Equipment Outfitters

Stories of fishing spring creeks, with their selective rainbows, slow, clear water and heavy insecthatches, have always captivated me. I have dreamt of fishing one spring creek in particular, the Harriman State Park water on the Henry’s Fork in Idaho. While South Africa is not blessed with spring creeks, the Witte River in Bain’s Kloof Pass, although a freestone river, possesses so many spring creek characteristics that it could well be called a freestone spring creek. It lacks the heavy insect hatches that make other spring creeks world famous, but holds trout that, at times, can be infuriatingly selective. Its waters are as clear as any other blue-ribbon stream and it has slow, flat- water sections that will tax an angler’s casting and presentation abilities to the fullest.

Some time ago Ed Herbst and I were wading the Witte’s quiet waters; by late afternoon we reached a section known to me as ‘Guy’s Glide‘. This slow-water section ends in a deep tailout, which poses presentation and concealment problems. The river’s wary browns almost always hold at the tailout in the shadow cast by the bank and, since the glide must be approached at close quarters concealment is always a problem. Coupled with this is the fact that the trout have ample time in which to scrutinise the angler’s offering during the fly’s drift through the slow water. Read the rest of this entry »

I first met Ed many years ago during a fishing trip to the streams of the Western Cape: I had spent a long day on the upper Elandspad River with two friends and was making my way downstream when I happened across two anglers fishing a quiet run on the bend of the river. One waved me a cheerful greeting as I walked behind through the bush, giving them ample berth to continue their upstream angling. These two anglers, it later transpired, were Ed Herbst and Tony Biggs’s late son, Damon. Though we did not meet officially that day on the Elandspad River, I followed Ed’s writings with interest. His experiments with artificial flies interested me because he was forever importing unusual fly-tying materials to try in his patterns. To me, Ed is the Gary LaFontaine of South African fly-tying, and I believe that in the Xmas Xaddis he has developed a patternthat will come to be regarded as an African fly-fishers.

The Xmas Xaddis, like many successful South African dry flies, evolved on the fast, tumbling mountain streams of the Western Cape. Ed says the pattern is a combination of existing facets of fly design and two new materials - Cactus Chenille and nylon organza - which, when incorporated into a dry fly, significantly enhance its appeal. Read the rest of this entry »