAD

Think bike racks, running prams and bullet-proof laptop bags and the Thule brand probably comes to mind. Fortunately, they think about us too. If you spend a lot of time moving from spot to spot by car while fishing and don’t like risking your rigged rods’ tips inside the vehicle, then Thule’s Rod Vault was designed with you in mind. Available in either a 2-rod or 4-rod iteration, the Rod Vault holds rods up to 10’ long in aircraft-grade, anodized aluminum rod tubes (lined with Polypropylene to protect rod tips), while the reels are safe in heavy duty, glassreinforced, nylon cases. For security, the rod rack locks up for safekeeping and you can also lock the rack to your vehicle with a small padlock (not included). thule.com, xplorerflyfishing.co.za

TO LARGIE MINNOWS, PIKE FLIES, LONGWINGED SALMON

PATAGONIA - STEALTH SLING

“GT BAITFISH, FLIES BASS BUGS”

FUTUREFLY - SNOWRUNNER/NAYAT

THULE - ROD VAULT

Rocketing straight up to the headwaters of our lust list is the new Stealth Sling from Patagonia. With a shell made of 100% recycled nylon ripstop with a polyurethane coating on one side and a TPU coating on the reverse, it’s designed to be lightweight, quiet and mold to the body for easy casting and comfortable, all-day use. Embedded magnets on the pack’s front and shoulder straps temporarily hold flies, nippers or hemos for quicker fly changes. Then there’s docking stations and gear sleeves for keeping equipment close at hand,a dual-entry hydration sleeve for quick access to drinks, multiple D-rings, integrated holsters allowing for secure, right or left-handed net carry, a removable pocket for storage inside or outside the pack and an internal waterproof pocket. With such a voluminous, well-thought out pack, it’s hard to believe it technically holds only 10l. patagonia.com, xplorerflyfishing.co.za

According to Danish fly tying company FutureFly, Snowrunner is, ‘a goat with long and mobil (sic) hair.’ To be honest, they had us at ‘goat’, but considering this thing’s hairs are between 12-20cm, we’re more excited about its hairdo. From GT baitfish, to largie minnows, pike flies, longwinged salmon flies and even bass bugs, with materials like this your fly tying options are endless. futureflydenmark.com, frontierflyfishing.com

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LATEST RELEASES BAR

AND EVEN

ORVIS - ULTRALIGHT FISHING VEST

Light, tough and feature-rich is the fly fishing gear holy trinity and Orvis nails it with their Ultralight Fishing Vest in that it is packed with features yet won’t weigh you down. Constructed with lightweight material that’s treated with DWR, it dries faster and breathes better. The slim, lowprofile design keeps the load closer to the body and reduces the “layered bulk” of conventional vests. It boasts eleven pockets, 6 exterior, 4 interior, and 1 rear. The four large vertical chest pockets are for fly boxes, two of which have internal stretch mesh organization pockets. Two exterior vertical chest pockets higher on the shoulder hold leaders, tippet and other accessories while two interior vertical chest pockets hold valuables and the right pocket has a key clip. At the back a large zipper pocket holds extra gear. Back on the front, two multi-function hook-and-loop fly patches hide a port for a zinger and the design allows nippers or forceps to nest under the patch for quick but out of the way access. Two elastic cords on the exterior of the chest pockets are for adding accessories and a tippet bar while a soft poly/spandex blend lined foam collar gives you maximum comfort around the neck. orvis.com, flyfishing.co.za

Usually, combo rod, reel and line kits are aimed at outright beginners, the belief being that if you know what you’re doing you are going to want to be more particular about exactly which rod, reel and line you go for. The thing is, who actually knows best when it comes to putting a quality combo together? Joe Shmoe (you), or a brand like Redington who literally have dedicated R&D teams with way more access to tackle than you? Two of Redington’s Field Kits, the Trout and the Euro Nymph, are now available in South Africa from Xplorer Fly Fishing. Designed for trout in lakes or rivers, the former sports a medium-fast action rod perfect for both beginners and more experienced anglers. This is paired with a diecast aluminium Redington Run reel, a Rio Gold SlickCast fly line that connects via a loop to loop connection to a RIO 9’ 5x Powerflex Tapered Leader. Meanwhile the Euro Field Kit features a 10’ medium-action Euro rod paired with a large arbor diecast reel pre-spooled with a Rio FIPS Euro Nymph Line and Rio Euro Nymph leader. With both kits you get a Cordura carrying case, a lifetime warranty and the reassurance that someone else did the obsessing about mixing and matching for you. farbank.com, xplorerflyfishing.co.za

