The Mission Fly Fishing Magazine Issue 16

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PERSONALITIES

ISSUE 16 JULY | AUG 2019

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THEMISSIONFLYMAG.COM

NIRVANA IN BHUTAN, GIANT NIGER BARBS, CAPE STREAMS CONNECTION, BOB SKINSTAD, GOATS GALORE, BEERS, BEATS & MORE

The North

- Up near the Paraguayan border, we stay in a rustic but stylish airconditioned lodge with tackle shop, pool table and well-stocked bar.

- Fish from after breakfast for large, trophy golden dorado (up to 30lb), pira pita and pacu, break for a long Malbec-fuelled lunch and fish again from 3pm till sunset.

Dorado Double

JOIN MAVUNGANA FLYFISHING FOR A TWO-PART DORADO-FEST ON ARGENTINA’S FAMED PARANA RIVER The second longest river in South America (after the Amazon), the Parana is absolutely massive, flowing some 4880km. From the tailwater fishery up in the north to massive braids, extensive islands and a marshy delta further south, the Parana offers anglers so much in terms of variety and species diversity. After having fished it for years, the Mavungana FlyFishing team has figured out the perfect 10-night/8-day trip combining the best of the north with the best of the south. Book your 2020 slot now!

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The South

- We stay on the luxurious Golden Dorado River Cruiser complete with 4 x double bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, amazing views from the upper deck, an extensive wine collection, 24-hour electricity and laundry service and incredible meals.

- Fish for a range of species including smaller golden dorado (up to 10lb), piranha, wolf fish and vampire fish.

W W W. F LY F I S H I N G . C O . Z A The Mavungana Flyfishing Centre, Main Road Dullstroom, 013 254 0270 Mavungana JHB, Illovo Square, 3 Rivonia Road, 011 268 5850

W W W. T H E M I S S I O N F LY M A G . C O M ISSUE 16 JULY / AUG 2019

CONTENTS Cover: Chadward, a vicious Celtic bar-fighting goldfish (Carassius dickheadus), tamed by Andre van Wyk in his pond at home in Cape Town, South Africa.

Mr Joe looks on. Photo: Platon Trakoshis

18 KID GLOVES Conrad Botes pulls the trigger finger and hallucinates in the Sudanese desert.

30 NIGERIA’S QUIET CORNER On an exploratory trip deep into Nigeria’s largest national park, Ed Ghaui discovers giant Niger barbs in remote Edenic river valleys.

44 CONNECTION Ryan Janssens’ incredible Cape Streams photo essay turns small mountain trout munching mayflies in to Air Jaws.

58 NIRVANA There are trips that are so far out and inaccessible, that even a winning lottery ticket won’t put them on the radar of reality for you. Keith Rose-Innes’s trip to Bhutan for golden masheer is one of them. We can dream, right?

74 SPLIT PERSONALITIES We asked three anglers and split shot aficionados (a pro, an amateur and a guide), just how they get the money shot.

Here’s what they use and how they use it.

REGULAR FEATURES 12 Wish List Fish 14 Beers & Beats 22 Munchies 24 High 5s

90 Salad Bar 94 Payday 96 Lifer - Bob Skinstad 100 Pop Quiz

A rainbow trout from beat 4 on the Elandspad auditions for Ryan Janssens’ Lord of the Flies/Jaws mash-up tribute film, A Fistful of Mayflies.

T U D O R CA R A D O C - DAV I ES

WHO SHOT CHADWARD? EDITOR’S COLUMN

The truth is, we go through serious fishing droughts, when there are no trips on the horizon and even our local fishing is in the doldrums. At present, the Cape river season is closed, the salt scene is at its quietest and with cold front after cold front making landfall, it’s just been difficult to get away.

What that means is that we have had to get creative with the opportunities we have had. Any port in a storm, becomes any pond within range, becomes any species that will take a fly. That’s what Chadward the Goldfish faced when Andre van Wyk lined him up for this issue’s cover shoot, as part of our Split Personalities, split screen story. Chadward’s a rare Celtic Bar-fighting Goldfish - tough, huge, ill-tempered, great incisors, ambush predator, the lot. It wasn’t easy. There were acrobatics (like Ryan Janssens’ orca-like trout on pg 44), digits were damaged in much the same way Conrad Botes got his munched by a Sudanese trigger while saving goats (pg 18). Yet still, we got the shot.

Elsewhere in this issue, Chadward’s relatives in the greater Cyprinidae family featured strongly, from the giant niger barbs of Nigeria (pg 230) to the Bhutanese Royal family’s golden mahseer (pg 58). Hard to believe they all share a gene or three.

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ppearances can be deceiving. People often assume, that because we work on The Mission, that we are constantly out there, fishing in exotic places. That would be jet-setting Fly Fishing Nation chaps you’re thinking of, not us. Well, not just yet.

Admittedly, opportunities do spring up from time to time, but when you are juggling the usual pressures of time and money and a start-up magazine, it’s still difficult to take advantage of them.

Add to that a plethora of other species and the personalities chasing after them and there’s more than enough to get both us and you through this winter of our fishing discontent.

By next issue, I promise, I will have picked up my lip and gone fishing for something other than goldfish.

I hope you do too.

“CHADWARD’S A RARE CELTIC BAR-FIGHTING GOLDFISH - TOUGH, HUGE, ILL-TEMPERED, GREAT INCISORS, AMBUSH PREDATOR, THE LOT.” 08

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Stephan ‘Splitscreen’ Dombaj of Fly Fishing Nation with the latest in coconut hairdoes. Find out how to get the look on page 72

EDITOR Tudor Caradoc-Davies ART DIRECTOR Brendan Body CONTACT THE MISSION The Mission Fly Fishing Mag (PTY) Ltd 20 Malleson Rd, Mowbray, 7700, Cape Town, South Africa Info@themissionflymag.com www.themissionflymag.com

EDITOR AT LARGE Conrad Botes COPY EDITOR Gillian Caradoc-Davies ADVERTISING SALES tudor@themissionflymag.com brendan@themissionflymag.com

THE MISSION IS PUBLISHED 6 TIMES A YEAR. THE MISSION WILL WELCOME CONTENT AND PHOTOS. WE WILL REVIEW THE CONTRIBUTION AND ASSESS WHETHER OR NOT IT CAN BE USED AS PRINT OR ONLINE CONTENT. THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS MAGAZINE ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE MAGAZINE OR ITS OWNERS. THE MISSION IS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE MISSION FLY MAG (PTY) LTD. ANY DUPLICATION OF THIS MAGAZINE, FOR MEDIA OR SALE ACTIVITY, WILL RESULT IN LEGAL ACTION AND BEING ACCUSED OF GOAT FUCKERY.

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CONTRIBUTORS #16 Andre van Wyk, Cameron Musgrave, Stephan Dombaj, Conrad Botes, Ed Ghaui, Keith Rose-Innes, Nick van Rensburg, Andy Fenner, Calum McNaughton PHOTOGRAPHERS #16 Platon Trakoshis, Ryan Janssens, Conrad Botes, Mark Murray, Stephan Dombaj, Cameron Musgrave, Andre van Wyk, Ed Ghaui, Barnaby Ghaui, Tim Leppan, Craig Fraser, Ilya Sherbovich

@THEMISSIONFLYMAG

Every inch counts. They say most fish are caught at less than 40 feet… we say less than 480 inches.

You took care to plan your stalk, ease into position, and perfectly time your cast to that hypercritical fish. Put the fly on target - and it’s game on.

Miss by a couple inches - and it’s game over. That’s why Scott has been designing and crafting rods for pin-point precision for over 40 years.

When you arm yourself with the right fishing tool, you’ll hit the mark more - and that means less cursing and more high-fiving.

Scott’s new G Series rods bring feel to those short- to mid-range casts with the stability to track true and the accuracy to place the fly on target.

They have great control for tricky mends and technical presentations, and they bend deeply and evenly to protect the lightest tippets.

So next time you plan to get up close and personal with a wary fish, take a G Series, because it’s only a matter of inches.

Scott Fly Rod Company

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WISH LIST FISH

WILDEPERD W H AT ’ S B L A C K , W H I T E A N D P I S C AT O R I A L D Y N A M I T E ? H I N T : N O T T H E S H A R K S R U G B Y T E A M . W E ’ R E TA L K I N G W I L D E P E R D / Z E B R A F I S H , O N E O F T H E M O S T U N D E R R AT E D I N T E R - T I D A L S P E C I E S ALONG OUR COASTLINE

Herman Botes gets to grips with some Overberg horsepower in the shape of a chonk Wildeperd

What: For the benefit of our non-South African readers, the literal translation of the Afrikaans Wildeperd is ‘Wild Horse’. When it comes to these fish it means “Zebra(fish).” Rarer and more difficult to catch than their greedy little colleagues, blacktail, Wildeperd are also prettier, grow bigger and fight like a (Shetland pony) stallion when hooked on a light salt rod.

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Where: Endemic to the coastal waters from False Bay to Kosi Bay, Wildeperd, like blacktail, galjoen and other coastal species can be found in the wash of inter-tidal flats, banks, gullies, holes and in the surf of small bays.

from a 5-weight to a 7-weight outfit with a floating line and 9-foot leaders. On the fly front, you can’t go wrong with a Steve Austin fly (a Crazy Charlie-type fly with a pink crystal flash bod, pink thread, gold dumbbell eyes, optional pink legs and tan calf fur wing).

How: Reach for the light salt stuff – anything

Who: DIY or die boetie!

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For your nearest dealer contact Frontier Distribution on info@frontierflyfishing.co.za

FODDER

BEERS & BEATS

THE BEER – HEY JOE Franschhoek, while better known as a village of five-star restaurants and retiree billionaires playing “wine farm, wine farm,” also has a few hidden gems for those seeking more basic pleasures. While we are drawn to trout in the mountain streams surrounding Franschhoek (you have to know where to look) and carp in the middle reaches of the Berg, if the fishing sucks or if we are looking for apres-bundu beers, Hey Joe Brewery is a great spot to we pull in to.

While it’s a new addition to the town’s gustatory options, Hey Joe packs some old school DNA with an Abbey-style Brewhouse boasting 7300l full copper ‘de halve maan‘ ket-

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tles that were built in 1961 in Eastern Bavaria. The brewhouse made its way to Belgium in the late 80’s to brew four world award winning beers before coming to Franschhoek.

At Hey Joe, head brewer Anja van Zyl focuses more on a classical and traditional brewing method using only the highest quality imported Belgium malt and hops. Her beers include four cracking options; a Blonde, a Wit (great with a naartjie wedge), a Special Belge and a Farmhouse Saison. Buy bottles or get a 2l take away straight from the tap in the shape of a growler featuring the contour lines of a Franschhoek map on the bottle. All the better to find more fishable water. www.heyjoebrewery.com

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Platon Trakoshis with a great carp caught in better days on the Berg

T R O U B L E D WAT E R S

THE BERG W H E T H E R I T ’ S T R O U T , C A R P O R S A LT W AT E R S P E C I E S Y O U A R E I N T O , O N E O F T H E W E S T E R N C A P E ’ S G R E AT R I V E R S I S STRUGGLING LIKE NEVER BEFORE. Photos: Andre van Wylk, Platon Trakoshis

The Waters We love the Berg. It’s one of our closest rivers and it has a storied history in the annals of Western Cape fly fishing. Primarily thought of as a trout river, it fell under the Cape Piscatorial Society’s jurisdiction for decades until Cape Nature moved in and Rotenoned the crap out of it.

