Freedom of a captivated mind
The Morphew family, a shot down plane over Libya, and Trout in 2020
6 August 2020
Winter Stillwater Photo Essay
A collection of images from my stillwater winter flyfishing season
22 July 2020
Sneaky!
It was the 18th April 1999. Guy and I were fishing the uMngeni on Brigadoon, on what my fishing log describes as “Blacks Water”. That was the section of river above the confluence of the Furth Stream, and at some time not long past, it had been the farm of John Black, and if memory serves, Derek Fly had bought it or taken it over, and its length was now added to the beat known to us as Brigadoon. At that time all the riverside lands from the Furth confluence up to Picnic Pool were planted to maize, and the
14 June 2020
Making my way West to Winter
Making my way west, away from the brutal hissing, rattling black highway, puts me in the folds of soft hills. Soft hills decked in the ochres, fawn, brown, yellow, maple orange and bare sticks of winter’s onset. The only hard lines are the escarpment, where the berg presses against the sky in a stark outline. It is an outline of a boundary against which we retreat. It reminds me of my prized dorm bed at boarding school, that fit in a corner against the walls of the basement boiler, and was warm in winter. So too, the berg is a
5 June 2020
Pewter and Charcoal: Colour
The final post in a series exploring black and white images of the flyfisher’s world. This one takes us back to an appreciation of colour
20 May 2020
Pewter and Charcoal: Solitude, Middleton and Gierach
exploring the writing of Harry Middleton and John Gierach, together with a B & W image taken on the uMngeni River
16 May 2020
Where the Bright Waters Meet
Truttablog | Waters & words Having recently written about Harry Plunket Green and his bright waters (HERE), I was delighted to stumble on a fellow blogger who has similar things in mind. David Johnson, of Peaks Fly fishing Podcast, has taken it upon himself to do the “audio book thing” by reading chapters of “Where the Bright Waters Meet” in successive issues of his podcast. For the many who know of the book, but don’t own it, here is a wonderful way to experience the writing of Harry Plunket Green.: Or on a podcast player here: https://peaksflyfishing.libsyn.com/ Thank you David!
23 April 2020
The black mist
On the eve of our planned trip, I happened to be up on the river. Call it a bit of a “forward patrol”. It was late afternoon, and I was peering into what looked like slightly brown water, squinting against the harsh afternoon rays of the sun, that were beaming in from the west to burn my corneas. “I think it could be clear by tomorrow” I reported to The Viking, factoring in the that there were 14 hours between us and our planned trip, as well as the fact that we would be about 3kms upstream. I was not
11 April 2020
Photo of the moment (113)
It was late afternoon, and even the dark red colour indicator was proving difficult to see against the silver surface. I stopped and took this picture, then headed back to the bakkie where I lay back in the grass and watched the clouds, waiting for the coffee to brew.
8 April 2020
Circling back and the Kraai River Buffalo
It was Monday 13th April 2015. PD and I were on the lower water at Kelvin Grove, having a spectacularly unsuccessful day. It was just one of those days where it didn’t come together. It was also the first day of our trip, and I suppose we hadn’t found our mojo. Later in the day a pressing wind started to blow, and a million little polar leaves would shower down into the water, meaning we would hook leaves on every cast. We had set off with unbridled enthusiasm, and walked so far down stream, that I guess you could say
2 April 2020