REDINGTON - FIELD KITS

DEEP WANTS PAY DAY A STREAMING SERVICE OF A DIFFERENT SORT AND THE DUBBING TWISTER YOU NEVER KNEW YOU NEEDED

Fishing TV does what the name says, serving up a smorgasbord of fishing content from around the world. While there’s a ton of non-fly fishing content, you’ll most likely find a home in the fly fishing specific channel. Froth at the mouth over Fly Fishing Nation’s epic arapaima flick Gigas, settle in for Rolf Nylinder’s New Zealand saga, Only The River Knows, lose yourself in English trout streams in Chalk, or get deep into the back catalogue of Confluence Films with Providence, Drift and Rise. It’s well-priced at R109.99 per month or R1 049 for the year and you can watch it across the usual spread of devices and applications from Android to Apple, Samsung TV etc.

SMHAEN - DUBBING TWISTER

We love the thinking behind the new Master Dubbing Twister from Danish fly tying tool makers Smhaen. The only dubbing twister we know of that has an integrated dubbing loop control system, it does the basics of a classic dubbing twister, but then goes further. By applying a small amount of pressure with your fingers, you can open and close the built-in pliers. This allows you to easily control your dubbing loop as required, giving you more options with what can be one of the most finickity elements of fly tying. At 28gms and 6,1cm it is suitable for most fly tying applications from small to large flies. smhaen.com

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THE SUBSCRIPTION - FISHING TV

So we’re all about the great outdoors and eschewing our digital lives wherever we can in favour of an unplugged world where the kicks come from fly fishing. However, unless we go full Unabomber, it’s impossible to escape the clutches of a modern digital life. Assuming that screens are an inevitable feature in your life, if you are going to fork out for Netflix/Amazon Prime/Showmax etc, why not make space for a subscription you really want?

If you have to be at home, you might as well make the most of that couch time, right? fishingtv.com

PRETORIA • Lynnwood Bridge c/o Daventry & Lynnwood Rd, Lynnwood Tel: 0861 22 22 69 RIVONIA • Rivonia Crossing II 3 Achterweg, JohannesburgSunninghill,Tel:086114 35 45 WEST RAND • Cradlestone Mall 17 Hendrik Potgieter Rd, Krugersdorp Tel: 0861 14 35 45 follow us on social media or visit safarioutdoor.co.za LOCATED IN THESE SAFARI OUTDOOR STORES www.safarioutdoor.co.za AT experience SOUTH AFRICA’S premier FLY FISHING STORE in Pretoria, Rivonia & Cradlestone Safari Fishing is the latest addition to South Africa’s largest Hunting and Safari related shop, Safari Outdoor. Catering for every type of fisherman’s needs, including a wide range of fly fishing gear and apparel.[210X297]FISHINGSAFARISF20220211

“ALL OF

Tell us about what you do for a living. What do you specialise in? After working as a freelance illustrator and designer for a couple of years my wife, Britt-lee and I decided to further develop the business into a ‘design and supply’ companyThe Great Break. Here we teamed up with a local craftsman, Rikus Geldenhuys both to illustrate and also to develop bespoke apparel, goods for your home and kit for your next outdoor adventure. All of this is to encourage people to enjoy the outdoors. We now sell our own unique goods and also work collaboratively with brands and businesses in the outdoor industry, from design to manufacture. Who are your clients?

We have worked with a number of international brands (the majority US-based) providing illustrations and branding.

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THE LITTLE GUY

Growing up in Cape Town and now living along the Garden Route, I have always had so many options when it comes to the outdoors. Camping (preferably wild camping) and hiking must top the list. I try to get in some rock climbing as well (we have some great routes at our local crags). Living in a small coastal town we spend loads of time on the beach with various water sports. I have tried my hand at fly fishing, but have yet to master the technique!

Table Mountain and its many trails would have to be where my love for mountains began. Kilimanjaro would top the list in terms of my big mountain experiences. I spent some time hiking in the foothills of the incredible Grand Teton in Wyoming, the quintessential jagged snow-capped mountain peak. Are you working on anything new we should look out for at either Mountain Lines or The Great Break? I continue to share illustrations via Mountain Lines when inspiration strikes. At The Great Break we have a number of new outdoor goods lined up. Be sure to check out our newly launched range of illustrated shirt designs.

What’s your artistic process?

What’s your outdoor life like?

