I have just had the pleasure of testing out a couple of new rods from Shimano, and wow, I am impressed. Who would have thought that they could keep on improving on products that are already so good! Firstly the new Crucial range is absolutely amazing. The Crucial series have been my favourite light spinning rods for some years now, but the new ones are stunning. The IM 10 graphite gives the rods feather lightness […]

I have just come back from a trip down to the Western Cape. I fished a few choice destinations down there, including the Breede river and De Hoop Nature Reserve and had some excellent fishing! One of the things we did on the Breede was to fish for grunter, using VMC Sport Circle hooks. I rigged a live mudprawn onto the hook by hooking it lightly through the top of the head, inserting the hook […]

Every year in February we go to Sterkfontein Dam to enjoy a bit of yellow fish fishing. The water is warm at that time of year, and the yellows are in spawning mode, congregating in large numbers in the shallows. Over the last three or four years I have been experimenting with a spinning rod, trying to see what action I can get with the plentiful smallmouth yellows in the dam.The best success that I […]

Last week I fished Kosi Lakes for the first time in many years. I was interested to see what the fishing would be like after all this time. I packed two outfits for the lakes, one light and one medium. For the light outfit I put in at Shimano Crucial 7’2 medium action rod, paired with a Shimano Sustain 3000 reel, which was loaded with 8lb Sufix 832 braid (I am loving that braid!). The […]

It is not everyday that any of us catch a personal best, so I was pretty excited last week when I landed my biggest crocodile garfish! I was testing a prototype of a new lure from Rapala, the stickbait version of a XXX Rap. I was in the Seychelles and we were drifting near a little granite island, casting around shoals of fusiliers when the water exploded on my lure. The skipper up on the […]