A good morning

Some days are just special. The type of morning that is used as a reference point in all future conversations that involve the discussion of good fishing. You really wish they happened whenever you walked out onto the flats...

And of course you love to tell everyone about it: "Dude! You should have been here last week!"

And after a weekend of fishing like this one past, I just can't but help think of those great days I've had. The wind has been up and, after a week of perfectly clear skies, the weekend was cloudy (thanks Murphy). And wind and cloud make for tough fishing. We blanked pretty hard this weekend. So sitting on a Sunday evening I really can't help but share one of those days that we didn't blank!

This particular morning was a while back at Anse la Blague on Praslin Island, Seychelles. Spent with JD Filmalter and Fabien Forget.

Fly Fishing and DVDs - "Gaula - River of Silver and Gold"

The quality of fly fishing movies is only getting better. 

The first fly fishing DVDs I really paid attention to was "Running Down The Man". On an average fishing day in the Western Cape, Nick Raegaart introduced me to this movie and one of his own first productions - "A Foam Odyssey"; a look into the quirky tying genius of New Zealand's Stu Tripney. 

But it was "Running Down the Man"  that really made me look twice. The boys from Felt Soul were fresh, creative, used great cinematography and, best of all, kept the balance between reflection and action just right.

Then came Drift, which was simply stunning. Gin Clear, also Nick's work, started their "The Source" series of DVDs with the New Zealand release. The quality blew me away. Of course, the intensity of  “Tapâm – a flyfishing journey”  won't be forgotten soon. Felt Soul did it again by going further into Kamkatcha than anyone else with with "Eastern Rises". Gin Clear's most recent release "The Source: Iceland" looks to be amazing.

The list of QUALITY fly fishing DVDs has grown significantly in the last few years and I have mentioned but a few. 

It's not stopping either. After the award winning madness of “Tapâm", film maker Daniel Goz, together with Anton Hamacher, presents his new release called "Gaula – River of Silver & Gold". Set, as the opening to the trailer states, on one of the last wild Salmon fisheries in Norway they explore this river over the seasons.

Using only Canon DSLR camera in their filming, they bring to us some truly unique footage. The trailer is full of titbits that promise interesting and new underwater photography but what really got me frothing to get a copy is their aerial footage. The use of a radio controlled drone to give us stunning aerial angles is simply breathtaking. If the movie is anything like the trailer, we will see a new bench mark in the innovation and quality of fly fishing DVDs.

Enjoy the trailer...

My memories of the Witels

It’s been a surprisingly long time since I first walked up the Witels River. It was my third year of varsity that my partner in crime, Rex Fey, and I donned backpacks and set off up this mystical river.

Mystical because for so long I had struggled to find any decent literature on this piece of water, no one could tell me who controlled it or how to get access and when it was spoken about - which wasn't often - the conversation always seemed to drop slightly in volume. I always felt like every snippet of info we gained about the river was a hard won secret extracted from the closed circles of some secret fly fishing fraternity.

Rex and a Witels Beauty on one of his later trips.

While this may be exaggerated slightly, it is how we felt. All we had collectively learned about this "Prince of Streams" was that it could get dangerous if you were caught in the rain, there were rumours of big brown trout that ate dries and that the lower sections, while in the past being the prime waters, where now a shadow their former glory.

It was a simple decision really, for us. Grab the topographical, our backpacks, stuff them with the basics - sleeping bag, bread, cheese bangers, a couple cans of condensed milk, coffee, the hiking pots and, of course, a couple of bottles of cheap whisky. The plan was straight forward: Park downstream of the junction, walk up the N1 to where the stream enters the upper reaches of the Breede River and see how far we could get. JFDI is still today Rex's motto. "Let's Just F****ng Do It" was the summing up of most hare-brained scheme conversations and a statement that forced any misgivings about said scheme to be happily pushed aside, caution to be thrown to the wind and resulted in many of the funnest, craziest fishing trips with exceptional fishing and memories!

