M
y dad and I recently recalled
a story that unfolded when I
was about four years of age.
He was staying at Inyanga,
Rhodesia (in those days), and on his very
first trout trip. He had purchased a basic
fly fishing setup and some classic trout
flies, one pattern in particular, which he
kept for years until fish moths eventually
put an end to the few he had left over.
This was a famous wet fly called the
Dunkeld, and it had authentic jungle cock
cheeks. He positioned himself at an inlet
where the water flowed from one dam
into another. He could not really cast but
got the fly out reasonably well and let
the current do the rest. There was an old
gentleman on the other side of the dam
and my dad could tell he was an experi-
enced angler from how well he was cast-
ing. On about my dad’s second chuck and
drift he connected with his first trout, but
he tried to get the fish into the net too
quickly and so lost it. He repeated this
four times in a row, either breaking thefish off or pulling the hook out of its
mouth. The old timer could not take it
any longer and offered my dad some
advice on playing trout. My dad went on
to land three nice trout which we ate that
night. After that, each day he would pop
down to the lake and come back with a
couple of fish. Needless to say we started
getting a little tired of eating trout!For years, you would be hard-pressed
to see my dad fishing any other fly than
the Dunkeld. Eventually I convinced him
to try the more contemporary flies and
only once he started catching fish on
other patterns was he a believer. The
Dunkeld was my dad’s trout candy for
many years. Today it’s much the same
with many fly anglers. They have a selec-
tion of patterns in which they have so
much confidence that, if they are not
catching on this particular pattern, they
are convinced the fishing is going to be
tough. Confidence in a pattern plays
a major role in how we fish, so I fullyunderstand this as I, too, have a few flies
that I always carry in my box.I have recently been introduced to
some great-looking flies that for me
are instant trout candy. I started playing
around with some ideas and a few of
them have already proven themselves as
great trout flies, both locally and abroad.
We have even supplied Jurassic Lake
with some of the patterns listed in this
article and they’ve taken a number of
trophy fish to date.If I were told I could only do one type
of trout fishing locally, without a doubt it
would be float-tubing high-altitude lakes.
Rivers and streams certainly appeal to me
and I’ve done a lot of stream fishing over
the years, but the well-managed still-
waters in certain parts of our country
offer some world-class trout fishing. One
area I would like to explore more is the
walk-in fishing of Lesotho, which I am
told is phenomenal.68 | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 | TCFF
TROUT
TCFF’s Fly-Tying Field Editor MURRAY PEDDERtalks stillwater and river
tactics and lists some must-have patterns that are like candy to trout.PHOTOGRAPHS BY MURRAY PEDDER, OWEN BRUCE, GIOVANNI PELLICCIA & JEAN MALANTrout Candy