LIFER
THE ROCKSTAR F R OM R E D RO CKS A ND I BI ZA TO BASS AN D CORBIN A, DAVE PO O LE IS A LI F E LO N G FLY A NG LE R WH O ALSO HAPPENS TO BE ON E HALF OF GLOB E T R OT T I NG S O U T H A FRI CA N ELECTRONIC MUSIC / DJ DUO GOLDFISH.
T
he first fish that really peaked my interest in fishing was when a childhood friend of mine caught a rainbow trout from under an overhang with some bread. It was big and beautiful and I was jealous that I hadn’t caught it. I tried for many years in that river with little or no success, but it still holds a magical place in my childhood memory. Wading up a river fishing upstream with a dragless drift is a beautiful thing, which I hadn’t mastered back then. I grew up in Somerset West, then moved to Cape Town. Both were home but then GoldFish began for Dominic Peters (Dave’s bandmate) and myself and we started going to Ibiza in Spain every summer for eight years. San Diego has been our home for the past 5 years. The name GoldFish came about at a time when I was fishing almost every day while doing my masters at UCT (University of Cape Town). We needed a name for the project. Dominic had a legendary short term memory so between that and my fishing, the two things came together rather nicely to name the project after a fish. I’ve always been in music. I tried selling pizza slices as a kid and was like this is a kak jol (shit gig) so I kept at the music. I’ve been playing in bands since I was 13 years old. The very first gig my band played was when we opened for the The Blues Broers. We had Albert Frost in our band whose Dad was Frank Frost the legendary drummer of The Blues Broers. We scored the gig at a venue called the Smoke house in Loop street. Myself and our drummer, Tim Rankin, pitched up with no adults and managed to hustle our way in and play the show. It was pretty legendary, both getting in as 13-year-olds and actually playing the show. In terms of a typical day, we live a kind of strange duel life. If we are at home for a stretch then a perfect day would entail getting up early for either surfing, mountain biking or fishing. Then I jump into making fishy music and sorting out upcoming tours followed by a lekker braai. The other life is touring: jumping on flights, sound checks, late nights ,epic shows, early morning flights, minimal sleep and doing it all again…
My homewaters tend to be the amazing lakes around San Diego which have great Largemouth bass fishing. They chase bait fish to the surface at many times in the year which makes them rather susceptible to my fly rod. I have had decent success with Woolhead Mullets, the odd Clouser Minnow and various poppers. With fish breaking the surface, it’s pretty high action sight-fishing. During Covid I really got into fishing off the beach in San Diego for Corbina which was super fun and I had some decent success. The best advice I have ever been given is that if you do something unique you suddenly have way less competition, as opposed to doing something really well but that everyone else is doing. This really translates well into many areas of life from fishing to music and beyond. I guess what I am most proud of is being part of GoldFish and having written songs that people listen to all over the world. The most satisfying fish I ever caught was not on fly and I did not catch it, though I came close. We were fishing for sea trout off downtown Miami and I was absolutely smashing it with multiple fish caught on fly. My buddy who was fishing a conventional rig wasn’t doing as well, so I offered to swap with him so he could smash them with the fly rod too. On my first cast with the conventional tackle I get bitten off by some big blue runners (Elf). I re rig the rod and next cast BAM! “FISH ON!” A 40/50 kg tarpon that did three tail walks and set off on run after run. Only issue was we were fishing light tackle, so after fighting this monster for over 60 minutes it broke me off then swam right next to the boat giving me the birdy. Other notable mentions: sight fishing for Carp and Smallmouth Bass. My go to drink is good tequila or mescal. It helps that we live 30 min from Mexico so there’s plenty of that around. One place, never again…there was this hotel in Jozi we stayed at back in the day that was so sketchy it had a deadbolt on the door and what looked like blood splatter on the roof.
“WADING UP A RIVER FISHING UPSTREAM WITH A DRAGLESS DRIFT IS A BEAUTIFUL THING” 94
W W W. T H E M I S S I O N F LY M A G . C O M
