LIFER
THE STORYTELLER F LY F I S HI NG O FT E N A P P E A RS TO BE AS MUCH ABOUT STORY-TELLING AS I T I S ABO U T CATCHI NG FI SH, WHICH IS WHY IT’S NO SURPRISE TH AT R E N OW NE D RACO NT EU R, R OB CA SK IE, IS A FAN OF THE LON G ROD. W I T H H I S T RA D E M A RK S HORTS AND STICK, MR CASKIE SPIN S A FA N TAST I C YA RN, RA NG I NG FROM THE AN GLO-ZULU BATTLEFIELDS OF I SA N DLWA NA A ND RO RKE’S DRIFT, TO SHACKLETON’S AN TARCTIC EXP E D I T I O NS O R OTHER INCREDIBLE TALES. Photos. Platon Trakoshis, Rob Caskie
The best advice I have ever been given was to learn to listen more and to speak less.
The first fish I remember catching when I was five years old, was a large-mouth bass. The places I have called home include farms in the Midlands of KwaZulu Natal, the Anglo Zulu Battlefields at Rorke’s Drift and, after travelling around the world for four years, I now reside in Howick. I’ve had many different jobs from hod carrier, to grape picker, commercial landscaper, general worker/driver on farms in South Africa, England, Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada, photographic safari guide, storyteller on battlefields, and now professional speaker. My ideal day starts with an early morning mountain bike ride in Karkloof Forests, the morning spent in my study dealing with emails and work related matters, while the afternoon is spent preparing for and traveling to a story-telling event. My home waters are primarily dams in the Natal Midlands and foothills of the Drakensberg for brown and rainbow trout.
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I’m most proud of a 180 degree change in my career path in my mid thirties when I was at a low point in my life. I studied agriculture in Pietermaritzburg. Thereafter my life included wildlife safari guiding in Botswana; much photography; Cape to Cairo with Kingsley Holgate and then a three-year backpacking sojourn around the world. I had a small safari business and during the winter looked after dairy farms in the farmer’s absence. Money however was tight, my relationship ended acrimoniously and my foster father took his own life on the farm, battling Alzheimer’s. With no background whatsoever in theatre, drama, history or public speaking, friends and family prevailed upon me to take up the invitation from David Rattray to join him as a storyteller on the Anglo Zulu War battlefields. The best party trick I have ever seen was my younger brother performing the New Zealand haka (which he is very good at), after which he leapt in the air grabbing onto a beam overhead. The beam broke, collapsing onto the audience (nobody was hurt), whereupon my brother bowed to the audience as if it was part of the act Something I have had to work at in life is administration, paperwork, time management and financial matters. Storytelling comes most naturally. The most satisfying fish I ever caught was an 18-pound pike in the Lake at Ashford Castle in Ireland. My go-to drink is a Partly Cloudy = Jameson’s Whiskey and ginger ale. One place, never again would be Hawaii. Insincere residents, heat and humidity, the most expensive bed in all my travels and I got eaten alive by bedbugs. The bites went septic and I could not wait to leave the place!
W W W. T H E M I S S I O N F LY M A G . C O M