The odd die-hard finds a way into the upper reaches looking for survivalist in-bred Bear Grylls trout, but nowadays most of the fly fishing focus is either on the saltwater species like leervis/Garrick at the river’s mouth at Velddrif on the West Coast and the carp you find in the middle reaches.

At its best, the carp fishing is world class. Big, spooky fish inhabiting clear-running sections of river that look so good the unofficial beats get names like The Test (after Britain’s famous chalk stream). But, with the severe drought that hit Cape Town a year ago and constant pollution, the river is in a sad state and the fishing has gone to shit.

The Wankers As usual, it’s us humans in general. The Berg is a ‘working river’ in that is a valuable source of both drinking water to Cape Town and provides agricultural irrigation to the many farms along its banks. Due to the drastic state of the water quality, produce from these farms could be banned from exporting to the European Union, a R1,5 billion market many farmers rely on. According to a University of

Cape Town (UCT) study, the main drivers of the Berg’s water quality degradation are pollution from urban settlements, wastewater treatment works and agricultural runoff. So, us humans need the river, but in a classic case of an abusive relationship, we don’t treat it wet.

The Way Forward Environmentalists, farmers, business people and NGOs have grouped together to form the Berg River Transformation Project, which is focused on saving the river and restoring it to its previously pristine condition through working with business and local communities.

Mark Heistein, CEO of the Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve (CWBR) a UNESCO-backed agency involved in the Berg River Transformation Project says, “ The Berg River, like so many other rivers in the world, suffers from biological pollution inputs, and invasive alien vegetation taking over the riparian zones. There is hope however, as the situation has improved over the last ten years due to the huge efforts put in by many partners. The Department of Agriculture, Western Cape Government, WWF, Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve Municipalities, Universities, Conservancies and land owners. It will be a long haul, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

To get involved, visit capewinelandsbiosphere.co.za

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UNDERCURRENTS

KID GLOVES O N A D E S O L AT E S T R E T C H O F B E A C H I N SUDAN, CONRAD BOTES HEARD A VOICE AND HAD A VISION Photos: Mark Murray, Conrad Botes

I

could have sworn I heard a voice.

I looked left, in the direction I had just came from, then right down the shore in the direction I was heading. I was fishing alone, on a small island just off the Sudanese coast. There was no one else in sight. Behind me, the Nubian Desert shimmered in all its desolate glory. Apart from some impressive rocky outcrops and a few dead branches that might have been some or other piece of vegetation in a previous existence, the landscape was devoid of any form of life. In front of me was the Red Sea. Even without a burning bush or a plague of locusts, it was a positively biblical moment.

I focussed my attention on the water and, in particular, on the beach where half a dozen crabs disappeared into the shallows after they’d spotted me. As my mind narrowed in on the fishing again, I knew there must be a trigger in there somewhere.

Then I heard the voice again.

It sounded strange, almost like a cry for help or a wailing prayer, and I couldn’t recognise the words.

I remembered seeing osprey nests the day before and it occurred to me that that it might be one of the birds calling. I scanned the landscape again. Then the sky. Nothing. Was I hallucinating? Perhaps it was Chtulu (do we need to explain?) calling me from the deep, leading me to the motherlode of all triggerfish.

Just as I’d decided to ignore it and keep going, the voice spoke to me

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once more. Again I looked up at the heavens, but it was as if the voice was calling me from below. I was standing beside an overhanging sandstone shelf next to the water. To confirm I wasn’t going mad, I looked beneath it and behold! The source of the voice. A lone white goat.

It was a kid actually, quite small and clearly in distress. It bleated its human-like lament again and tried to run away, but was too weak to do so. After reeling in my fly line, I decided that the kid should catch a ride in my line basket. I picked it up and put it in the basket (into which it fitted quite snugly). It must have been completely dehydrated but, unfortunately, I had just finished my water. Uncertain about the accommodation and the mini-bat (what is this?), the kid mustered all its energy and defiantly leapt out of the basket and into the shallow water. Instead of galloping away or whatever it is that goats do when they run, its energy expended, it just stood there looking at me.

I wasn’t sure what to do. Its flock’s whereabouts was a mystery.

Even its existence was questionable, because in the blanket of heat that encompasses a Sudanese fly fishing trip, your brain gets a little baked altering your grip on reality.

If Camus’s character Meursault in L’Etranger could murder a man because of the sun, surely I could hallucinate a goat into being?

I knew if I left it there it would surely die. Perhaps even in the next few hours. However, if I were to take it back to live aboard the boat, I was not sure what would happen to it.

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The chef might serve us goat stew for supper.

The goat looked at me and I decided that between the desert and the boat, it had a better chance if it came with me. I put it in the basket and it jumped out again. After repeating this about four or five times, the kid accepted its fate and curled up in a resting position. As I turned my attention back to the fishing again, I stripped the fly line on to the kid, who seemed not to give a shit anymore.

The flat we were fishing that morning was a peculiar one. It was about a

hundred to a hundred and fifty metres wide before the shelf dropped away into the depths of the Red Sea. But it was a deep flat, definitely too deep to wade. So we were dropped off on the shore and we walked and cast to fish in the shallows. At first I was pessimistic about our chances, but we immediately saw triggers right in the skinny stuff, trying to get to the multitude of crabs running relays between the rocks, sand and water.

The idea was that we would split up and regroup at noon when the skiff would pick us up again for lunch on the boat.

The kid was one lucky goat (or it had some seriously subliminal mind control bleats), because, in my efforts to catch my first trigger of the day I had wandered far away from the others that morning to find fish. The first one I found had been tailing right next to the beach. It took the crab fly eagerly and after a quick photo on the wet sand, I watched it bolt into the safety of the deeper part of the flat and that was when I had heard the voice.

Triggerfish are often referred to as the clowns of the flats. Lord knows

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why, because there is nothing funny about their behaviour… as I was about to find out. They’re mean little fuckers and their behaviour is unlike any other fish I’ve encountered.

If they get hold of a fly and you get it back, be sure that it will be mangled, squashed and rendered useless.

Their contempt is palpable, “I piss on your puny fly.” As I spotted the skiff approaching I still had a few hundred metres to cover before being picked up. I figured maybe I could squeeze in a quick brawl with one of these punks before the session was done.

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“IF CAMUS’S CHARACTER MEURSAULT IN L’ETRANGER COULD MURDER A MAN BECAUSE OF THE SUN, SURELY I COULD HALLUCINATE A GOAT INTO BEING?”

With the kid swinging in the line basket and the fly line stripped like a ball of spaghetti on top of it, I walked the line slowly, determinedly.

And then, as fate would have it, a trigger moved into the shallows in front of me. It was feeding right next to the shoreline, perhaps 40cm from the water’s edge. The first cast was way off the mark and I remember the fly landing on the beach. The second was right on the money.

Tourette guide Mark Murray, who was driving the skiff, had stopped a few hundred metres away and was watching the spectacle. The fish took the fly in classic trigger fashion, slowly swimming away in reverse, and I tightened the line.

Triggers have the habit of tugging at the line after a hook, almost as if to dismiss the fact that something is awry, before they bolt off.

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At that stage Mark had beached the skiff and came running with the camera. He took pictures of me fighting the trigger, along with the kid sticking its head out ogling the action. Some of the other anglers, who were already on board, hopped out and walked over. While I was about to land the fish, I quickly told the guys about our new friend and its dire need of hydration. And Englisman called Mike unclipped my line basket and poured water into his cap. They walked back to the skiff with the kid, who must have drunk three capfuls before being carried on board.

Meanwhile, Mark and I were having a little photo session with the trigger. I was sitting on my knees, cradling it in my right hand. I had it submerged, and as soon as Mark

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was ready, I would lift it out for a photo.

‘I think I’ve got the shot, you can let him go now’ said Mark.

Feeling benevolent and god-like after my goat rescue, I looked at the trigger and thought, ‘What placid creatures they are after capture,’ while moving my left hand forward to remove the crab fly from the corner of its mouth. It was at this moment that the trigger took revenge,

Conrad Botes vas into a Sudanese trigger, while a goat takes shelter in his stripping basket

wiggling its slab-like body forward and getting hold of the index finger on my left hand. The whole first phalange went into that absurdly human-looking mouth, while the even more ridiculous little gnashers slammed down on the bone at what seemed like a thousand beats per minute. I wailed like a distressed goat. Eventually, after what felt like forever, I managed to retrieve my mangled pointer. Mark helped me back to the boat where I collapsed in pain on the deck. The kid, its energy

returning, sat upright in the basket and looked at me with a bemused expression. I felt nauseous.

Back at the main boat, while I got pity and chirps, the kid was welcomed aboard like a rock star. What I should have known was that goats’ milk demands a premium in Sudan as it is used in a number of culinary treats, like the delicious goats’ cheese we’d been eating all week. Once its gender had been ascertained, the kid increased even further in status.

The Sudanese chef told me that, because it was a ewe, she would soon be a proud new member of his flock at home. Hydrated and fed, she spent the rest of the trip sleeping on the deck, eating kitchen scraps, and generally behaving as if she’d been born at sea. The last memory I have of her was of the chef jumping off the boat at dusk with the kid happily tucked under his arm.

Every time I look at the scar on my left index finger, I think of her.

FODDER

MUNCHIES

Photo: Craig Fraser

S O M E G O AT S A R E P E T S ; S O M E G O AT S A R E C U R R Y. O T H E R S , L I K E T H I S R O A S T L E G O F G O AT W I T H H A R I S S A ( A N O R T H A F R I C A N C H I L L I PA S T E ) G E T E AT E N I N A H U R R Y. T O G E T T H E L O W D O W N O N M E AT I N G E N E R A L , G O AT A N D T H I S R E C I P E F R O M C A R N I V O R E B I B L E T H E M E AT M A N I F E S T O , W E S P O K E T O A U T H O R / B U T C H E R A N D Y F E N N E R O F F R A N K I E F E N N E R M E AT M E R C H A N T S ( W W W. F F M M . C O . Z A ) I N C A P E T O W N .

ROAST GOAT LEG WITH HARISSA PASTE Fenner says, “Goat is a misunderstood animal in the meat world. The perception is that it’s tough as hell and can, at best, make a decent curry. In fact, it makes a sensational curry but, as it turns out, it can be used for so much more. By sourcing the right BREED of goat, buying it at the right time and cooking it in the right way you can pretty much treat it like lamb. Harissa is a robust, spicy mix and it needs a pretty specific type of meat to stand up to it.

Goat stands up very well to strong flavours and does the job perfectly here.”

What you’ll need: For the harissa paste: 2 - 3 red chillies, finely chopped 8 x dried chillies or about 3 x tablespoons chilli flakes 1 x teaspoon coriander seeds 2 x teaspoons cumin seeds 2 x teaspoons smoked paprika Extra-virgin olive oil Sea salt 6 x cloves garlic Juice of 2 lemons For the goat: 1 x bone-in leg of goat, trimmed by butcher

What you’ll do: For the harissa: 1) If you’ve managed to get hold of dried chillies, put them in a medium bowl and soften by covering with hot water (about 20 minutes.)