And so, we found ourselves late one Friday afternoon, standing under the precipitous Castle Rock. The peak stood proud and, as one does when in the presence of such magnificence, I felt intimidated by nature. I couldn't wait to get up into the kloof. We had decided to hike as far as the afternoon light would let us get and make camp as soon as it started getting dark. Fishing would commence the following day in great earnest. The stunning valley was steep sided and I soon realised why a heavy rain could cause trouble for hikers. This was serious countryside that was not to be trifled with. And I fell immediately in love with it.

Castle Rock looking over the entrance to the Kloof

A fire, hearty camp meal and a bottle of whisky made for a cracker evening. Not even the bag of rolls growing a striped tail and disappearing into the darkness could distract us from the magnificence that surrounded us. We were happy and I’m sure that the Genet that was feasting on our fresh rolls was too.

I was woken by shouts from Rex that he had hooked one. I opened my eyes to see a half-naked diary farmer's son with a bent fly rod. He had been brushing his teeth when he saw a rise and, hygiene forgotten, sent our first fly onto the Witels. He promptly hooked into his first (of many) Witels Brownies.

The day that followed still rates as one of my favourite days of fishing ever. The browns were eating dries like there was no tomorrow; the fish would come up from the bottom of the deepest pools to smash the big DDDs and hoppers. It was magic. Every corner that the river followed up the kloof snaked around and led to new, fascinating and glorious water. And the browns kept coming. Fish after fish after fish. Never before nor since have I had such exceptional brown trout fishing.

That night, after having explored up the Happy Valley and through a few of the swims, we decided that we had discovered heaven. I most certainly slept well.

This trip started a love affair with a river that few will understand. Strangely, Rex and I never made it up that river again together. We did however, at different times explore it higher and higher, right up to where the narrow swims seem to be entrances to new worlds.

I never truly understood my father's deep seated connection to the Loteni until after one of my numerous future trips up the Witels. Like him, I grew to know my river intimately. Which incoming weather patterns meant good fishing - and which meant stay away. I recognised, from summer to summer, the changes wrought by the rushing winter floods. Even the path that lay in disrepair wasn't needed; I had my own meander up the river and through its boulders. We explored, used the old fisherman’s path over the mountain from Ceres and even found different sets of bushman paintings in small eerie caves. It was my happy place up there.

We caught some big fish up there over the years. The biggest was a fish that must have run 3 and half pounds which Rex brought to hand. Over time, word spread (not that this river was unknown - just less spoken about) and its popularity grew. We even bumped into other anglers up there, but never right at the top, in my hallowed grounds.

Whoever of you may fish this water, remember, it is a bigger place than us; a last refuge for the explorer and seeker of quiet places. Keep it so. It is a place where we may let the soul fly free. The fishing is awesome but the experience is better.

This and all the below photos are from that first trip up the Witels, a long time ago and taken on a little point and shoot. Rex and one of many.

Me and a cracking speciman of Witels perfection.

Timing, as always, is everything.

Cooling off on the return trip - packs and all. It was far easier to swim down the river and float on our packs that actually bundu bash down the neglected path.

 

One of my happy places in this world... Happy Valley...

Ideas about flats flies.

It's been a tough weekend on the flats.

The bones have been hiding and the Goldens where cruising on their own and being as picky as a snot-nosed nouveau-rich Frenchman (if you're French and reading this you're neither snot-nosed or nouveau-rich). We did get to do some casting and I got a few beaut pics of the old man casting across picture perfect sand flats.

But so is life and at least it forced me back to the drawing board. I tied up a couple of patterns I've been wanting to give a whirl for awhile. The plan now is to test them properly within the next week or so.

A Charlie type pattern. A special prawn. And an Ugly Crab/Spawning Shrimp/JD's Creature cross breed thingy! The Charlie and prawn patterns both come from listening carefully to other guys talking about what has been hot down south. The Charlie is simple, effective, takes 15 seconds to tie and appeals to a my 'less is more' thoughts on fly tying. 

The Prawn, however, does not. It is a great fly - I must admit that I've tied the first one a few weeks ago and it has already accounted for two bones and a golden (which was lost :( ). It takes a bit longer to tie but fish love it. It's realistic, the keel keeps it swimming upright and the colours come alive in the water.

