Tackle – Cape Piscatorial Society

Ed Herbst writes: The 2017 Wild Trout Association Festival held annually in Rhodes produced an interesting example of how fly rod technology has advanced. Fishing the Kraai River, Marcel Terblanche hooked and landed two yellowfish, one of close to two kilograms on a six and a half foot, 2-weight rod which he had built and which weighs less than one ounce. He was using a 5x tippet.

Short fly rods cast tighter loops than longer rods and are more efficient fish-fighting tools which is why rods used to catch big marine species like bluefin tuna are always short.

The clear, shallow trout streams near Cape Town have always favoured ultralight tackle and in 1974 Peter Turnbull-Kemp wrote in a Piscator article, ‘The Waters of Lilliput’, about using the first ‘Whisper Rod’, the six foot Leonard Baby Catskill which weighed one ounce.

I have outlined the chronology of the ultralight approach that members of the Cape Piscatorial Society have followed in the past two decades in two articles on Tom Sutcliffe’s Spirit of Flyfishing website and all the articles on this subject that have appeared in Piscator will be reflected in this folder.

Capetonians are fortunate to have access to outstanding craftsmen like Stephen Dugmore, Stephen Boshoff and, more recently, Marcel Terblanche all of whom continually strive to produce rods which enhance the pleasure of fishing the ‘Waters of Lilliput’.