2) Meanwhile, toast cumin and coriander seeds in a dry pan, until fragrant. Transfer spices to a grinder or a pestle and mortar.

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3) Drain chillies and transfer to the bowl of a food processor or pestle and mortar with the ground spices, olive oil, salt, garlic, and lemon juice. Pulse it, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl, until you’ve got a smooth paste. Add oil as you see fit. You can store the harissa in a jar or covered glass bowl for up to three weeks.

Just make sure there’s a film of oil covering it.

For the goat: 1) Preheat your oven to 240 Degrees Celsius. Score the leg of goat and rub all over with harissa. You can do this the day before cooking, if possible.

2) Place the leg in a roasting tray and cook for 20 minutes.

Turn heat down to 160 Degrees Celsius and cook for a further hour, or until the meat thermometer reads somewhere between 55 Degrees Celsius and 60 Degrees Celsius.

3) Remove, allow to rest for at least 20 minutes and carve.

Serve with green spinach, wilted in oil and nutmeg.

Meat Manifesto by Andy Fenner is available from most good book stores and Quivertree Publications (www.quivertreepublications.com)

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GABON

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GABON

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SEYCHELLES

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Pseudobalistes flavimarginatus Pseudobalistes flavimarginatus

Megalops atlanticus Megalops atlanticus

SEYCHELLES

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ARGENTINA ARGENTINA

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Oncorhynchus mykiss Oncorhynchus mykiss

SOUTHAFRICA AFRICA----CAPE CAPETOWN TOWN SOUTH

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HIGH FIVES

NICK VAN RENSBURG S T R A I G H T O U T O F VA R S I T Y A N D I N T O G U I D I N G , F LY B R U ’ S N I C K VA N R E N S B U R G I S R A C K I N G U P H O U R S O N T H E WAT E R .

FRESH FROM A SEASON IN TIERRA DEL FUEGO, WE CAUGHT UP WITH HIM BEFORE HE HEADS OFF TO GUIDE IN THE KALAHARI. Photos: Tim Leppan

5 best things about where you guide?

1. Kau Tapen’s Rio Menendez is the most insane tributary. Pulling out a fresh sea trout in a river no wider than your bathtub is a pretty gnarly experience.

2. The night sky in the Kalahari will literally rock your socks off. Aliens are a thing.

3. Dry fly fishing to smallmouth yellowfish in the Orange River valley.

4. The resident brown trout in the Rio Grande are flippen rad.

5. The best thing about where I guide, is wherever I am guiding at the time. Spending a season in these places is the experience of a lifetime, and there isn’t much that can dampen that.

5 items that you don’t leave home without before making a mission?

1. Costa sunglasses. Currently the Hamlin, in Green Mirror are very difficult to beat.

2. My camera, which is currently a Canon 80D, with a Sigma 18-35 1.8.

3. Extra undies. Sometimes fish get me excited.

4. Simms G3 waders or floral shorts.

5. Plakkies (aka flip flops aka thongs).

5 bands to listen to when on a road trip?

1. Kooks.

2. Red Hot Chili Peppers.

3. Kaytranada.

4. KAASI. 5. Private Island.

5 things you’re loving at the moment?

1. Sigma Sport 70-200 2.8 lens for that premium photo crispiness.

2. FlyBru Yellow Mellow shirt.

3. Garmin Instinct watch.

4. FlyBru 5 Panel.

5. The North Face Peckham backpack.

5 indispensable flies for saltwater?

1. SF Baitfish Minnow.

2. Jig patterns.

3. Clousers (if it ain’t chartreuse, it ain’t no use).

4. The Flipper/Gurgler.

5. Turd burgers.

5 indispensable flies freshwater?

1. Wooly Bugger.

2. Squirmy worm.

3. Blob.

4. CDC emerger.

5. Pheasant tail nymph.

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5 favourite fly fishing destinations across South Africa?

1. Breede River.

2. Kamberg, KZN. 3. The Smalblaar River, Western Cape.

4. Orange River, in the Kalahari Desert.

5. Veloorenkloof, Mpumalanga.

5 favourite fly fishing destinations globally?

1. Eagle River, Colorado.

2. Gore Creek, Colorado.

3. Rio Grande, Argentina.

4. River Don, Scotland .

5. Dubai, UAE. 5 most difficult guiding experiences?

1. Portaging a fully packed raft and clients down the Orange River, with an insane upstream wind. It wasn’t a short push.

2. Downstream wind on the Smalblaar, and a client with a very limited casting skill set.

3. 100km/h winds on the Rio Grande can make for some interesting situations.

4. Sea trout with acute lockjaw.

5. Having to manage unreasonable expectations.

“SPENDING A SEASON IN THESE PLACES IS THE EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME, AND THERE ISN’T MUCH THAT CAN DAMPEN THAT.” 24

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Nick van Rensburg on his home waters of the Breede river with a spotted grunter

5 fish species on your hit list?

1. Roosterfish.

2. Indo Pacific Permit.

3. Peacock Bass.

4. Redfish.

5. GT. 5 destinations on your bucket list?

1. Baja, Mexico.

2. Kamchatka, Russia.

3. Corrientes, Argentina.

4. Gabon.

5. The Amazon.

5 ingredients for an incredible fishing trip?

1. Great friends.

2. A rad environment.

3. Beer.

4. Minimal planning.

5. Cabbage.

5 common mistakes that most clients make?

1. Not practising your casting before you arrive. It happens all too often, and you’ll end up wasting so

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much time and water, by having to learn how to cast. Save yourself the strain and go for some lessons. It’ll be well worth your time.

2. Wrong fly selections.

3. Research on the fish, and the destination. Know your quarry.

4. Listen to your guide. You may have been there a few times, but a lot changes from season to season.

5. Get fishing fit. Make sure before you come on what is probably the trip of a lifetime that you are not only physically fit, but that you have your eye in. You do that by fishing a few times before your trip. If you don’t you might spend the first three to four days just switching your brain on.

5 flies that to look at make no sense but that catch fish all the time?

1. Green Machine.

2. Blob.

3. Sunray Shadow.

4. Bomber.

5. Perdigon.

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5 people you would like to guide/ fish with?

1. I’d love to fish with Stephan Dombaj, from the Fly Fishing Nation.

I’ve heard the dude is a machine with a fly rod in hand!

2. Christiaan Pretorius. This guy is, and has been, a role model for myself, and many other young anglers in South Africa. Calling him a legend would be an understatement.

3. Fishing with Matt Gorlei is always a jol. We’ve been at it for a while now, and it’s still just as much fun.

4. MC Coetzer, this guy is always up to something fishy. And it’s usually pretty cool.

5. I’d absolute love to guide one of my best mates, Dylan Straw on the Rio Grande. The dude would lose his mind!

Your last 5 casts were to?

Rainbow trout on the Smalblaar river in the Western Cape.

Follow Nick on Instagram @nick.jvr

GASHAKA

NIGERIA’S QUIET CORNER WHI LE S E A RCH I NG FOR NILE PERCH IN NIGERIA’S L A RG EST NAT I O NAL PARK THAT BOASTS WEST A FRI CA’ S BI G G EST CHIMPANZEE POPUL ATION , CO U NT LESS BU T T E R FLY SPECIES AN D UNTOLD OTHER NAT U RA L T RE AS U R ES,ED WARD GH AU I OF GOLIATH EX P E D I T I O NS A ND HI S BROTHER BARNABY ENCOUN TER A P O P U L AT I O N O F G I ANT NIGER BARBS THAT NEEDS TO BE S E EN TO BE BELIEV ED. By: Ed Ghaui

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hat, you may be forgiven for asking, would bring the following five people together: one of Nigeria’s most successful entrepreneurs; a decorated, retired Nigerian general; a world-renowned Nigerian environmentalist and two Tanzanians in a military convoy hurtling through Nigeria’s Taraba state heading for the Cameroonian border? Fly-fishing. We are heading to an almost forgotten national park to investigate some long-forgotten rumours about magnificent fly-fishing in crystal clear rivers.

Nigeria does not spring to mind when one thinks of wild places in Africa. Even less so as a fly-fishing destination but, it seems, these rivers draining off the western side of the Bamenda-Adamawa-Mandara Mountain chain and the slopes of Gangiriwal on the Cameroonian border are home to some truly magnificent fish. There are two large species of Labeobarbus here, Nile perch and two species of tigerfish. The rivers drain off the highlands and wind down through 20 million year old rainforests into drier Guinea savannah woodlands. Cool water in hot country.

We, that is, my brother Barnaby (an architect and exploration partner); Phillip Ihenacho (the entrepreneur and founder of Africa Nature Investors [ANI]; Jide Laleye (retired general now in charge of risk and security for ANI) and Tunde Morakinyo (the environmentalist and executive director of ANI) spend an uncomfortable night in hammocks in the Serti transit camp. Our rooms at this facility are known as the VIP rooms and while we are being shown into the mosquito and bat-infested accommodation the manager looks at us and says, “Don’t worry, it’s only the name that is VIP.” This Nigerian sense of humour is everywhere and pervades all interactions. This is a fun country to travel in. Nonetheless, good humour or not, we decide to sleep in hammocks.

We have an early start while a small army stands to attention as we hastily eat our Jollof rice for breakfast and we are off into the Gashaka Gumti National Park. It’s surprisingly easy to get to. There are good roads and, not too far out of Serti, we start heading east towards the distant mountains. Over a hill and down around a corner we catch a glimpse of the Mayo Cam river. Immediately we see hundreds of yellowfish under the bridge and a HUGE crocodile slithering off his morning lie into the depths. We are here with Nile perch in mind and it takes us a while to really start targeting what must be one of Africa’s most spectacular runs of Labeobarbus.

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From long slow pools to white water, Ed and Barnes Ghaui found fish throughout the Mayo Gam-Gam valley

Much to the chagrin of Nicodemus the camp chef, all Niger barbs were returned to the river

Barbus bynii grow large. Really large. And they are fussy eaters in a way that has trout fishermen foxed. They don’t mind a heavy leader or their flies arriving with a splosh.

However, if this presentation is rejected, that is it. For the fish you were targeting (and every other one in that pool), the game is up and no matter how stealthily or beautifully you present your flies it’s over until tomorrow. We started off fishing ultra-stealthy, light leaders and on the first day we never managed to get a single fish to the bank.

Oysters and jagged rocks, piles of logs and just pulling too hard resulted in some very dejected looks coming from Nicodemus, our camp chef. Catch and release here in eastern Nigeria is clearly not yet a hashtag.

park. Our well-laid plans of having a vehicle meet us to carry us to the end of the road are clearly falling apart. On the appointed morning a lone motorcyclist appears with bloodshot eyes and informs us of a ‘joint operation’ that has commandeered the only working Land Rover in the service of the Gashaka park service. Not to let such a small inconvenience get in the way we load all of our kit on to the back of the military escort vehicle (with all of their kit and 14 of us in total) and head deeper into Gashaka. It was a truly terrifying experience that had me wondering if our soldiers were in more danger of being killed on a fishing trip than while fighting Boko Haram in the north (from whence they had all just come).

We are obviously a source of great fascination among the park rangers and soldiers who have been given the task of protecting us and we find ourselves fishing with a group of 10 onlookers making our stealthy efforts rather pointless.