Who are you? I grew up in Blouberg, Cape Town. After studying architecture, I worked in the industry for several years designing residential and commercial buildings. While I love architectural design, unfortunately I didn’t enjoy the industry much. Instead, I looked for other avenues to express my creativity and love for the outdoors. I started creating illustrations inspired by nature and an outdoor lifestyle. I like to say I swapped the mostly geometric, rigid lines of architecture for the organic, free flowing lines of the natural environment. I shared my work on social media which resulted in a passion project that gained a decent following (Mountain_lines). It was enough to spark a new career. On the back of this, my family and I (wife and two young kids) took a leap of faith, leaving behind the city and our ‘regular’ jobs (and comfort zone) for life in a small town along the nature-abundant Garden Route of South Africa.

Photos. Jared Kohn, Brit-lee Kohn

Check out Jared and Britt-lee’s business at thegreatbreak.com THIS TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO ENJOY THE OUTDOORS.”

I get this question quite often and it is always tricky to define. I guess for illustration, simply put - inspiration, layering, experimenting, delivering. Nature provides plenty of visual inspiration. I enjoy adding depth and layers to my designs by overlapping additional concepts. The fun part is experimenting as to how multiple images/concepts can be integrated visually. For me the creative process is a short intense one. I enjoy delivering the design for comments, feedback and importantly, unique interpretations.

MOUNTAIN LINES WE CHAT TO JARED KOHN ABOUT CAREER CHANGES, DRAWINGS THAT SPEAK TO THE DNA OF THE GREAT OUTDOORS AND HIS BRILLIANT BOOT-STRAPPED BUSINESS, THE GREAT BREAK.

Which are your favourite mountains and why?

Locally, other than marketing our own goods, we have assisted with event apparel for trail runs as well as illustrated race maps for popular MTB races. My favourite designs are, in the end, still personal, commissioned artworks for individuals.

“…would you please explain?”

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“Make a new plan, Stan” Take your favourite fly, bin it. Great. Now your second favourite, do the same. Keep going till you’ve ditched 60 or 70. What’s your 80th favourite fly? Last September I set out to catch 100 wild Cape-stream trout on 100 different patterns in one season. I spoke to a few people beforehand, and most agreed that the back stretch was going to be a slog, if not impossible. We were wrong.

Fly photos. Knut Otto. Fishing photos. Garth Nieuwenhuis

“You don’t need to discuss much” The rules, if we can call them that, were simple. The fish must be netted. I must still have that specific fly at the end of the season. Finally, it must be a pattern previously unused in the challenge. Further, no more than one “variant” on a design aspect, i.e. bead size, bead colour, hook size would be allowed per pattern; it’s okay to investigate if a variable (such as size) was critical, but what’s the point if all the flies are basically the same?

Yet, we hold our favourite patterns dear and promote them to our friends like a discovery worthy of scientific publication. I love mountain rivers and I love fly fishing for trout where I find a beauty and an engagement, both simple and complex beyond my capacity. In this last river season, I set out with an odd, and possibly impossible challenge, one that would inform me, indulge me, elate me and surprise me.

“Just get yourself free” Off the bat I saw signs of the unexpected benefits to come.

Overall, you start to see trends of nymph days and dry days, good days and bad days. It was cool to be able to look back on each day and see its character through the flies I had stored. Not every day on the water was used for the challenge, and not every new pattern was kept and stored but still, the 100 tell their stories, and that’s many more stories than I’d normally have.

A second fringe benefit was the inherent data recorded through storing the flies. For the most part, successful flies were kept in order and separated by day fished.

WHAT IF, THE MOMENT YOU’VE CAUGHT A FISH ON YOUR HOME WATERS, YOU WERE TO RELEGATE THAT FLY FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON?

AND THE NEXT EFFECTIVE FLY? SAME STORY. THAT’S THE EXPERIMENT DAVID KARPUL CONDUCTED ON THE CAPE STREAMS FOR AN ENTIRE SEASON. WHAT HE LEARNED MIGHT SURPRISE YOU…

100 WAYS TO YOURLEAVELOVER

“The answer is easy if you take it logically, there must be fifty ways to leave your lover” Flies are not like lovers: they don’t get jealous, you can have as many as you like, one two or three at a time, they’re relatively inexpensive, and they have a small prick.

After each fish I’d engage in my little ritual of cutting off the fly, storing it safely, and then searching for the next victim in my fly box. The pause was enough to break the goal-oriented frenzy I can sometimes find myself in, and to create a little moment of Zen. Occasionally I became stuck in a brief suspended animation, staring into the void of my box for minutes, unsure of where to go next.