The 'Ugly Something or Other' has yet to be tested. It's heavy; designed to sink quickly so that I intercept effectively the erratic feeding habits of Golden Trevally. It combines what I consider the most important crab and shrimp triggers - namely the rostrum, pincers, eyes and legs. It sits upright in the water and the furry foam body creates and very realistic carapace. I could possibly add a few bars (darker brown) on the rostrum and carapace but not until I've tried it as is. Another addition is more orange for the egg sack around the mouth and eye area.

We'll see...

The offspring of several ideas - the ugly something or other.

The drawings from one I saw once and my tie of a special prawn. This fly does work.

Two simple Charlie patterns. Bare shank, orange legs and bunny wing.

Look into my eyes... As once said, eyes on flies are very important...

Tigers in The Middle

The Tigerfish is Africa's answer to fly fishing. These power-fanged denizens produce rock hard strikes, generate unstoppable bursts of speed, and perform jaw-clattering summersaults.
                                                                                 -Francois Botha. Fanged Creatures of Awesomeness

I haven't caught enough of these fish. I want to catch more. I will catch more.

However, my old friend Stuart Harley is catching lots of them. As the owner and head-guide of Flycatcher Angling, he spends an unfair amount of time on the waters of the middle Zambezi and regularly gets stuck into trophy sized  Hydrocynus vittatus. And the odd croc - but more on that later.

Stuart Harley and his hand held mincing machine!

Flycatcher Angling is closely linked to Jecha Point Lodge, which lies on Zimbabwean side of the Zambezi, just below Chirundu, and runs their fishing operations. With approximately 100kms of the middle Zambezi at their disposal, they most certainly have a lot of water on which to chase fish. The Middle Zambezi starts as its mighty waters fall from splendid Victoria Falls into the narrow Batoka Gorge and ends when its reaches the headwaters of Lake Cabora Bassa. It is from below Lake Kariba, past where the Zambezi is swollen from the north by the Kafue River to where it runs between Zimbabwe’s Mana Pools and Zambia’s Lower Zambezi National Parks that Flycatcher has access. There are a lot of big fish in those waters!

The Zambezi River teems with not only a myriad of fly catchable fish life - the giant Vundu, Sharptooth Catfish, a seemingly endless amount of Bream species and, of course, Tigerfish - but the waters themselves and the banks also boast plenty of African game. How awesome does it sound to fly fish to the trumpet of an elephant or even a roar of a lion while dodging the odd hippo or crocodile? Stu has a pretty good recipe for epic fishing at his fingertips.

Stu sent me a few photos recently and, quite frankly, I almost deleted him from friends list. The quality of the fish in the pics makes me super jealous. Stu is living the dream. Throwing flies for Africa's premier freshwater fly fishing quarry almost every day is not a terrible way of spending one's time. And this he does in surrounds that most of us only dream of and have experienced all too briefly.

It was quite a long time ago that I caught my first striped water dog. It wasn't the happiest time of my life either. I have yet to go back to chase them again. I will though. What I remember about catching Tigers, and I only caught a few smaller fish, was a stupidly hard take, a couple of vigorous head shakes before that lightening dash which inevitably led to a fresh water aerobatics display that I can imagine is only to be rivaled by South America's Golden Dorado. I get rather excited by the thought of hooking up to some of the monsters Stu has been releasing.

Stu is going to find me on his door step sometime next year, I'm pretty sure of it. If you haven't caught your own Tiger, maybe you should go explore the valley of the mighty Zambezi.

Check out Flycatcher Angling on Facebook.

Above and below: Stu with a couple of his Middle Zambezi pets.

View from Jecha Point Lodge

More big fish and bigger smiles

Sinking line, Tiger Clouser, long cast tight against the cliffs, let it sink before stripping...
The possibilities!

The gaping mouth of a Vundu.

Planning or Doodling?

We all do it. When you're really not focussed as fully as you should be on something or when the mind is free to wonder and float. The pen close by and a scrap of paper become the canvas of your daydream. Whether its simple stick drawing of fighting fish or intricate multi-layed masterpieces they all have a similar theme - things fishing.

Looking back over my journals I had to chuckle at the variety of pictures and scribbles. Some lucky stick men catching tailing stick permit. Some over zealous stick fishermen about to get smashed up! And then there are some interesting things.