Eventually the lack of fish and the immense heat push our fan club back into the shade and we are left in peace to nymph for gold.

We cross (at full speed) the Gashaka River and are deposited in the shade of a mango tree in the decaying and crumbling park HQ to regather our shattered nerves.

Two very enthusiastic fellows go to work on fixing a tractor tire for a machine that clearly has not moved for many years (poor fellows must think we have come from park HQ to assess performance). It becomes clear that there is a distinct lack of porters and not much motivation from any quarter to go an inch further into the park. Our hosts have left us to climb the lofty peaks of Gangiriwal and, without the presence of the general’s motivational methods, we are struggling to achieve anything. Barns and I, therefore, decide to shoulder our packs and head into the park on foot knowing that at some point, hopefully, the remainder of our kit and supplies will catch up with us.

We spend two glorious days exploring a short section of this river and find it to be absolutely teeming with fish. We are beaten however by the Nile perch, known as Giwan ruwa locally (which means, in Hausa, the water elephant).

In the short time we are on the river we hook and lose one truly giant specimen (in the oysters) and three smaller ones (operator error) before heading deeper into the

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The sun beats down and the land radiates heat. Storm clouds on the mountains are building and the humidity is very high. We walk. Slowly we leave the last tree stumps and mud huts behind and enter a beautiful woodland.

Gradually we descend into the forest and the Mayo GamGam valley. We step out of the deep shadows into a pool of sunlight reflecting off a crystal-clear river. There are butterflies of every description floating up and down the river and below its surface, cruising the pool, are fish. This place makes you feel like you are the first humans on earth.

Prelapsarian.

We are suddenly descended upon by our porters (who have caught up), and we start heading, in a rather noisy gang, up the Gam-Gam to the Mayo Ngiti confluence where we will camp. The further up the valley we go, the more spectacular the trees and river become. Deep glides carved from the rocks hide untold secrets of what lies below and what may once have swum through these rivers. We see large Labeobarbus sunning themselves in schools in the deeper pools and are awestruck by species of butterfly that we have only dreamt of.

We set up camp on the edge of the forest looking down the river. Convenient trees for hammock hanging and a fresh brew of tea have us in a good frame of mind. It is too late to get set up for an evening session on the river and we have three days here so are in no hurry. We cool off in the water and get clean – such a luxury in the bush. Camp fire smoke drifts down the valley and we tuck into more Jollof with dried fish. Oh, for a steak. Oh, for a whisky.

In the night we are visited by a friendly tree pangolin.

We hear bushbuck barking in the distance. We are in the Nigerian wilderness.

Exploration fishing is rarely what Instagram says it is.

Usually one arrives on the banks of some long dreamt of river to find that it’s in full flood, that miners have poisoned it, that fishermen have fished it, that farmers have pumped it dry or that there were never really any fish there to start with. Every once in a while, one strikes gold. This is gold.

While Gashaka Gumti is indeed under enormous pressure and many of the large fish that were once migrating up and down these rivers from the Taraba River are now gone, deep inside the park there is still a glimmer of hope, a flash of scaly golden flanks in the pools, fish that come up to anything that looks like a grasshopper and turn on anything that resembles a stonefly. We clamber up rocky river banks under a forest canopy all day, switching from fly-fishing to butterfly collecting to photography and back again. The temptation to fish one more pool, to look around the next bend is strong and as we get further and further from camp we hear mumblings from our two soldiers about “Jungle training course part two”.The last hour is quiet, only Danazume, our guide, keeps pace with his trusty flip-flops and machete. We see yellow-backed duikers disappearing into the shadows and we catch plenty of fish.

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“AFTER GOING AS FAR AS WE CAN UP BOTH THESE RIVERS IN THE FOREST, WE DECIDE TO CLIMB OUT OF THE VALLEY AND TO INVESTIGATE THE SURROUNDING HILLS.”

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After going as far as we can up both these rivers in the forest, we decide to climb out of the valley and to investigate the surrounding hills. There is something amazing about finding wide open views after days in the bottom of a deep forested valley. We climb through impenetrable forest seeing buffalo tracks and hearing chimpanzees across the valley. There are Colobus, Mona and Putey nosed monkeys and hornbills in all the fruiting trees and the higher we go the cooler it gets.

On our last morning we wake at 4am and, after a cup of tea, start climbing up the pass into the mountains proper. It’s magnificently steep and after three hours we arrive on a ridge near the top of the mountain. The sun is just peeking through the seasonal harmattan haze and the surrounding mountains look like islands all around us. On distant hilltops we see herds of white cattle belonging to Fulani tribesmen and rolling hills covered with wild fruit trees. A cool breeze blows across our faces as we look down thousands of feet below at the rivers of Gashaka snaking away into the distance. We have travelled back in time and found ourselves in paradise! With a wistful glance to the north and the, as yet, unexplored Mayo Yim we head down the hill to re-join our friends who have walked for hundreds of kilometres through this landscape as part of a recce to establish how to protect the southern part of the park.

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The last part of our Gashaka adventure awaits. To get out we have to catch a ride on the back of a motorbike.

There are 15 bikes to carry us, the porters, the luggage and the rangers. The ensuing motorbike ride is one of the most deliciously terrifying, two-wheeled experiences in Africa. It’s almost a rite of passage and it’s fitting that the gateway between the hustle and bustle of Nigeria’s populated areas and its wilderness involves this mad ride.

Clinging desperately to fishing rods and fragile seed pods that we have collected, we hurtle down the mountains into the dust and heat below and, like awakening from a dream, we are deposited back in the Serti transit camp to get reacquainted with VIP service and civilisation.

Africa Nature Investors (ANI) Foundation is working with the Nigerian National Parks Service and the Gashaka Gumti park to return the 7,000 square kilometre wilderness to its former glory. There is a total of approximately 200 km of rivers within the park forming the major tributaries of the Taraba river which subsequently drains into the Benue river. ANI is an African initiative to raise awareness and funds in west and central Africa for the protection and preservation of West Africa’s natural heritage.

CONTACT Tunde Morakinyo, Exec Director of ANI to find out more about this ground-breaking initiative and how you can be a part of one of west Africa’s most exciting conservation projects. www.africanatureinvestors.org

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CAPE STREAMS

CONNECTION T H RO U G H RYAN J AN SSENS’ LEN S, THE TROUT OF THE EL A ND S PA D RI VE R CAN BE SEEN FOR THE VORACIOUS LE A P I NG, BRE ACHIN G, BUG-MUNCHIN G APEX P RE DATO RS T H E Y ARE. CUE THE CELLO MUSIC

Photos: Ryan Janssens

“THE FISH ARE RISING LIKE CRAZY. MY SHMODEL CRUMPETS, USUALLY UNFLAPPABLE, HAS A SMOKE TO CALM HIS NERVES”

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“LOOKING DOWN THE BARREL OF A LONG LENS WITH A FIELD OF VIEW THE SIZE OF A DINNER PLATE IS TRICKY. PAN LEFT, THE FISH GOES RIGHT. FIND ONE TO FOCUS ON AND HIS MATE STARTS FEEDING”

“THIS FISH IS THRASHING LIKE CRAZY, GOING MENTAL. I CAN’T KEEP IT IN MY VIEW, LET ALONE GET THE FOCUS RIGHT. I’VE PRETTY MUCH GOT MY EYES SHUT PRAYING FOR A LUCKY SHOT BY NOW”

“CRUMPETS 1 - FISH 0”

D ES T I N AT I O N

NIRVANA YO U RE M E M BE R THAT TIME YOU GOT SPECIAL P E RM I SS I O N TO FLY IN A CHOPPER TO GO FISHIN G FOR GO LD E N M A HS E E R I N THE REMOTE RIV ERS OF BHUTAN ?

WE D O N’ T E I T H E R. B UT K EITH RO SE-INNES, FRESHLY RE T U RNE D FRO M THE EASTERN HIMAL AYAS, DOES. HE RE ’ S HI S STORY OF A PL ACE FEW PEOPLE H AVE EV ER FISHED. Photos: Keith Rose-Innes and Ilya Sherbovich

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hree days. That’s how long it took to travel from Johannesburg through Dubai, via New Delhi to where I found myself thirty minutes from Paro, one of the world’s most challenging airports and Bhutan’s only international hub.

The trip had been smooth until I got bumped awake as an elderly lady tripped over me while trying to reach my window for something that I seriously hoped was worth the effort. The pilot who, judging by his voice, could be described as equally excited, made an announcement confirming the wonder that was about to be seen. In a daze, my eyes still shuttered with sleep, I managed to sneak a peak between my lap partner’s right earlobe and the gold hoop of her earring to see the dazzling reflection of the morning sun on the world’s mightiest peak. At 8845 metres, Mount Everest in all its glory and might wasn’t far below our cruising height. The feeling of relief as my seat space was returned to me soon turned to fear as I hoped it was no one’s off day. There are only a select few pilots that are certified to land at Paro airport 2235 metres above sea level. After a long bank to the left as we wound our way through the 5500 metre-high mountains, and with one more bank to the right, we touched down at Paro.

Why fly to Bhutan, this remote mountain kingdom wedged between India, China and Tibet? Years earlier my fishing friend and the owner of Ponoi River Company in Russia, Ilya Sherbovich, had been there. He had walked the banks, fishing for trout in crystal clear tributaries that feed all the major rivers. He had also fished for golden mahseer, the details of which he somewhat sneakily kept mostly to himself. He landed some incredibly big fish, which was why he was heading back, with me tagging along this time, for a return trip of mammoth proportions. The trip was possible because Ilya had received special permission and an invitation to be hosted by avid Bhutanese fly fishermen, Ugyen Rinzin and his team mate Kencho Tshering, who have fly fished their home country for decades.

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“WE WILL BE CAMPING, WE HAVE A HELICOPTER WITH US, BRING 8 TO 10-WEIGHT RODS, 15 – 25LBS LEADERS, FLOATING LINES WITH INTERMEDIATE TIPS AND FELT SOLE BOOTS. SEE YOU AT THE BOARDING GATE OF DUBAI-DELHI.”

Ilya Sherbovich with a massive 55lb Bhutanese golden mahseer

Passionate patriot of his country and a dynamic entrepreneur, Ugyen is also the former Chairman of the Royal Society for the Protection of Nature (RSPN) and started Bhutan’s only fly tying factory, all details I would only find out on the third last day of the trip because, in an effort to fit in and not sound like an arrogant Westerner, I had tried to not ask too many questions and chosen instead to learn what I could when info was offered.

In preparation for the trip Ilya wasn’t too forthcoming with details, other than to say his friends from Bhutan had everything covered.

“We will be camping, we have a helicopter with us, bring 8 to 10-weight rods, 15 – 25lbs leaders, floating lines with intermediate tips and felt sole boots. See you at the boarding gate of Dubai-Delhi.”

Like all other adventures with Ilya, I would be relying on his knowledge and local connections. Tagging along on one of the most amazing fly fishing adventures that had taken two years of planning, wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for me as I have been on the receiving end of Ilya’s incredible passion for fly fishing exploration before. He’s taken me on various trips to the far reaches of Siberia in search of arctic char and giant taimen. Ilya has had several IGFA taimen fly fishing world records under his belt and, when he does these trips, he does not stuff around. For Siberia, think M18 helicopters and the 2004 World Champion Rafting team at

our disposal. So, if Ilya invited me on an exploratory trip to the so called crater rivers on the northern part of the moon and instructed me to pack lightly as the space ship doesn’t have much cargo space, I would believe him and I’d turn up on time at the boarding gate, wearing space boots in anticipation of another great trip.