One of the most interesting things I learnt was not “what works” but rather, “what doesn’t work”. There are some interesting mentions here. Dark bodied parachute flies with white hackles seemed to induce a sudden fish drought. This worm pattern, popular in Europe, just could not catch a fish. I’m sure I could make it happen eventually, but I was unable to catch on a standard Alflexo crab. Watching the fish carefully and gently side-step the pattern was almost comical. The worst flies in the box though, are not ugly, or badly tied. They’re not bizarre or even unpopular patterns. They aren’t even refused by the fish. They do, however, all have one thing in common: dry fly hackle. Getting the eat was actually very easy, fish love that shit. It’s getting the hook-up that’s a different story: two, three, four eats without a fish to the net; five, six, seven eats. Wtf? I can imagine a less confident angler missing a fish with one of these flies and blaming themselves, or the conditions, or the drift but, in truth, it’s the pattern. Sure, you get the eat and you’ll certainly catch fish, but with what handicap? The worst pattern in the box was a beautifully tied caddis I fished in a dryfly run on a lovely summer’s day to happy feeding fish. The fly isn’t too large, but it’s over-dressed for the Capestream trout; seven eats before I got a fish to the net. “I wish there was something I could do to make you smile again” You can’t read too much into the success of each pattern, as you only catch one fish on each, with no record of the fish you failed to catch. Each time I’d open my box

From the top left of the left hand side of his fly box (day 1, fly 1) to the bottom right of the right hand side (fly no. 105), over the course of a season David retired every fly that caught fish

“It grieves me so to see you in such pain”

I proved to myself over and over that the pattern wasn’t important at all and yet, that it was super important. It’s all about mechanics. Catching was mostly about fishing well, and what it means to fish well is more complicated that just good drifts. It sometimes does mean a good drift; or maybe fishing the right depth; or matching the size of the insects; or a fly that casts well in the wind; or doesn’t spook fish in slow clear water; or induces an eat from a lazy fish… or one of countless other parameters. Good fishing wasn’t about what pattern was chosen, but was about reading the circumstances and selecting a fly that allows you to fish well. This is why as I moved onto fly 50, 60, 80, 90 it didn’t get harder and harder to catch. This is because the conditions were changing throughout the season and throughout the river, and what approaches and consequently what fly mechanics I needed were always different.

“You don’t need to be coy, Roy” One of the best fringe benefits of this whole thing was that each fish became special. Each time I hooked a fish there was a wonderful sense of panic. I needed to get that fish to the net; I desperately needed not to lose the fly in the process; that one fish, once hooked, now had an additional value. I also specifically set out to catch on ridiculous flies. The more bizarre the better. I remember fishing the tail-out of a pool while my buddy fished the head. I caught four fish in a row on different patterns, becoming increasingly giddy with each fish and each new, but silly pattern I could put in my collection. He must’ve thought me mad by the time I was done.

“Why don’t we both just sleep on it tonight” 105 soldiers remained at the end of the season, but there were a few that fell along the way, flies that caught fish, but did not make it into the box. Often it was when I was having too much fun to change the fly, and eventually it was lost; snapped off by a fish presumably too large to fit in my net (without evidence to the contrary). In memory is a “found link” fly gifted to me by a friend and a purple squirmy that caught several fish. The most notable missing fly was a size 4 Largemouth yellowfish streamer with a 5 mm orange tungsten bead that took several fish in near floodwater in early season. It was a stupidly large fly for the Cape streams and my sorrow for its loss is only as great as my joy in catching on such a ridiculous fly.

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From top to bottom: A beautifully tied yet over-dressed Caddis surprised as the worst pattern in the box, yet a large Stillwater zonker, a barebones LeRoy Botha-style nymph, a large Bokong River Balbyter ant, a CDC dry (that accounted for a Witte River brown) and even a bare hook all caught fish

On the other end of the scale was a CDC dry sight fished to a lovely Witte brown; every fish up there is hard earned and a trophy in my mind. Day nine saw me fish some unusual soft hackles from Darryl Lampert including his Purple and Starling, as well as a streamer and a nymph emulating the bare-hook minimalist style of Leroy Botha.

The most fun category though includes those that are just so very nonconformist and unusual, they almost make you laugh even just tying them on.

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All in all, 105 patterns, and a well worthwhile exercise. I learnt a lot about fly tying and fly fishing, enjoyed each fish, and celebrated each fly, while also finding moments of peace and respite. I don’t know what I’ll do next season; there are now a million new flies to replace my favourites, and my mind swims with ideas and innovations.