Drawings of flies. Variations. Ideas. Concepts. Without realising it my doodling is a form of brain storming for the flies. Notes, musings and thoughts litter the scribbles. And these are the scribbles and doodles - I'm not including the actual thought recording writings and musings.

The Ugly Crab was drawn before I finally tied it. There's a picture in there of a creature come shrimp come crab that I still want to tie. Colour variations of Charlies, Clousers, Sar-Mul-Macs and Brush flies. I don't remember putting the details, the notes and colours, into the pictures. But there they are scribbled in the corners from the corners of a fly fishing mind.

I'm sure many of the lines came from flies I'd seen, read about or fished with. While other ideas are my own. It's the combining of the two that make these scribbles so unique and interesting. I'm now sorry I sent my last three journals home last month. How many ideas did I leave in the margins. Who knows - maybe no good ones or maybe one that could change my fishing totally!

The point of all of this? I guess it is a bit like those adverts that played for awhile on SA television of people coming up with great ideas at the damnedest times or in the strangest places. You never know when a new great idea is going hit! Write it all down somewhere. I remember Peter Coetzee, author of borntoflyfish.com, saying he started his blog to keep a record so that he and others could remember.

So keep day dreaming and doodling - you may just get your next best idea just when you should be concentrating on something else!

The Ugly Crab was still in its infancy when this was drawn. I never realised then that bit of a Merkin, an Avalon and some funky eyes would turn into my favourite flats fly.

This drawing came about watching Needlescale Queen fish and Big Eye Trevally decimate a school of sprats. I tried every colour combo in my box and eventually when dredging in disgust. Couldn't 'match the hatch'. I eventually tied the fly six months later because I bumped into the picture while paging through my journal.

Golden Revisited

A nice little little piece on the Golden I caught about a month ago. Thanks Francois and The Guides Company for the shout out.


Fly-fishing on Mahe, Seychelles - The Guides Company

Evening Cast

The fishing has been slow but here are two images to start the week...

Piscatorial Picasso

Too Pretty

At first I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Dark boxy shapes clearly floating over the turtle grass.

Triggers? Triggers!

On my doorstep on the inner islands! Only once before had I seen them and then only fleetingly. These clownish fish that people pay thousands to chase around the world, right here. Immediately I tossed out the recently copied prawn fly that has been nailing the Bones and Goldens and got denied. That made me nervous. This little fly has been slaying fish and for it to be turned down so readily - ignored actually - made me shaky.

As quickly as possible I found an Ugly Crab and tied it on. I moved around slowly and cut the Picasso off as he drifted and foraged with the pushing tide. A tight loop and the crab went to work. Strip, strip, pause. Let it sit. He's seen it. Strip, strip and drop. Here he comes! Strip. Tail up, inside!

I couldn't but help marvel at his magnificent colours, the tenacity of his fight and sheer pleasure of catching him.

Fifteen later and another one came to hand.

They weren't big but what a treat.

A dark boxy shape that gets me all excited!

Typical Trigger fighting style - on its side and heading for structure.

Ugly Crab in scissors. 

Colours that would make Picasso smile.

Not a trophy but pretty as any fish you've caught.

Surface Action

There's something about surface action that turns a fisherman on. Any fisherman, not just flyfishermen. Whether its the simple, delicate sipping of a mayfly by a big brown trout or the gut wrenching smash of big game fish through a bait ball; the intensity of watching a big fish eating your offering off the surface stirs something visceral in you. Sometime almost unreasonable and indescribable is stirred within your soul.

It can become an addiction, something we strive to find in whatever fishing environs we find ourselves. Something the majority of us will never quite get over; a lingering hangover of a moment where there are no other cares in the world at all.

We all yearn for surface action.

This short film about bus stripers in Louisiana was posted by a friend on facebook and is siiiick. It's made by Shallow Water Expeditions - I reckon if I ever find myself in the Gulf area I'll look them up.

Watch it and tell me you it didn't get you all heated up!

The Evolution of JD's Creature Fly

JD Filmalter, like me, has had an obsession with Golden Trevally since his first encounter with them on the flats of the inner islands. We have chased them, theorised about them and worked out their habits.

