A LONGA WAY FROM HOME

14 DAYS IN MARCH

OVER A COUPLE OF PINTS, GUIDE JOHANN RADEMEYER FILLS JAZZ KUSCHKE IN ON A RECENT TRIP TO ANGOLA’S RIO LONGA.

There are many students of fly fishing but not everybody graduates. Few go on to become professors (though a good bunch like to lecture). The real masters, though, are those who combine a sponge-like thirst for knowledge with natural fish-finding (and catching) instincts. This combo might make Johann Rademeyer the next Karate Kid.

Johann came to fly fishing relatively late, seeking a new way to target the tailing spotted grunter which, over the years, he’d figured out on all manner of artificials, including jigs. After not just ticking that box, but pretty much outclassing every Mr Miyagi who mentored him on what most consider the pinnacle of South African estuary fish, Johann moved on to yellowfish on the Orange River, and then bonito from shore. He caught well over 20 this past summer. Then he went to Angola looking for tarpon.

Since everything he touches turns to gold, you can guess the rest.

On What Drew Him Back

I went to Camp Yetu on the Rio Longa last year to shoot footage for a tackle-range release for Fishman Tackle. I was there to work, so fishing wasn’t part of the schedule. It was a shore-spinning shoot featuring mostly beach stuff but, to get to the good side of the river mouth, you must cross with a boat from the lodge. Every morning on the boat ride we’d see tarpon rolling everywhere. Then I’d go and sit on the beach and film the guys spinning while the tarpon were still rolling behind me. Once the spinning session was done, we’d head back on the boat, and guide AJ de Beer would take a little spinning stick and have like three throws and go tight and it’s like, oh fuck! The other guys on the shoot didn’t even bother, firstly because they didn’t have the right gear and secondly, because they wanted to make the most of their time for the shoot.

Back working for Mavungana Flyfishing on the Orange River in South Africa, I struggled to get those poons out of my mind, especially while talking to clients around the fire at night. They all asked about the possibility of targeting them on fly there. It had been done before by the odd client, and Justin Kemp and Wesley Rapson did an exploratory trip up there a few years back with AJ’s brother Zander. Hearing those stories just got me more psyched and every time I got back into signal after taking a group on the Orange I would get in touch with Spyker Kruger from Camp Yetu to ask him about the river conditions and what was happening. Spyker, who owns the concessions and has exclusive rights for spinning in the area, had long desired to expand the lodge’s offerings to include fly fishing. After a final discussion with fellow guide Mike Dames, comparing the potential at Rio Longa to Sette Cama in Gabon where he guides part of the year (plus a few teasing WhatsApp messages from Spyker asking when I would visit), I couldn’t resist any longer and promptly booked my tickets.

On Logistics

Getting to Camp Yetu is not unlike getting to a lodge on the Zambezi. You fly to Luanda (there are direct flights from Cape Town and Johannesburg). After that four-hour hop, Spyker will pick you up and you do a road transfer. The Angolan roads are still in a terrible post-war state so the 200km drive takes about another three-and-a-half hours.

On The Rio Longa

It’s a special river. Rio Longa flows through wetlands and dense jungles, creating a unique environment. It’s pretty wild, with a variety of snakes and small game as well as crocs in the river. When it reaches the coast, it turns sideways and flows horizontally for a couple of kilometres, not unlike some of the systems in Gabon. The mouth of the Rio Longa also has some really interesting features; one side has an open beach with the ocean and the other side is full of mangroves. The current is almost always going out to sea, with a lot of water moving down even on a pushing tide. Only during a spring high tide is there a bit of a standstill, but there’s never a push like on the tidal estuaries I’m used to on South Africa’s Garden Route. Because of that, the mouth of the river creates this kilometre- to a kilometre-and-a-half-wide back eddy, providing still water and allowing you to fish in different areas with different currents and seams.