Ilya may have caught mahseer before and while I had not, I had a long-standing love affair with them that goes way way back. Long before I got the chance to travel the world and tackle most of the fish species I ever dreamed of. 21 years ago in fact, far from Bhutan, in another kingdom, the United Kingdom, I was working at Farlows of Pall Mall in London. What Studio 54 was to disco or Silicon Valley is to tech, Farlows is to fly fishing so, for a young guide starting out in the industry, it was heaven and the springboard to a career. Consequently, much of my time during work hours was spent dreaming about anything that can be caught on fly.

When a gentleman entered the shop one day interrupting my fishy day dreams, I prepared to respond to the most frequently asked question in Farlows, “Which way is Buckingham Palace?” But, before I even had time to prepare the formulaic, “Turn right, down the stairs on your left and you see it in front of you” response, I spotted a photo in the guy’s hand of a rather large, carp-looking fish. It turned out to be a mighty golden mahseer, caught on conventional gear and a giant boily-bait from an Indian river.

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Fast forward 21 years, a truckload of vodka, experience and countless fish later, I am standing alongside Ilya, in matching camo team fishing performance uniform, grinning from ear to ear because I believe, somewhat optimistically, that I am about to realise my mahseer dream. The phrase ‘gross national happiness’ was first coined in 1972 by the 4th King of Bhutan, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, when he declared, “Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product.” It was moments after arriving in Bhutan and I was already feeling happier than ever before, because I knew the proportions of planning and permission that had gone into making this trip happen.

Golden mahseer are protected and it’s illegal to fish for them in Bhutan. We had been granted special permission from His Majesty’s Secretariat Office for monitoring purposes and on a strict fly fishing, catch and release basis. This was the equivalent of the golden ticket in

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – a privilege beyond bank accounts. The magnitude of this permission would only truly sink in as the trip progressed, but in the mean time I was beaming at the fact that I was in Bhutan, where Buddhist prayer flags flutter in the wind, where spinning prayer wheels create music with the wind, where menacing beasts and fiery dragons adorn walls to ward off evil and where the Royal Family and government care more for the kingdom’s happiness than for its standing in wealth and modernisation. In a world obsessed with consumption, we would do well to take a leaf or three out of their books.

When I asked Ugyen what “Bhutan” means he quite abruptly replied, “Well we actually don’t call it Bhutan as that’s a name given by foreigners. Our land is called Druk Yul.” Directly translated it means ‘the Land of the Thunder Dragon.’ Situated in a mountainous area of the Eastern Himalayas on part of the Ancient Silk Road between Tibet,

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From Paro, an hour long chopper flight took us from a ten-degree Celsius climate into a 34-degree subtropical rainforest as we slowly worked our way down the escarpment in a South-South-Easterly direction to a specially erected tented camp on one of the local rivers.

Over the next ten days, our hosts Ugyen and Kencho would be our window into the deeply guarded realm of the golden mahseer. The permanent use of a Eurocopter for the duration of the trip opened up possibilities to fish three different rivers, all with numerous junctions that had been scouted and were being guarded for us. Under Ugyen and Kencho’s tutelage we would learn to fish differently, slowly planning each spot, not as leaders but as patient followers. We would be treated to the Bhutanese way of humility, enjoying everything on offer, which included bamboo mugs of potato beer and leaf cups of rice wine prepared by locals who were guarding the pools. It was as much an introduction to local culture, cuisine, and brewing skills as it was a fishing trip.

India and Southern East Asia, Bhutan or Druk Yul is one of few countries in the world that has never been colonised.

Centuries passed by while Druk Yul remained isolated from the rest of the world, fiercely guarding its ancient traditions and national identity based on Buddhism.

The people are called the Drukpa (Dragon people) and the royal family are the Druk Gyalpo (Thunder Dragon Kings), a title George R.R Martin would be proud of. The traditions, rituals and cultures are strictly followed with pride with most men wearing a knee–high robe made from locally coloured fabric called a gho and women dressing in the kira, an ankle-length wrap dress. Pictures of the royal family adorn pretty much every hotel, shop and restaurant. The Bhutanese truly love their King. Even if you have deepseated reservations about monarchy in modern times, Bhutan will give you a glimpse of a responsible monarch who truly loves his people.

I knew very little about the intricacies of fly fishing for mahseer, but the one thing I did know was their reputation for being very hard to entice to eat a fly. Mahseer have an exceptional sense of smell and their sensitivity to vibration and movement makes them a mountain too high at times.

The one benefit we did have is that their eyesight didn’t seem to be too great, which could have been be due to the murky blooms of dirty water mixed into the clear creeks.

The scent thing I had heard about before and thought it might be a myth until I saw it with my own eyes.

On arrival at basecamp, Ugyen and Kencho walked us up to the clear creek above the camp where a school of fish made up of chocolate and golden mahseer congregated with their noses facing into the flowing water. The reason for this isn’t clear but it could be because the clear water of the tributary was a much better habitat than the dirty mainstream or that the tributaries were warmer and would speed up digestion. Another suggestion would be pre spawn, which only happens months later. It could be seasonal as the rivers run much cleaner in the winter allowing the fish to spread out within the mainstream.

Set aside their acute ability to reject a fly, these fish are definitely hunting when in the cleaner water.

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Watching that school, Ugyen said, “Keep quiet, move slowly and avoid the water.” Fair enough. Stock standard rules of stalking, or so I thought. But while my heart was racing, my head was overly-confident because, having seen all those big fish laid up revealing themselves and easy to target with a well presented baitfish pattern, I had made the mistake of thinking, ‘This is going to be easy.’ I indicated as much to Ugyen who laughed. To prove a point he asked one of our expedition members, who was standing 20 metres upstream, to put his hand in the water. As the scent made its way down the creek it hit the area where the fish were congregated, sparking the hasty departure of every fish in sight. They were gone and didn’t come back until the following morning.

Golden mahseer fishing feels as simple and as random as roulette. You have to cover all your bases (we did that quite literally by using a helicopter to get around), stealth is required and camo dress is a must. Try and anticipate the reaction of the fish and the fish around that fish as you get one spin of the ball, just one chance and then all bets are off.

As the days passed we settled into a rhythm and managed to catch fish most days. The chopper would land downstream from the spot we wanted to fish, decanting our team of Ilya, Uygen, Kencho and myself. We would then walk up to a viewing point, debate the best way to target the fish if they were there, set up tackle and cameras, walk back downstream, wet the fly, wet the line and leader and wash our hands, all in an attempt to eradicate any scent that might spook the fish. We would then walk back up to the casting area and engage stealth mode, eventually making a cast, maybe a couple more and, if there was no hook-up, we would reel in, return to the chopper and plan for the next spot.

There was one spot in particular where we saw massive fish in excess of 60lbs. They were way too big for us not to make numerous visits back to the same junction, with much deliberating, planning and tackle and fly changes.

Our hosts even went to the extent of building a bridge to allow us to fish from the other side of the tributary resulting in five hours of fishing frustration a few days later. The first visit to this spot saw Ilya hook a sizeable fish on his first cast, which proceeded to head off into the middle of the river, down through a set of rapids taking his fly line with it when it parted at the braided backing. On returning to the junction all the mahseer had retreated to the dirty main river and only skittishly returned into the clear junction for a short period before disappearing once again.

Our second visit saw more fish and bigger ones, with only a few fish following before retreating to the main river for a short period but returning to their lie and not bothering too much about the flies swinging past. The third visit saw the same number of fish but they did not give our flies the slightest attention, almost as if to say, “We know you are here and we not going to bother to react to your presence.”

The urge to catch one of these really big fish was realised

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for a fraction of a second when I hooked one at a junction above a set of rapids. It proceeded to head downstream with me chasing after it as graciously as possible, like a fluttering Bhutanese butterfly, running, stumbling, falling, crawling and boulder hopping, only to be spooled a few seconds later. I had to lick my wounds that night while lying in a traditional stone bath sucking on a can of Bhutan Glory, which is named after the Bhutan Glory butterfly I so gracefully mimicked six hours earlier. I did find pleasure in the fact that I wasn’t the only one that was rattled, as Ugyen informed us that he had ordered us some heavier 50lbs monofilament leader that would arrive the next day.

Often the issue wouldn’t be the lack of fish but, rather, that there were too many fish in such close proximity that you couldn’t actively target the big fish without spooking the entire school and ending up with no takes at all. It was hard enough enticing any fish to eat so concentrating on only enticing bigger fish was risky. The rivers would also change on a daily basis with tributaries clearing or blowing out as the main rivers rose and dropped, influenced by whatever was happening miles away in the Himalayas.

Eight days and 34 beautiful golden mahseer later - ten over 20lbs and the largest weighing 36lbs - the trip had already exceeded my wildest expectations. It was the last day and

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“EIGHT DAYS AND 34 BEAUTIFUL GOLDEN MAHSEER LATER - TEN OVER 20LBS AND THE LARGEST WEIGHING 36LBS - THE TRIP HAD ALREADY EXCEEDED MY WILDEST EXPECTATIONS.”

by then, in my opinion, we had paid our school fees. If we were going to catch a monster it was going to happen on that particular day. In the chopper we hopped from spot to spot looking for truly big fish. We fished a pool that revealed some giants only to hook and lose a smaller fish. We moved to the next spot to have the river blow out on us with not a fish in sight. The weather was closing in so we moved to a river closer to basecamp. I’d like to think that it was our inner Zen that played a part in what happened next.

Ilya was up. The cast went in and a small fish moved at the fly, spooking the school yet, surprisingly, the big fish remained. Ilya made another cast trying to entice these fish.

Two mammoth mahseer pushed each other to take the fly but both missed it. Ilya made a third cast into the dirtier water where the big fish had moved to and we watched in amazement as he was immediately hooked up to a freight train heading downstream towards a massive set of rapids.

Ilya engaged mountain goat mode as he followed the fish hopping from boulder to boulder. The reel acted like a click and pawl reel, making a crazy noise with minimal drag even though it was on full. No stranger to big fish, Ilya used his hands to exert extra pressure and, with the tackle creaking, he managed to persuade the fish to pause at the top of the rapid. Holding on for minutes felt like hours, while the fish contemplated heading down into the huge rapid – a move

that would most certainly end with Ilya being spooled in seconds. It made a move back down towards the rapid with Ilya locked and holding tightly before, unexpectedly, the fish ran straight towards us into a back eddy, stopping a couple of metres away from us in the murky water.

In disbelief, I traded my camera for the net and had an immediate swipe at the fish as it rose in the water column for a second. I’m not sure who was more surprised, us or the fish, as with only a third of the fish in the net, we gasped at its size. With two more lifts of the net I managed to get this incredibly beautiful monster fully surrounded. At first I thought it would weigh way over 60lbs. An Atlantic salmon or taimen of these proportions would weigh in excess of 70lbs. After carefully placing it in a weigh sling and weighing it with two different scales it weighed in at 55lbs plus-minus one pound, making it the biggest golden mahseer ever caught on fly in Bhutan and, possibly, in the world. What an end to an adventure of mammoth proportions as that cast would be the last of the trip.

