members’ ac hievements
Gone Fishing “Saw you on the bank with a Red-eyed Damsel earlier.” “Yes – nice, but a bit fluffy, so I switched to a Pole Dancer.” “Hmm - Any good?” “Depends what you want. Had a better fight with a Two Bit Hooker last weekend.” “Interesting (vigorous nodding) I’ve had some luck – specially at dawn – with a Hot Legs Foxy Gotcha, but between you and me, Mrs Simpson is my go-to, at any time of day in these parts.”
I over-heard this startling conversation between two, apparently very respectable gentlemen, in a country Pub once. I leaned in over my half pint of cider to hear more of the scandalous exchange, but when they moved on to Woolly Buggers, Amber Snatchers and Mini Muddlers, I realised they were not sex fiends, after all, but ardent fly-fishermen discussing the merits of their various flies. Fly-tying is a highly skillful hand-craft and has its own fanciful and wildly imaginative language, which matches the exquisite works of art fashioned, minutely out of sparkle, fluff, spangles and feathers, into whimsical, often fairylike and always exotic creations, which end up flashing across rivers and streams, oceans and lakes all over the world.
There are thousands of different styles of fly designed by individual fly-fishers who create them to their specific requirements – hence the fantastical names. Some are designed for certain waters – calm or fast flowing, deep or shallow, salt or fresh – and some are designed for the particular fish, which inhabit these waters. Passionate fly-fisherman MCC Member Johnny Onslow stumbled into fly-tying when he was approached by a local man in Rongai several years ago and asked if he would like to buy some flies. Mildly perplexed by the question, the man then showed Johnny a selection of exquisitely hand-tied fishing flies. Johnny was intrigued where the man had learned his skill and later discovered that fly-tying had been a dynamic and flourishing industry in Western Kenya for over 60 years. The late Denis Whetham is recognised as the ‘Father of the Kenya fly-tying industry.’ His parents brought him to Western Kenya as a boy in the 1930s, after he was crippled in a rugby accident. To pass the hours he spent prone in his bed, he taught himself to tie flies with the aid of a mirror over his head. He sold his first dozen flies to the local bank manager in Kericho for 5/- and so began the pupal fly-tying industry in Kenya. As Denis learned to walk again he taught two Kenyans to tie flies and over the years, despite the interruptions of WWII, the Mau Mau uprising and marriage, Denis’s business flourished, his team of tyers
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Muthaiga Country Club January – March 2021
grew, and he was exporting flies to twenty countries by the 1960s.
When Johnny retired from teaching, looking for a new challenge, and remembering the man he met in Rongai, he made some enquiries on a trip to UK and found he had an order for 300-dozen flies by the time he returned to Kenya. He then set about establishing a fly-tying business in Rongai, recruiting local tyers, which he called ‘Gone Fishing’. Today, in a good month, Gone Fishing, produces over 10,000-dozen flies and exports them to 15 different countries worldwide. COVID unsettled the market initially and Johnny had to lay-off most of his workforce, but during the summer months of 2020, fly-fishing www.mcc.co.ke