Paul Simon, 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover

As for you, it’s really not my habit to intrude, and I hope my meaning won’t be lost or misconstrued. But, I’ll repeat myself at the risk of being crude There must be fifty ways to leave your lover.

All this fly-tying stuff is nonsense anyway, as evidenced by a bare hook which succeeded the first time I fished it. Other successful ‘patterns’ are simply beaded hooks of different sizes and colours just to drive the point home.

“And then she kissed me, and I realised she probably was right”

Not all the flies are equal. Some are special because I enjoyed tying them, or looking at them, some special because of the way the fish was caught, or the fish itself, some because of who gave it to me or who I stole it from.

There was also a full size Balbyter ant usually fished on the Bokong River in Lesotho. As I mentioned, day nine ended with four bizarre flies in quick succession: one of the beaded hooks, a massive black and orange stillwater Zonker, a stillwater Goldilocks, and a badly damaged baby pink Plonker. The last day I fished the challenge, in late season, saw me catch on an orange DDD and a particularly large, extended-body crane fly I tied for the 2018 Commonwealth Championships in Ireland.

A typical day could involve a day on the chalk streams of Hampshire and Wiltshire; maybe a day on my boat on the Thames chasing pike on fly; or off to the airport for a business visit to Germany; a day with my two daughters/ grandkids; working in the garden of our home in Ascot or seeing friends for a nice lunch or dinner. Now and then I’ll attend a wonderful West End musical or, if Neil Young is in town, catch one of his concerts. I’ve been to see Neil in Munich, London (three times) and Philadelphia. I also help/ mentor people who ask me to, make myself useful for the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, or attend a meeting of WildFish, a conservation NGO where I serve as a trustee. My home waters are the chalk streams of Hampshire and Wiltshire - Itchen, Test, Avon, Wylye, Anton, Lambourn and, when in Devon where we have a holiday home, the Devonshire Avon. But I would always add the River Thames!

My go-to drink is a red wine from my beloved Patagonia. Or from Cape Town. Or anywhere else where there’s great red wine!

One of my first bosses believed in a hard work ethic - as I do - and he told me that his advice was to “come in earlier and leave later than anyone else”. The advice I give to the people I’m responsible for is, “Don’t panic until I panic!”

Over the period of my career (since 1974) I have been chairman or director of companies in SA, Swaziland, Mauritius, Germany, France, United Kingdom, United States, Switzerland, Australia, Saudi Arabia, and Ireland.

My academic career was underwhelming and I had to work rather hard to get ahead in the corporate world but, I always felt at home in international business. It felt like a place I belonged in. What came naturally was helping people find their way in the corporate world, something I still do. Oh, and bow and arrow casts! I learnt them early on as the Liesbeek was pretty overgrown back in the day. I guess the most satisfying fish I ever caught was a 37lb pike on fly on the Thames in January 2022, on a split-cane rod too! A close second would be the 20lb rainbow trout at Lago Strobel. But to be honest, every fish I ever caught has been a blessing. That’s not a cliche. I really mean it. Catching fish, or being part of the angling microcosm, is a big part of my life.

LIFER THE INFLUENCER LONG BEFORE INSTAGRAM AND #INFLUENCERS EVER EXISTED, CLEM BOOTH WAS SHARING THE WONDERS OF LAGO STROBEL (AND OTHER FISHERIES), RAISING MONEY FOR THE RED CROSS CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL AND HELPING OTHERS IN HIS OWN, INIMITABLE STYLE. FROM BIG BUSINESS TO BIG FISH, CLEM IS A FRIENDLY FORCE OF NATURE. Photos. Clem Booth I remember two “first” fish. The first was a mullet I caught in Glencairn, Cape Town with my grandad. I was about 6 years old. The fish ate a periwinkle bait and it seemed huge to a young lad. The second was my first trout. It was a 2lb 4oz rainbow trout out of Sans Souci pool on the Liesbeek River. The year was 1969 and it launched my fly-fishing life! These two fish assured my fate as a lifelong fisherman. Places I have called home include Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg, Munich and London (I have lived in the UK since 2003 - in Ascot, Berkshire since 2008).

From massive rainbows at Lago Strobel to pike on the River Thames and trout on his local Chalk streams, Clem Booth fishes more often than most.