At the end of our journey the question was asked if I would ever be able to live in Bhutan, practicing their humble ways. As visions of pristine rivers and giant golden mahseer flashed through my brain, I responded instantly, “Most definitely.”

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Photo: Cameron Musgrave

Split

PERSONALITIES

L I K E M O ST A N G L E R S , W E LOV E A G O O D S P L I T S H OT. T H E F I S H I N I TS N AT U R A L E L E M E N T, T H E A N G L E R , T H E S K Y, T H E WAT E R , T H AT C O N N ECT I O N A N D T H E FACT T H AT D R A N DY DA N Y LC H U K O F K E E P E M W E T, WO U L D A P P R OV E . GA H ! S O M E T I M ES T H E B E AU T Y O F I T A L L I S J U ST TO O M U C H . S O, B E I N G T H E AV E R AG E P H OTO G R A P H E R S W E A R E , W E D EC I D E D TO Q U I Z T H R E E V E RY D I F F E R E N T Y E T F R EQ U E N T S P L I T S H OT T E R S – A G U I D E , A TA L E N T E D A M AT EU R A N D A P R O P H OTO G R A P H E R - O N H O W T H E Y G O A B O U T G E T T I N G T H E S H OT. W H E T H E R T H E I R M OT I V ES A R E M A K I N G C L I E N TS H A P PY, S O C I A L M E D I A ‘ FA M E ,’ O R EX EC U T I N G A B R I E F, T H I S I S W H AT T H E Y H AV E L E A R N T. By: Tudor Caradoc-Davies Photos: Stephan Dombaj, Andre van Wyk, Cameron Musgrave

FOR THOSE WHO LIKE A GOPRO Advice from Cameron Musgrave (IG: @cameron_musgrave), head guide on Cosmoledo Atoll, Seychelles (www.alphonsefishingco.com)

WHAT I USE: To be honest, I’ve always had a keen interest in photography in general and I was getting bored with all the usual “grip ‘n grins” I was shooting.

Underwater photos were always the next step. However, the price on the underwater housing for my camera was ridiculous! Then I discovered the GoDome for GoPro (getgdome. com), based out of Cape Town, South Africa. It’s inexpensive, small and light enough for me to carry in my backpack. Obviously, you must make sure that the GoDome mount matches your GoPro. That’s it.

HOW I USE IT: There are two ways that I get my shots.

Firstly, set your Gopro on burst image mode. This usually works best if the water is super calm and you have a more controlled environment.

Secondly, and what I use the most, is video mode. From there I import to Lightroom where I can then freeze frames. The downside is that it’s a very small and low resolution image, so don’t expect to print an A3 photo to hang in your office cubicle. It will end up looking like a Rubik’s Cube abstract painting. It holds enough quality for social platforms.

Don’t shoot directly into the sun, as it often reflects the GoPro lens back on to the image. Getting the sun shining through the dome will prevent this.

Once you’ve chosen a few frames (presuming you have Lightroom) you can pump up the contrast and clarity sliders. De-saturating the water (usually green and aqua) will clear up the water and make for a cleaner image.

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GoDome for GoPro

At the end of the day washing the dome with Sunlight Liquid (I found Head & Shoulders Shampoo works too) leaves a film on the dome that makes the water run off the dome quickly.

I found that GoDomes will scratch if thrown on the skiff’s deck. I had mine in my hand one day when I was offshore. We got stuck into a bait ball and one of my guests hooked up to a rainbow runner. Under the bait was a 12-foot tiger shark and an even bigger silvertip reef shark. Both sharks came up to tax the runner right at the boat.

At that moment the rod was pulled out of my guest’s hands. The angler jumped in to try and save his rod and reel. I threw my GoDome down and threw out the drogue (sea anchor) to try and save my guest. To this day his Mako and custom G-Loomis is at the bottom of the ocean and my GoDome is scratched beyond repair (I have subsequently bought a new one). What a mullet!

Stu Webb seen here standing with a Yellow Margin triggerfish looks like he has been asked about the melting ice caps and just needs a moment to process things.

FOR THOSE WHO LIKE A PHONE Advice from Andre van Wyk (IG:@nepptuna), keen amateur and talented ambassador (Swift Fly Fishing, Bote Boards and Head & Shoulders)

AxisGo underwater housing for iPhone with wide Angle Dome port option

WHAT I USE: I started off with a Nikon AW 1 mirrorless camera set up. This incredible camera was the first mirrorless waterproof camera that came with interchangeable lenses. I then found an Olympus wide angle adaptor that was designed to work with the Olympus TOUGH s eries of Waterproof point and shoots, which had the same thread as the Nikon 1 Series lenses. This little wide angle adaptor took the surface area of the front of the lens from a tiny (about 20mm) up to around 100mm which made a huge difference in being able to work on split shots.

I have since discovered the incredible AxisGo underwater housing for iPhones, which has been a game changer. This incredible housing has a Wide Angle Dome port option which makes taking split screen images incredibly simple.

And, the new cameras on the newer phones mean you are shooting images which can be, and have been, used on magazine covers (ed. including this one). It’s a no brainer.

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Above: Jarod Tracy with a hefty Providence GT. Right: Andre van Wyk releases a stunning Indo-Pacific Permit

Sorry for all you android users… they are currently only available for iPhone.

These housings tick all the boxes.

Cheap (when compared to “proper camera” housings), easy to use as they have a trigger accessory which means you are quite literally “shooting” pictures. The large 6-inch-wide angle dome port means a large surface area and a wide angle all rolled into one. Holding the trigger in, takes advantage of the

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iPhone’s burst mode, meaning you have a pretty damn good chance of getting at least a few good images out. You can of course also take advantage of the video function on your phone, and the slow mo, etc.

These housings are also incredibly easy to use, and so handing the set up over to your buddy, or guide, to shoot some pics of you with your trophy, with a few quick pieces of advice on angles etc., means you are one step closer to being Instafamous on the “Gram.”

Leonard Flemming fondles a Paarl permit (aka Berg river carp)

Above: Platon Trakoshis with a Western Cape smallmouth bass. Right: Andre van Wyk releases a bonefish and contemplates which conditioner to use on his salt-tousled hair.

“These housings are also incredibly easy to use, and so handing the set up over to your buddy, or guide, to shoot some pics of you with your trophy, with a few quick pieces of advice on angles etc., means you are one step closer to being Instafamous on the “Gram.”

HOW I USE IT: My approach to split screen imagery is based very much on a KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach. I’m typically fishing and shooting at the same time so, while I would love the time and luxury of hauling around a big beautiful DSLR and a full size housing to try and shoot the best imagery possible, that is just not a feasible option for 99 percent of my fishing. I’m also a lazy bastard, and not particularly talented with a camera, but I still love great images, so a middle ground had to be found. And thanks to technology, that has been easier than ever.

Spilt Screen images for me are about 85 percent luck, and 15 per cent making the most of new technology.

A COUPLE OF THINGS I’VE LEARNT: Bigger is better. Just as your wife will always lie to you and say, “Size doesn’t matter,” I’m gonna tell you the truth and say size is EVERYTHING. I’m talking about glass. The larger the area of glass you have at the front end of your lens, the easier split screens will be, because there’s more surface area to play with.

Wide Load. Wide angle lenses, in conjunction with a large dome port on your housing, assist massively by again “enlarging” the surface area you have to make the split screen work.

With the Nikon AW1, I discovered that making use of the camera’s “burst mode” function, as an almost hit and hope way of shooting, helped a lot in the beginning. But I soon learnt you are better off using the burst mode in short little bursts rather than one long one, allowing you to refocus in-between.

MY APPROACH TO SPLIT SCREEN IMAGERY IS BASED VERY MUCH ON A KISS (KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID) APPROACH. W W W. T H E M I S S I O N F LY M A G . C O M

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FOR THOSE WHO LIKE A DSLR Advice from pro photographer Stephan Dombaj with fly fishing media behemoth, The Fly Fishing Nation (IG: @theflyfishingnation)

WHAT I USE: I am not really a gear nerd. The only thing that I want is speed. I like my big body, a Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, because it’s like a tractor. I can kick it around and it will always perform. It has never let me down. My go-to lens at the moment is the Canon Prime 14mm f/2.8 Mark II. I have also used the Canon 16-35mm F/4 a lot.

Most people live for Instagram these days. Cameras get bigger and have more mega pixels, but we consume media on a tiny screen. That’s the truth. So we photographers are talking about mega pixels, yet no one is really maxing out on that quality.

Then GoPros have made the fish eye look completely obsolete. I’m selling all my fish eye stuff. This look has been done a million times before.

Since split shot equipment became more available, people really had to get creative. You can’t get away with that classic splitter any more. You can put your camera in a plastic bag these days and achieve the same thing.

If you really want to split a lot of water, then you need to get a big dome. It’s the distance of the dome to the lens that makes the difference in terms of how much water you can actually split. That’s why I like my big camera.

Then again, the AxisGo that Andre van Wyk is carrying is perfect. You put your iPhone in there and you can have it in your pocket. You could hide it in your butt crack if you wanted to.

That’s what I would take for my private fishing if it wasn’t for the speed.

Because my 1D X Mark II gives me 16 frames a second. It’s a monster. I love it and it’s reliable. That’s important to me. Just like I do when fishing, I have started using heavier and

Above: Double-team Lakshwadeep Giant Trevally. Right: the propulsion end of a bonefish.

heavier equipment. It’s the same thing with camera equipment. Take a flimsy micro four thirds and take an underwater shot. If a little bit of humidity gets in there, your sensor looks like a bowl of açaí cereal. I need something reliable because I need to deliver for clients. There is no option for us not to deliver.

For underwater housings, we used to run with Italian custom housings with USB ports with which you could use any mid-sized DSLR in them and they were waterproof to 200m. But, obviously, for split shots you don’t even need 10m. They were also heavy - up to 16kg. I have since switched to Aquatech housing (aquatech.net).

The one I use for the big camera is the Delphin. All the Aquatech housings are great because they are not classified as underwater housing, they are classified as sport housing that is waterproof to 10m which is all you need for fishing.

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Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, with Delphin Aquatech housing

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Arctic char spa session.

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Meredith McCord with a brown trout in Northern Patagonia.

Above: behind the scenes dorado fishing as Dombaj gets the shot.

HOW TO USE IT: What to do is a completely different story, but I can give you great advice on what not to do because there’s a lot of fuck up potential with split shots. A genuine under water picture combines the perfect exposure between two different elements and that’s a difficult thing by nature because water takes a couple of stops away and the darker the water the harder it is to achieve. But it is possible. Everything just has to be perfect. That’s why we don’t publish most of our underwater shots anymore because they just require quite a lot of post-production and I hate that hassle. Most of our underwater stuff is good right off the camera or we don’t use it.

A proper split shot, combines three different elements, maybe even four.

A proper splitter, is never a horizontal clear water line. The split shot gives you the opportunity to be creative with various elements like no other hero shot can. A proper out of the water hero shot will never play with the waves or commotion in the water.

