Journeys through the journal (8)

It was the fifth of April. PD and I were in the highest of the high country in the North Eastern Cape. Mecca for short. The sky was a very pale blue, brushed at times with a high and hazy grey white. The weak and filtered sun crept through that haze, and kissed the hills, between interludes of cool breeze, and brighter sunshine. One could just feel the sun’s warmth through a thick denim shirt, and at times it wasn’t enough and one felt the need for an extra layer. The North facing hillsides there are covered in a dense

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Spotting Trout in stillwater

A piece of open stillwater can be  a bland thing. The other day Neil and I were out on some lovely, but somehow dull water. There was a dead calm, and we didn’t see or touch a fish.  I suggested that the day was a good advert for stream fishing. But sometimes it is very different. Today I was out alone on a small piece of water. Being mid winter the water was crystal clean, but more importantly the light was right. Light is so important in fly-fishing, but the right light is also so very difficult to describe. Suffice

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Zoom. You gotta love it!

My Friend Neil and I were out the other day roving around between some Trout waters that were not looking all that promising. Neil asked me to stop, and asked if he could borrow my camera. I had been boasting about just how fantastic these bridging cameras are nowadays. On optical zoom only, shot from the passenger seat, this is what he got: On no zoom: 1200mm equivalent, optical zoom only!  And in the photo editor back home, effectively using digital zoom: And a bit more, just to show where you can go with this thing:   These were taken

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A Detail for Eyes

A recent topic of discussion has been that of eyes on our Trout flies. It occurred to me that we have come a long way in that department. My earliest memory of eyes on flies was that of the Clayne Baker swimming nymph, in which one was required to tie an overhand knot on a bunch of marabou fibres. Now that was a trick! I think at that time we normally made eyes by simply cutting a stub of tuff chenille either side of the hook. Those were not very pronounced eyes, and come to think of it, the snipped

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