There’s nowhere I wouldn’t return to. For me, if you leave your prejudices at home, every country has something wonderful waiting for you to discover. Not sure how many countries I’ve been to but they all taught me something new and I’ve had many unforgettable experiences. The most important thing I learnt is that people are people. It doesn’t matter what language they speak or where they live. In Saudi Arabia, I was deputy chairman of a company in Jeddah. One of the executives was an Iraqi who was a passionate Springbok fan despite never having been to South Africa or watched the Boks live! I’ve met the most amazing people with their own unique stories all over the world.

A place that draws me back year after year is Argentina. Love the country, love fishing there, love the people. Of course, South Africa, is home. And Germany, which adopted me.

“I’M DOTHATCONSCIOUSWENEEDTOMORETOENSURE THAT THE WORLD WE BEQUEATH TO OUR KIDS IS IN GOOD SHAPE.”

I’d love to learn to play the guitar and then learn a few Neil Young songs like “Old Man” and some of Leonard Cohen’s too, especially “Hallelujah”. These are the people which provided the backdrop to my life and I’d love to strum a guitar and sing their songs.

I know how to manage and lead during times of crisis. It helps me to survive. I don’t panic and neither does the team.

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Every day is an adventure. Going to meet and talk to the ANC leaders in exile was an adventure. Flying to Patagonia is an adventure. It’s all a huge adventure if you let it be. Being fearful is normal. We’re human after all. But what I’ve found is that most “situations” are less frightening than they first seem. Unpack the issue, find solutions. I’m conscious that we need to do more to ensure that the world we bequeath to our kids is in good shape. It scares me to think it might not be. I can’t ask for any more “wishes” in my life. What would be wonderful is for my whole family to come to South Africa to visit the game reserves. Hopefully soon! Then, I’d like to finish and publish my book. My fly-fishing today is more reflective. I think more about whether it’s right to travel given the emissions situation. I think about how the chalk streams are being endangered by pollution and water abstraction. I consider the ethical aspects of catch and release. But my attachment to this way of life hasn’t changed in all these years. If I look back on my life, I’m not sure anything needs changing fundamentally. I’ve had many opportunities. Making good choices is something we’re all challenged to do and I’m no different. So less “if only” moments, more good choices. The last fish I caught was a 12oz Grayling on the River Anton in Hampshire today. It took an olive CDC emerger.

It’s ok for an angler to tell a porky pie if it wasn’t a great day but you say that it was. Every day on the water is a blessing so even if you’re out of sorts, you can tell people it was great!

2. What did guide Kyle Simpson have tattooed on him (page 30)?

1. The tributary of the Jan du Toits which fools the odd angler is known as (page 76)? A. The Balhaar. B. The Buffelspad. C. The Chris de Bladen. D. The Korrie de Broos. E. The Poopsloot.

A. Waves like Forrest Gump at Lieutenant Dan. B. Gives them the bird like Mr Bean. C. Bestows upon them the lazy eyebrow a la Colombo. D. Pretends not to sweat like Prince Andrew.

A. His personal Alphlexo crab. B. Cameron Diaz. C. Jasper Pääkkönen’s moustache. D. The co-ordinates of Poivre Island. E. An Indo-Pacific permit with the legend, ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ in the body.

6. If our Lifer Clem Booth ever learns to play the guitar, he’s likely to serenade us with (page 110)?

SNAIL OR FAIL?

A. A size 4 Largemouth Yellowfish streamer. B. A caddis pattern. C. A bare hook. D. A Balbyter ant. E. A Stillwater Goldilocks.

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Answers:1.C,2.D,3.D,4.A,5.B,6.C&D.

5 Which of the following was not effective in David Karpul’s 100 fly stream experiment (page 100)?

A. Led Zepplin - Stairway to Heaven. B. The Black-Eyed Peas – My Humps. C. Leonard Cohen – Hallelujah. D. Neil Young – Old Man. E. Jimi Hendrix – All Along the Watchtower.

GURGLER OR HAMBURGLER? ZONKER OR PLONKER?

TAKE OUR QUICK QUIZ TO SEE THE INFO FROM THIS ISSUE THAT STUCK TO YOU LIKE TP TO YOUR RING.

3. According to Nic Schwerdtfeger, ‘Yeehaw de Villers’ was a mix of (page 50)? A. Bladerunner plus The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. B The Fifth Element and Django Unchained C. Bravestarr and The Hills Have Eyes. D Mad Max meets No Country for Old Men

4 When Jako/Taco Lucas sees other guides on the water in the Port O’Connor area, he (page 58)?

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The Mission Fly Fishing Magazine Issue #35

Articles inside

Pay Day

Salad Bar

The Little Guy

Lifer

Booze, Beats & Munchies

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