So, don’t be boring and go for a straight line. You want a bit of chaos in there - the waves and the pattern

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of the waves add to the photo. It’s one of the massive advantages that you don’t have to split horizontally like most guys do these days. That is important. So you have air. Then you need to expose everything over the water perfectly and everything under the water perfectly. That’s if you have fairly clear water and a white background. But then again, if you have a muddy water situation, it just adds to the whole scenario. Play with the water, get some commotion going, get some bubbles in there.

Another thing people need to consider when shooting fish is that the bigger the fish, the easier it is to shoot. Shooting trout or flimsy, little, nervous Jack-Russell-on-cocainetype fish is terrible.

The focal point needs to be on the eye of the fish.

Then there’s also the whole ‘keep ’em wet’ movement (www. keepemwet.org) that’s pushing the whole industry in this direction.

People need to keep the fish wet.

A dripping wet fish is not good any more, they need to be underwater.

It’s quite interesting stuff. I want to know what the next thing is.

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A split shot has to be super crisp and sharp. A clear splitter needs some sort of repelling agent on the lens to really, really split the water, otherwise you are in for a lot of postproduction. People take multiple exposures and just merge them together to get a fake split shot.

That’s not really the idea. A split shot can be dirty, that’s alright. You’re playing with two elements. There are going to be a couple of drops on the lens. That’s why I like speed. I shoot 16 frames per second. I like faces distorted due to water and what not and then I take the next one. I shoot everything in manual.

My average exposure is 1/800th of a second, my average F-stop is 8-plus and then I go with ISO automatic and usually crank it down by one or 3/4 of a stop to under-expose it a little bit. This gives me a little more information if I have the perfect shot and I need to add a little bit of light. Just a little bit of postproduction, not making the whole thing a deviant artwork mission.

God forbid someone adds a mad, bullshit, matte black hipster filter.

Photographers these days love this hipster look. For me, crisp and super glossy, that’s what I like.

The business end of a dorado

L AT ES T R E L E A S ES

SALAD BAR PATAGONIA – STORMFRONT SLING One of the most loved pieces of flats gear, the Patagonia Stormfront Sling has lots of nifty features from the fact that it is 100% waterproof, to the fully adjustable shoulder strap, quick access grab handle, exterior lash straps and a cavernous 20L interior that carries cameras, fly boxes and more. Most importantly, when compared to the backpack, the sling is super easy to access as it swings around to the front of your body. No more awkward balancing act as you try to get to those Milky Dreams as a school of milkfish await. Now in stock at Mavungana Flyfishing. patagonia.com, flyfishing.co.za

FULLING MILL – EXTREME FLY BOX Now this is a nice doos!

Fulling Mill’s new IP67 Rated Xtreme Italian made boxes are dustproof, waterproof and feature a slit foam insert to comfortably hold large hooks Perfect for large freshwater predators and saltwater applications. fullingmill.co.uk, flyfishing.co.za

SIMMS – FLYWEIGHT WADING BOOT There’s always a trade off when buying wading boots. Heavyweight protection vs comfort and lightness. If you know a large part of your mission is going to be spent hiking in to your fishing spot, then you have to prioritize comfort and lightness. The Simms Flyweight Wading Boot is perfect for that application.

It’s still a full synthetic upper wading boot with a sticky Vibram® Idrogrip outsole and a dual density comfy AF EVA midsole for comfort on the trail, yet weighing in at 40 oz/ 1133 gm, it’s the Baby Jake Matlala of lightweight boots. simmsfishing.com, frontierflyfishing.co.za

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THOMAS & THOMAS - EXOCETT SS 450 “We reckon this would be a ninja stick for the Seychelles hunting geets in the Surf, man-handling Megalops in Gabon or pulling something from the depths of a Mozam channel…” That’s the Upstream Flyfishing team’s take on the T&T Exocett SS 450. Having tested the SS 350 ourselves on big Guinea snapper and threadfin, we have no doubt the SS 450 would do the job and then some. Designed to handle anything from casting sinking lines to ultra-compact floating lines, the SS 450’s powerful rod tips allows you to easily pull sinking lines to the surface and the low swing weight lets you fire out big flies cast after cast. Grips are Flor-grade cork reinforced with high density rubberized composite. Perfect for when you are holding on for dear life. In stealth matte “T&T Blue” with a low-friction finish, it’s dead sexy too. thomasandthomas.com, upstreamflyfishing.co.za

RIO – TECHNICAL TROUT “Technical” is code for “tricky” which is code for “pain-in-the-ass,” but Rio Pain-Inthe-Ass Trout was not that marketable so here we are. We’re talking trout you have to target from a distance with long leaders, pinpoint casts, feather-weight presentation and celestial guidance. With a long head and back taper to increase loop stability and long range control, and with weight distribution that easily turns over long leaders for wary trout, this line comes in both weight forward and double taper options and is ideal for fishing dries, nymphs, soft hackles, and emergers to tricky PhD fish at distance. rioproducts.com, xplorerflyfishing.co.za

RIO – EURO NYMPH SHORTY There you are, minding your own business, fly fishing dry flies for rising trout when all of a sardine they get moody and stop. You know they are there, but they aren’t coming up. Whip out Rio’s Euro Nymph Shorty, an ultra-thin, super-sensitive line designed for Euro nymphing and get to those fish. At 20-feet in length it can be added to the front end of a regular fly line utilizing the thin welded loop on each end, allowing you to quickly fish a run Euro nymph style and then, when the fish start rising again, remove the “Shorty” and revert to traditional overhead casting again. Repeat after us the phonetic spelling of this brand…RE-HO, cos when you use this ingenious line and catch all the fish you’re a ‘ho’. rioproducts.com, xplorerflyfishing.co.za

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L AT ES T R E L E A S ES

SALAD BAR ORVIS PLIERS Some things just look like they are made to last like these stunning TSA-compliant pliers from Orvis which resemble the Terminator’s fingers (minus the faux flesh). Ergonomically designed and made from machined aluminium with type II military spec anodizing in the USA, they are designed to work with the natural shape and angle of your hand. Replaceable cutters and jaws offer excellent corrosion resistance and edge retention.

The leather sheath is made in USA by Gokey. orvis.com, flyfishing.co.za

SIMMS – ZIPIT II FLATS BOOTIE For those conditions when you don’t need a hardcore bommie-bashing saltwater boot (think getting on and off a skiff on sandy Caribbean flats or squelching through mud hunting grunter), that’s when a tough bootie like the Simms’ Zipit II comes into play. With perforated neoprene uppers, vulcanized rubber overlays, and the puncture-free footing of a full length Bi-Fit™ lasting board, it’s like having Elfin armour on your feet. Wear them barefoot or with a sock and with the cavernous gusseted opening and YKK® corrosion-resistant zippers, it’s easy to get them on and off fast. simmsfishing.com, upstreamflyfishing.co.za

HYDROTAC – LENSES It’s an incontrovertible fact that the older we get, the worse our eyesight gets. Having a pair of fancy fishing shades complicates matters. Do you take them off and put on specs? Do you cough up for prescription sunnies? Or, do you get those flip up shades that go over specs, a style so beloved of 1970s serial killers?

Or, a simpler solution, do you just get Hydrotac stick-on lenses, which turn any pair of glasses into reading/knot tying glasses? Hint – it’s the latter. hydrotaclenses.com, frontierflyfishing.co.za

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JOHANN DU PREEZ – CUSTOM ARTWORK BOXES From Lesotho to Sudan, Tanzania and now currently in Bolivia, guide and artist Johann du Preez gets around, but in case he never returns from the jungle you can get one of his custom artwork large streamer fly boxes from Upstream Flyfishing. Featuring big or toothy fish from tarpon to geets, tigerfish and golden dorado, they’ll stand out no matter where in the world you go. upstreamflyfishing.co.za

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FISHPOND – SWITCHBACK WADING BELT SYSTEM If you were to take the sentiment behind Roger “Verbal” Kint’s famous line in The Usual Suspects, “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist,“ and subsume it into fly fishing (as you do), it would probably manifest itself in the Switchback Wading System from Fishpond. A bit of a stretch you say? Maybe, but this smart system turns you into a veritable Inspector Gadget of fly fishing gear without ever making you look like a one-man band with a monkey strapped to your back. With a net slot, a 5L pack and a shoulder strap with tool attachment and fly patch points it’s already nifty, but there’s way more to this feature-rich product. The pack, which has plenty of pocket space for fly boxes and tools, slides from front to back on a belt rail meaning that, like your net, it’s out the way when you don’t need it. This was made by people who understand the delight of both unencumbered fishing and having what you need when you need it. fishpondusa com, frontierflyfishing.co.za SIMMS – KATAFRONT HOODY “Watershedding forearms” sounds like something Aquaman would boast about to Ariel the Mermaid after a few drinks, but in the Simms Katafront Hoody this is a really nifty feature. How often have you landed a fish (or had to reach down into the water to unhook your fly

from a rock) and got wet arms? Add in features like an adjustable hood for shelter and warmth, a cut that provides a full range of motion with just the right amount of stretch, a zippered thermolaminated chest pocket, two zippered hand warming pockets and you have a technical jacket that bridges most conditions but also works well under a rain shell. In stock at Upstream Fly Fishing in the Anvil colour.

SEMPERFLI - STRAGGLE LEGS Semperfli’s Paul Procter refers to these wiggly wonders as “Sex on a Spool” and it’s not hard to see why. Different from Straggle String in that the strands are longer and the fibres more widely spaced, straggle legs are fantastic for insect legs on dries, shrimps, grubs and nymphs. Available in insect tones or attractor colours, trust us, the straggle is real. semperfli.net, xplorerflyfishing.co.za

simmsfishing.com, upstreamflyfishing.co.za

ORVIS – CLEARWATER REEL Hey good-looking! Gray is the new black, specifically this updated gray Clearwater large Arbor reel from Orvis. Still one of the best performance-to-value reels on the market, this die-cast reel design with a stealthy matte-gray powder-coat finish and powerful inline, Rulon®-to-stainless, stacked disc drag holds its own against most high-performance machined reels. Easily converted to either left- or right-hand retrieve and with a positive click drag knob for consistent settings every time, the Clearwater Large Arbor can handle anything a machined reel can and looks awesome doing it. Size II (4-6 weight.), Size IV (7-9 weight.) orvis.com, flyfishing.co.za

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M U S T H AV ES

PAYDAY WHETHER IT’S JNB-DME-PKC OR LAX-DXB-ADD-DLA AND BACK AGAIN, THE ACTUAL TRAVEL PART OF TRAVELING IS HIGHLY OVERRATED. IT’S WORTH GETTING ORGANIZED AND COMFORTABLE WITH OUR SELECTION OF TRAVEL-FRIENDLY GEAR DESIGNED TO TAKE YOU FROM HOME TO YOUR DESTINATION, ACROSS TIME ZONES, CLIMATES AND HEMISPHERES.

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1) PATAGONIA – BLACK HOLE MLC 45L Carry-on approved transformable bag designed for world travel.

- Over-shoulder, briefcase or backpack carry options.

- Made from 100% recycledpolyester fabric, 100% recycled polyester lining and 100% recycled nylon webbing.

- Weather-resistant.

- Huge amount of compartments, pockets, laptop and table sleeves and easy access document pocket. www.patagonia.com

3) ROARK – LAYOVER STRETCH TRAVEL PANTS Feature rich straight fit pants designed specifically for long-distance travel.