Obviously this all led to our own fly development for Gnathanodon speciosus. What would get the best results most consistently? While I have stuck to crabs and ended up with the “UglyCrab”, JD has gone with the shrimp direction. Taking inspiration from famous Spawning Shrimp and Avalon flies, JD has created his own “Creature” flies.

These crustacean imitators have proved successful in both JD’s pursuit of Golden Trevally and in catching a variety of other flats species including Carangoides ferdau  ( which is the Blue, not Bluefin Trevally) and Bonefish. I’m pretty sure it’s just a matter time until JD gets a good permit on one.

The Creature has had a full evolution of growth and, keeping true to Darwin’s theories, has shed its weaknesses and grown in its strengths.  The first Creatures were rather shabby, woolly affairs that incorporated a few triggers. They worked, but JD wasn’t happy and tweaked or revised with every Golden encounter.

At a fairly rapid rate – which highlights his understanding of fish and fly fishing – JD has turned the Creature  into a serious fly that has a impressive and growing list of caught fish. Even I have a sneaky one in my box just-in-case.

The most recent - and best - version of The Creature sits alive on the grass of the flats, daring a fish to eat it. The combination of a hot pink underbody and an EP or Frizz Fibre overbody give the fly a translucent and realistic shrimp look. The feelers double as pincers and move alluring in the water. The eyes stand out on stalks adding to the realism. A weed guard prevents snagging over the grass and the tungsten beads tied in as a keel provide adequate weight, an upright swimming position and the added bonus of some noise.

I have no doubt there will be more changes and adaptations made to this fly. And while, like so many different fly patterns, I'm sure it has been tied by somebody, somewhere else; JD's talent as a flyfisherman is highlighted by the growth of this great fly.

One the first creatures.

Getting the shape and the eyes right. First use of silly legs as feelers and moth apparatus.

The Creature becoming more streamlined. Colour experimentation . And note the first time addition of the keel.

Almost there - the rostrumless (this one has a small, understated rostrum) Creature.

The most recent Creature fly showing the addition of a pronounced rostrum,  pink hotspot, weed guard and barring.

Keel position

A backlit photo which gives an idea of the translucence of the fly. This much more noticeable when underwater.  

JD and a Golden Trevally with a Creature in the scissors.

Dad's First Bonefish

Bonefish found in the inner islands of the Seychelles rarely swim in shoals and do not swim in shoals of hundreds (and definitely not in shoals of thousands). They are educated - they do not simply eat anything and have been known to refuse a perfectly good Charlie that worked just yesterday. And catching Bonefish in the inner islands takes patience, effort and hard work. They can be downright enigmatic.

Dad didn't get one on his trip here in 2004. He's been visiting for three weeks and has been practising his double haul and perfecting presenting a heavily weighted Charlie on a #9 as if it were a dry fly on #3.

Yesterday we had a early mission to the Grand Anse flats on Praslin. The goal was to find the bones or Golden Trevally that quietly inhabit these flats. The tide wasn't perfect, the breeze was a little strong and , although they were around, the Bonefish weren't exactly calling us over to join them for breakfast. 

It took awhile before we found three big fish feeding tacitly in the shallows. They were moving left to right between us and the beach. The cast that needed to be made was fairly long and straight into the wind. 

Dad - a trout fisherman by birth and life has only recently bothered to get to grips with double hauling a nine weight - swore before his first cast even landed. Luckily it was behind the last fish and made no difference to the body language of the three feeding fish. He went into trout stalk mode. I don't I could have moved around the flats like he did. Obviously the years of stalking brown trout on rock strewn streams and rivers made moving across the sand a pretty straight forward procedure. 

Suddenly there was a lot less distance to cover and the wind, although across his casting shoulder, was far less of an obstacle. The pink Charlie looped out and landed with a plop.

Strip, strip, INSIDE!

Textbook hookup and the rest was simple. A few burning runs and eventually he was tailed.

I'm not sure if Dad could choose between solemnity or biggest smile ever in which to mark the occasion.

At 60 he has at last come of salt water fly fishing age.