In 1947, Neville Nuttall wrote about three pests on the river: The guy who cuts in on your water, the loudmouth, and the poacher. More than 70 years later, Andrew Fowler searches out “Popjoy”, “Peabody” and “The Oaf” to find that they are a bunch of ordinary guys. Despite their early blunders, they have grown into a fairly respectable bunch of flyfishermen albeit with the sort of idiosyncrasies inevitably accumulated by a die-hard group of local anglers. The book takes the reader through a year of their flyfishing in the midlands and Drakensberg of Kwa Zulu-Natal, South Africa, exploring histories, topography, local lore and the Trout fishing itself. The reader is invited into their local watering hole, onto their streams and stillwaters, and to share in their banter and the planning of their trips. Woven into the story are vivid descriptions of the countryside in its various seasons, together with an unfolding compassion and friendship of loyal friends who rally around to support one of their number through a life-changing year.
This 400-page paperback novel will be sold on www.truttablog.com from 19th November 2022, with various payment options available and courier delivery. The price (incl VAT) is R299. All proceeds are going to the NFFC Roy Ward Fund which the Natal Fly Fishers Club launched in 2017, with the goal of raising money for, and undertaking river restoration on the trout streams of KZN. The need for this work was recognised by a growing group of anglers concerned about the encroachment of alien trees, erosion of riverbanks, and diffuse pollution, which together with the effects of global warming are causing viable trout water to recede. To date the fund has enabled work on approx. 10kms of the uMngeni River and 4kms of the Mooi River, but there are many kilometres of riverbank on these and other streams in need of ongoing attention.
Roy Ward was a committee member of the NFFC and a dedicated environmentalist, who once expressed a burning desire to win the lottery so that he could fund river restoration. Roy died in 2017.
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