- Drawstring closure waistband with zipper fly – Front extended long zip pocket with internal stash sleeve for NB travel documents.

– Back patch pocket with button closure and small stash pocket for cell phone storage.

- Built in stretch, breathability and comfort. roark.com

2) VANS - ULTRARANGE RAPIDWELD Comfortable, versatile and good-looking, like The Mission’s editorial team.

- Designed for long journeys around the world.

- Breathable textile and synthetic suede uppers.

- Upgraded UltraCush midsole compound.

- Comfort for days on end, plus enough athletic DNA for a sprint through Dubai International. www.vans.com

4) PROOF – 72-HOUR MERINO T One T-shirt designed for two and a half days’ worth of odour-free travel.

- 16,5 micron New Zealand merino wool (Kiwis understand sheep).

- Moisture-wicking.

- Odour-resisting.

- Temperature-regulating.

- Choose black or blue for maximum airline food stain camouflage. huckberry.com

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5) A TWITCH UPON A THREAD – WRITERS ON FISHING Introduced and Edited by Jon Day, this little gem sports some of history’s finest writers, on…you guessed it… fishing.

- A fantastic small, travel-friendly book, perfect for dipping in and out of.

- Essays include those from Norman McLean, Izaak Walton, Virginia Woolf, Charles Dickens, Gunter Grass, George Orwell, Henry Thoreau, Robert Louis Stevenson and many more.

- Definitive, historical proof that fishing is not just for weirdos like you. www.nottinghilleditions.com 6) CASIO – G-SHOCK B5000V It’s a G-Shock, but instead of the usual rubber, it’s made from burnished steel.

- World time for over 300 cities.

- Automatic time adjustment.

- Super-illuminated like your brain.

- Blue steel good looks. www.casio-watches.com

PATH TO A GUIDING CAREER Have you ever wanted to be a fly fishing guide? Then consider leapfrogging your way into a guiding career by attending Keith Rose-Innes of Alphonse Fishing Co.’s free guide intuition classes.

With decades spent guiding and working in the fly fishing industry, Keith has had an incredible career.

Now, in an attempt to share the skills and experiences he has so enjoyed over the years, Keith will be offering guiding ‘intuition’ classes for ambitious would-be guides.

WHAT TO EXPECT • Eight applicants will be selected for a brief but in-depth introduction to guiding and the skill-set needed.

• Classes will cover guide ethics, code of conduct, skills, knots, fly tying and post course qualifications (STCW, First Aid, Captain) • There will be no text books or exams as the aim of this class is to select capable candidates through practical guidance.

• The applicant must intend choosing fly fishing as a long-term creer with a minimum of a five-year dedication (no gap year applicants).

• Students that qualify will have the opportunity to be placed in a trainee guide position by Alphonse Fishing Company.

• Class dates in Johannesburg: 20 July 2019 27 July 2019 03 August 2019

APPLICANT REQUIREMENTS • South Africa based • 17 (Last year of school) to 35 years-old • Fly fished for no less than 5 years • Fluent in English • Apply for this free mentorship with a short description of your fly fishing experience, qualifications (if applicable) and why you would like to become a fly fishing guide (no more than 450 words).

Emaill Keith@alphonsefishingco.com

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THE LIFER

THE LEADER WHETHER IT’S BROWN TROUT ON ENGLISH CHALK STREAMS O R T R I G G E R S O N T H E F L AT S OF COSMO, UK-BASED F O R M E R S P R I N G B O K C A P TA I N B O B S K I N S TA D I S A N U N D E R C O V E R F LY A N G L E R .

Photos: Bobs Skinstad

The first fish I remember catching was a whole bucket full of bream/tilapia that my Dad had stocked in a dam on our smallholding in Triangle, Zimbabwe. I remember getting into trouble (read getting a hiding!) for that.

A typical day involves a commute to the office in London from our home in Weybridge, Surrey, England; general work role peppered with client and customer engagements and then a commute back in the evening.

I’ve called four different countries home - Zimbabwe, South Africa, Wales and England.

London is exciting, I enjoy the easy access to new places (cheaper travel), the dynamic business environment, the family and home-oriented Christmas cheer and the long summer holidays.

I have two home waters. The River Thames for pike which has been an amazing breakthrough. What a fishery! And also the chalk stream heaven very close to me in Stockton and surrounds. The water is crystal clear and brimming with fish. It’s incredible!

I’ve been a barman, professional rugby player, marketing executive, business development officer, venture capitalist and business owner.

The best advice I have ever been given is, give to the givers, and you’ll get your time, energy and wealth back in buckets. Don’t give to the takers because only you will suffer.

I am most proud of my wife and young family – I’m incredibly lucky.

The best party trick I have ever seen is The Flaming Bell Ringer. It’s complicated, but it involves rum, shot glasses, backsides and real late night pub skill.

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“EVERY DAY OUT THERE, EVERY CAST, EVERY FISH, BECOMES AN EXPERIENCE AND A MEMORY TO CHERISH, NOT A RECORD TO COLLECT.” Tom and Bob Skinstad at Mill House on the River Test, Hampshire

There are two places I have to return to: 1) Alphonse Island and the Seychelles – best service and fishing in the world. Keith Rose Innes is a Frontiersman and has made good on all the potential that Murray Collins and family (the owners of the Alphonse group) saw in him, and to prepare for that …

2) Upstream Flyfishing shop in Cape Town. Kempy (Justin Kemp) runs a great show! It’s a new generation fishing shop.

The best way to face one’s fears is head on. I don’t believe in bravado through bullshit but I do think that most things can be conquered if broken down into manageable bits. Recently I’ve watched some people with a fear of public speaking transforming themselves and blowing up their irrational fears. It was inspirational.

It is okay for an angler to lie when he is selling a place on the potential, because the fish are there. He might not have caught them quite as big, but he feels that you can.

Then it’s okay to build it up! We fall for it every time!

One place, never again - Diego Suarez at the top of Madagascar. If the world had an armpit…

The handiest survival skill I have is my attitude! Mindset is by far the most important modern day survival skill but that’s mainly in the concrete jungles of course! The reality is that good preparation and curiosity are both vital. Are you curious enough to have learned how to fix the situation in front of you?

I’ve had to work at managing stress of expectation, time and spreading myself too thinly. I’ve never had to work at spreading enthusiasm and excitement or maintaining loyalty.

A skill I would like to master is fly tying but, with young kids, I need to wait a bit as mess, hooks, feathers and open space are not a great combination right now!

Before I die I’d like to do as much as possible with my family, to enjoy every opportunity. I’m convinced we’re going to live near the sea and surf soon, because it soothes my soul.

There are many fish that were satisfying for different reasons, but I think landing my first milkfish will go down as very special, because I’d wanted to catch one since I read Charles Norman on the Chanos chanos. Then, to be led into the fish on fly was a special experience.

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My go to drink is a double vodka and soda in a pint glass with ice, and a crushed half lime.

What I get out of fly fishing has changed over the years. I believe I’d like to fish more, but maybe because of that, I appreciate it more. Every day out there, every cast, every fish, becomes an experience and a memory to cherish, not a record to collect.

I don’t want my experience of fly fishing to change. I just need to make more money to do more of it, more often!

Looking back on my life, if I could do anything differently I think I might have spent some more time playing sport overseas from earlier on. But that could be a post-event view that is skewed. I think I have been very lucky and blessed, so I wouldn’t change very much at all. Maybe I’d have pushed my folks to make me surf from a younger age.

I’ve got my kids on their boards from early on!

I’ve changed in that I have mellowed a bit and I have become more slow paced, not trying to change everybody around me and to rally all in a particular direction. I’ve realised that we should do less, better.

It is a surer path to success, whatever that may be for you.

The last fish I caught was a triggerfish at Cosmoledo Atoll, Seychelles.

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TAMING THE TIGER The scenic Chobe River region is world-renowned as one of Africa’s best fishing destinations and a stay at Ichingo Chobe River Lodge is the best way to experience it. Catch everything from African pike, tilapia, catfish and yellowfish to the legendary tigerfish on your unforgettable river safari, while our highly experienced guides provide all the equipment and advice you need to land your big catch (we practice catch-and-release).

DON’T LET THIS WINTER FISHING SPECIAL BE THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY! • 3 nights at a rate of R11 600 per person sharing This offer is valid for travel until 30th September 2019

WHAT’S INCLUDED:

• One Guide to Two Experienced Anglers • Tender Boat 60HP • Unlimited Fuel • Flies, Bait, and Lures • Park Fees • Equipment Conventional and Fly

Contact: www.zqcollection.com | enquiry@zqcollection.com | +21 715 2412 BOOK NOW AND QUOTE “THEMISSION” TO QUALITY FOR YOUR DEAL Follow us on Social: & @IchingoChobeRiverLodge #IchingoChobeRiverLodge Terms and Conditions Apply. Only applicable to SADC passport holders, Minimum 2-night stay, based on two adults sharing on a double-occupancy basis, Includes 15% Namibian VAT and 1% Namibian Tourism Levy, Not available in conjunction with another promotion and/or special rate, Subject to availability and to change without prior notification, Single supplement is applicable.

POP QUIZ D I D YO U R E A L LY R E A D T H E M AG O R W E R E YO U J U ST LO O K I N G AT T H E P R E T T Y P I CT U R ES ? T EST YO U R S E L F W I T H T H E M I S S I O N ’ S S P E E DY P O P Q U I Z !

1. On the smash hit ‘Kid Gloves’ off the album, ‘Sounds of Sudan’ you are likely to hear…

A. Two triggerfish a chompin’.

B. Three Ospreys a cawin’.

C. One hallucinogenic goat a bleatin’ D. Conrad Botes a screamin’.

E. All of the above.

Answer: page 18

3. “Thunder Dragon Kings”…

A. Is what the Targaryens should have called themselves.

B. Is the name of a roller-derby team out of Newark.

C. Is another name for the Bhutanese royal family.

D. Is the sequel to Thundercats.

Answer: page 58

5. Something our Lifer Bob Skinstad never wants to go near again is: A. Madagascar’s Diego Suarez.

B. Uruguay’s Luis Suarez.

C. An Alphonse Island babbelas.

D. Tappe Henning’s empty rugby field promises.

Answer: page 96

2. “Harmattan Haze” is…

A. A strain of weed. Think Durban Poison meets Scrotal Kush.

B. A 70s Psychedelic Rock Band out of Lubumbashi.

C. A dust layer across West Africa brought by winds out of the Sahara.

D. A post-dump gaseous exchange whereby Fruits of the Forest mingles with Curry of Chennai.

Answer: page 30

4. “Crumpets”…

A. Are delicious.

B. Is Ryan Janssen’s Cape Streams fishing shmodel.

C. Who you call for a good time according to the back of the toilet door at Mixa’s Schwarma on Cape Town’s Kloof Street.

D. Are short-lived pets…made from bread crumbs.

Answer: page 44

6. When it comes to “JackRussel-on-cocaine” type fish, photographer Stephan Dombaj A. Loves them B. Hates them C. Inhales them D. Trains them to betray bigger fish Answer: page 84

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Answers: 1. E, 2. C, 3. C, 4. B, 5. A, 6. B

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Distributed by Xplorer Fly fishing - www.xplorerflyfishing.co.za Email: jandi@netactive.co.za or call 031-564-7368 for your closest dealer.

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