On His First Poon

We were anchored up just on the riverside of the mouth, fishing in the faster water. There was another angler in the bow casting in the front 45 degrees and I was at the back, putting out swings, reminiscent of how I had fished for largies on the Orange River. On the fourth or fifth swing, I went tight…

After I hooked it, the tarpon jumped once and made one solid run before coming up and then running toward the boat. I stayed with it and luckily managed to net it on the first pass. To be honest, it didn’t give much of a fight compared to the other ones I caught later, but it was such a relief to get that first one in hand and the monkey off my back.

ON WHAT HE’S LEARNED ABOUT THE FISHERY

Every day, the fishery changes completely. I guess that’s one of the things that intrigues me about it so much. One day you’ll be swinging for them in heavy current with a sinking line, and the next morning they’ll all be in the back eddy, with schools of fish moving on the surface.

What is fascinating to see is how they pick up on any line formation in the water, whether it’s a current line, or where the sea water and tannin-stained river water meet, or even just a line made by the wind. Within a couple of minutes, you’ll see them congregating on that line. When the line disappears, they might be between the floating weed islands, where the crabs congregate. Then you’ll see them hit the islands, knocking the crabs off the weeds. It’s a pretty remarkable sight. Those weed islands and the river coming down are all linked to the rains upriver. When it rains, well, it pours. That weed is like a fly and fly-line magnet. I got tangled up too many times to count.

On The Biggest Poon He Caught

The biggest one I got on this trip was on foot. It was on a spring high tide at the mouth and all these weed islands were washed up right close to the shore. The poons and other creatures were going mal right there at my feet. As mentioned, it’s not a light weed off which your fly line will just bounce. When I hooked this poon, there was just fly line everywhere and it tangled in the weed islands on shore. I somehow managed to free the line and get it all back on the reel and beach that fish. It was a wild and immensely satisfying moment, especially being all by myself with no one to help land it or take pictures.

On Other Opportunities

Offshore on the reefs, there is a big variety of fish. We went trawling one day and caught massive barracuda up to 1.8m and were chasing rugby fields of jacks just behind the backline. There’s also the opportunity to go for big game pelagics like sailfish, tuna, dorado, and amberjack. It’s a massive fishery, so even if the weather is not favourable for tarpon fishing, you can still have a successful trip. Aside from tarpon, there are longfin jacks, jack crevalle, threadfin, and Senegalese kob in the river. We also caught a nice brown snapper in the sea and some small cubera in the river. The possibilities are definitely there, similar to Gabon, but not quite as wild.

We caught threadfin and corvina (Senegalese kob) on spinning gear but not on fly. When you’re on the beach, you have to make decisions about whether to use fly or conventional tackle depending on the conditions and the other anglers around you. One day I lost a big threadie (or maybe something else) on fly in the mouth. I’d just caught one on spinning gear and the water was not too deep — like three metres — so you could easily get down with the fly. I switched to the fly rod and a large tarpon-style fly with a long, thick Zonker tail in orange. As the fly came up on the drop, I felt a big hit but couldn’t connect. When I checked the fly, the tail was gone, almost like how a big shad destroys the backs of flies and lures. All of that being said, I didn’t really put in the time on any of the other species. The goal was always to go there and focus on the poons. I experimented a lot and learnt quite a bit. Especially about hooks and flies.

On What He Learned About Hooks And Flies

The (correct) hooks made a huge difference. I know what I’m going back with next time but it’s a pretty contentious issue, so maybe I’ll talk about it more after the next mission. As for flies… Well, I spent a lot of time in between sessions tying, but next time I will go back with less variety and more of the tried and tested patterns. I took a couple of patterns that [Mavungana Flyfishing’s] Jono Boulton gave me and caught that first one on the swing on a big, bulky fly of his, but after that first day we were mainly chasing rolling fish, and for that we needed flies with much thinner profiles. You needed to be able to put it out there fast and give it movement. They’re also a lot quicker to tie!

ON WHEN HE’S GOING BACK

I’ve got my eye on another stint this year but whether or not that trip works out, I will definitely be back there in March and April next year. You want the rain, so April is the peak season. Also, from April you can start fishing at night, which we weren’t able to do this year because of turtle hatching season. Even though I couldn’t explore the night-fishing possibilities, those 14 days earlier this year changed my outlook on fish, fly fishing and, potentially, the entire trajectory of my life.