7 minute read
Lifer
THE ROCKSTAR
FROM RED ROCKS AND IBIZA TO BASS AND CORBINA, DAVE POOLE IS A LIFELONG FLY ANGLER WHO ALSO HAPPENS TO BE ONE HALF OF GLOBETROTTING SOUTH AFRICAN ELECTRONIC MUSIC / DJ DUO GOLDFISH.
The 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.
One place I have to return to is the Maldives to surf and fish.
The handiest survival skill I have is fishing. I definitely won’t go hungry.
On the life skills front something I would love to
master is the piano. It’s such an amazing building block into all kinds of music song writing and production. In terms of fishing skills, there are so many niche skills which is definitely part of the attraction. I love fly fishing however I do a fair bit of conventional bass fishing too. Fishing a jig or Texas rig has always been a challenge for me (as my gear has got a bit better it has definitely go easier). I would love to master these two skills.
Before I die, I want to catch the following fish: bonefish on fly, peacock bass on anything and tigerfish on fly. It would be even better if I get to do this with my kids. One of the most fun things to do in fishing is teach your kids how to do it and then seeing their faces when they get bit! I have such great memories of fishing with my dad as a kid, in fact I still have his ancient fly rod from who knows when.
What I get out of fly fishing has not changed over the
years. I still feel like I get the same kind of enjoyment out of being outside in amazing places, with friends or alone pitting yourself against amazing creatures, trying to figure out that day’s secret sauce for success to hopefully catching them and letting them go again. I love the fact that we have managed to fish all over the world while touring, from browns in Aspen to bonito on fly in the Seychelles to sockeye salmon during the run in British Columbia. If I could change one thing in fly fishing, I would change how often I get to do it.
Looking back on my life, there are definitely a few things I would have done differently, but I concentrate on the good stuff and try make that better rather than harp on about the things that didn’t work out. Something I have changed my mind about is that I am no longer a purist when it comes to fly fishing. I am a purist in some ways, like catch and release, but I am happy to fish several styles, from fly fishing (preferably sight fishing), light conventional tackle or spinning. The last thing I caught was in fact my index finger. As I landed a bass the fish went bananas and suddenly it wasn’t the only thing that was hooked. The barb was in nicely so I had to do that line trick, which was not easy but we got it out. That was probably the last fish I caught too. I got four on fly on that trip which was pretty epic, as you literally wait for them to chase the shad up and get a fly in to the boil as quick as possible and BAM! If you want to see pictures of me not catching fish but blowing a saxophone then head over to all the usual platforms @goldfishlive
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