Flicking flies in Barkly East

Fly fishing is as synonymous with the Eastern Cape district of Barkly East as are Merino wool and snow-capped mountains in winter. As Mike Burgess writes, the legacy of fly fishing in the region is not only rich, but evolving.

- Mike Burgess

FAST FACTS

• The rivers and streams of the Barkly East district are renowned for their wide variety of fly fishing species, including trout, and indigenous yellowfish and mudfish.

• Interest in fly fishing in the area began with the introduction of trout more than 100 years ago.

• The late Bob Mollentze played a major part in stocking rivers and inspiring youngsters to take up the hobby from the 1950s onwards.

“You can catch everything from the same rivers: smallmouth and largemouth yellowfish, rainbow and brown trout, and muddies [mudfish],” enthuses Andrew Clark, chairperson of the Barkly East Angling Society (BEAS). It is this remarkable variety, he adds, that makes the myriad streams and rivers in the Barkly East district so tantalising to fly anglers.

Despite the presence of the indigenous yellowfish, a particularly fine fighter, fly fishing in Barkly East was actually kickstarted by the introduction of alien trout into the region’s rivers more than a century ago. And as pioneering fly fishing techniques for trout became entrenched, so new ones evolved to target indigenous species more effectively.

BARKLY EAST TROUT AND WET FLIES

Fly fishing enthusiasts introduced trout to the Barkly East streams during the First World War, and by the 1930s, farmers and local anglers had established an association to fund and regulate the stocking of the region’s waters. According to the late Bob Mollentze, who for many years managed the Barkly East Reporter launched by his family in 1896, the Barkly East waters were being stocked with record numbers of trout fry by the second half of the 20th century.