5 minute read
Lifer
LIFER THE STORYTELLER
FLY FISHING OFTEN APPEARS TO BE AS MUCH ABOUT STORY-TELLING AS IT IS ABOUT CATCHING FISH, WHICH IS WHY IT’S NO SURPRISE THAT RENOWNED RACONTEUR, ROB CASKIE, IS A FAN OF THE LONG ROD. WITH HIS TRADEMARK SHORTS AND STICK, MR CASKIE SPINS A FANTASTIC YARN, RANGING FROM THE ANGLO-ZULU BATTLEFIELDS OF ISANDLWANA AND RORKE’S DRIFT, TO SHACKLETON’S ANTARCTIC EXPEDITIONS OR OTHER INCREDIBLE TALES.
Photos. Platon Trakoshis, Rob Caskie
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. The best advice I have ever been given was to learn to listen more and to speak less.
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!
One place I have to return to is the High Himalayas, Nepal and Tibet. On the hiking trails one is judged and measured by no other parameter than by one’s ability to walk. The greeting of “Namaste” is universal - meaning I salute the god or good within you. The Buddhists devotedly live their religion seven days a week. I felt closer to my creator there than anywhere else on earth. I cannot wait to return. When is it okay for an angler to lie? Legends grow in the telling and I think all anglers dream of catching a fish they do not need to lie about.
The handiest survival skill I have is that I am very good
mechanically and can normally find my way out of a jam if it involves a vehicle. A skill I would like to master is technology. I fear war will always be an aspect of human nature. Ego, culture, testosterone and religion are a heady mix. So long as men remain in leadership positions war, in my opinion, is sadly inevitable.
The biggest adventures I’ve ever been on are numerous…
from traveling Cape to Cairo with Kingsley Holgate, various motorcycle trips, hiking in the High Himalayas to driving the Canadian-Alaskan Highway Regarding storytelling’s importance in modern society, I believe there is a resurgence of interest in storytelling promoted perhaps by a general overload of entertainment options in the modern world. Deep within us lies an innate desire to be entertained in the theatre of our imagination by a story well told.
The best way to face one’s fears is by understanding
that the worst is very unlikely. Most fears are imaginary and never as bad as one thinks.
Before I die, I’d like to return to the Himalayas, visit Machu Picchu and find the time to watch more sunsets and see more trees grow.
What I get out of fly fishing has absolutely changed over
the years. In the past the catch was most important. Now the scenery, the headspace, the technique and the privilege are paramount
If I could change one thing in fly fishing, it would be that the status and cost of top venues would not be so important.
Looking back on my life, if there was anything I would
do differently, it would be that since I pass this way but once, I would have extended far more acts of kindness and have had more real fears and fewer imaginary ones
Something I have changed my mind about is that life should be measured in experience rather than dollars. The last fish I caught was a beautiful wild rainbow trout with Platon Trakoshis on the Holsloot River near Rawsonville.
