Many South African’s prefer things like beef steak, Boerewors and lamb chops on the camp braai and it’s a running joke that white meats, especially fish and chicken, often get referred to as the side ‘salad’. Similarly, on recent trips to the Tankwa with my family, red meat featured on the evening braai menu, but any big bass caught during the day was added as the side ‘salad’. Decent largemouth bass from the Doring River A nice spotted bass from the Doring River – big spotted bass have chunky white meat, like blocks of fresh Tofu. Although the Doring River has some very big bass in it and c ..read more

Life is short so make time to indulge your inner-ADHD child with a selection of fly fishing distractions. Watch, tie, listen or buy, here’s our something-for-everybody curation of all things fly fishing. We loved the recent African Waters X Ineos Grenadier collab mission to Lesotho. Watch as Keith Clover, director of African Waters, explores the Bokong River behind the wheel of the Quartermaster. Read our experience of the Bokong here. Fancy testing our an Ineos Grenadier in SA? Book a test drive here. After a long wait, Mending the Line is out! So… we’ll be taking a two hour break to watch B ..read more

Pictured above: The author’s dad, Alex Kennedy, on Beat 4 of the Elandspad River. To the guides, the river junkies and the trout bums, I get it; three beats in three days doesn’t seem like a huge deal. I have been on a share of fly fishing tours where we’d fish day in and day out, maximising time on the water, although only because we were in these far-out places for a limited time so taking a break was not on the cards. In my mind the Cape streams are a nice to have. Don’t get me wrong, they’re lovely, but they’re always available and it’s up to you to take the day off from the rat race to sp ..read more

This tigerfish fly is tied and designed by Platon Trakoshis. Tigerfish fly the Bully Beef, named after a South African canned beef brand, is a baitfish pattern designed for targeting tigerfish in the Okavango and Zambezi freshwater systems. It imitates the coppery bulldog baitfish, and comprises partly of a red jelly chenille gill plate, and a magnum rabbit zonker tail. In this step-by-step fly tying tutorial, Platon Trakoshis of Lucky Bastards talks about the African fisheries this fly was developed for, how the Bully Beef is fished and how to tie it at home. Watch the full video below. MAT ..read more

I’ve been targeting guitarfish since about 2000, the year I started studying and when my dad gave me a car to get around. The freedom that came with a car allowed me to roam up the southwestern Cape coastline and the well-known ‘Weskus’ of South Africa, from my residence in Cape Town area, to look for good waves to surf and saltwater fish to catch on fly. The West Coast is often covered in mist when you head out there for a dawn-patrol; here Platon Trakoshis is searching for guitarfish on an early morning outing to take advantage of a guitarfish frenzy, the last two hours of dropping tide befo ..read more

It is very sad news for South African and International Fly Fishing, friends and family of an incredible man, Tom Sutcliffe, who passed away recently. Tom’s books taught us so much on how to fly fish for trout. They are entertaining and informative but kept simple and real. There are tricks in there that we will use forever and remember him every time. He was a big fan of The Mission for it’s originality and constant awe-inspiring imagery being an avid photographer himself. I was lucky enough to have got to know him and a highlight was when we filmed the Fly Fishing & Fly Tying EXPO that G ..read more

Recognisable from running BYOR (Bring Your Own Rod) line-testing events for Scientific Anglers all over the world, Jeff Pierce, aka Dr Fish, gets to fish in more places than most. But he’s at his happiest on his boat the Double Haul, sight-fishing for smallmouth bass back home in Michigan. As featured in The Mission Issue 44 (Mar/Apr 2024). The first fish I remember catching was a small pumpkinseed sunfish in a pond at a campground. I think I was five then. When I was eight years old, I spent part of my summer in Bermuda and that is when the fishing bug really got me. I was born in Rochester ..read more

If fly fishing in South Africa is synonymous with one name, it’s Tom Sutcliffe. An author, artist, doctor, family man and revered trout stalker; from the stillwaters and rivers of KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, the Western Cape and everywhere else in between, Sutcliffe’s has been a life very well fished. Tom is the issue 04 lifer. Photos care of Tom Sutcliffe. The first fish I remember catching was a brown trout that, if cooked, you could have eaten between two slices of buttered bread. I had caught other small fish by then, aged nine, off jetties and in gullies on rare visits to t ..read more

Whether catching an International Game Fish Association World Record carp on fly (at Hartbeespoort Dam, no less) or guiding in Gabon, Tanzania, and on the Vaal, Roelof Botha – our featured fly fishing guide in The Mission Issue 44 – quietly gets on with the job, no matter the species or location. [The picture above is Roelof’s 16.95kg IGFA world record common carp caught on fly at Hartebeespoort Dam.] 5 best things about where you guide?   Gabon. There are not a lot of places in the world where 200lb-plus tarpon aggressively eat your fly next to the boat. Adrenaline rush of note. Ta ..read more

Eugene Potgieter of Uncharted Fishing Company explores Atlantic permit in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean. I had visited this location in the past and knew that there were loads of quality fish holding in the deeper water, but I did not expect to see tailing Atlantic permit on just about every flat I set foot on. Countless hours spent on Google Earth, and advice from all the locals regarding access to the intended areas, was enough to keep me up till late at night. There is just something special about figuring out the area, fly patterns, tides and everything that goes with it. The wind i ..read more