1. Choice of equipment Rods, reels, fly lines, fly floatants, clothes, glasses and other useful items.

On our streams here on the eastern slopes of the Drakensberg, my "go to" fly rod, is a fast action 3 weight that measures 8ft 3 inches. We rarely need to cast more than about 15metres, so the rod's primary goal is quick lift-offs and delivery without a false cast, or at most a single false cast. If the wind is up, and I am on one of the bigger streams I will go up to a 9ft rod, which in my collection means it is a 4 weight, but with a delicate front tapered line that is quite light enough. 

The reel just holds the line and looks pretty.

Lines: I am using  weight forward lines with a mid range front taper. The rocket tapers are great for punching into wind, but I sometimes don't land them delicately, so I reserve those for open, windy Stillwater. The very
gentle front tapers are a bit too whispy for me, and are not conducive to roll casts and pickups of short line lengths,  so a mid-range taper profile is fine. 

On floatants: I typically rely on squeezing the fly dry. I don't bother with Amadou, but merely pinch the fly in the fabric of these modern wicking (quick dry) shirts that I wear....it does the job beautifully!  A few whisks
in the air and you are good to go. But when I change fly, I do apply some Loon Lochsa to a fresh (already dry) fly.

Clothing:  Quick dry longs for wet wading (but to protect  the legs from nettles and scratches I don't wear shorts).  I wear snake gaitors too. Just too many scary encounters with snakes on riverbanks to go without. They are sweaty, but I am terrified!   We wade wet here, as the climate is conducive to that, and waders would be too hot, and besides would be shredded on brambles and the like in no time.  Our stream fishing is quite an athletic affair, with much scrambling up banks on all fours or sliding down, and climbing over fences, so warders just won't do.   Shirts:  I wear the quick dry long sleeve ones, and go for those with the maximum number of vents for a cooler experience, but for keeping off our harsh sun, long sleeves ( and
sun gloves) are  paramount. I don't often wear a buff for sun protection as I find them very hot, and just use suncream, instead, but take great care to keep it away from my sunglasses.

Glasses:  Arguably the most important piece of kit!  I like yellow lenses for maximum contrast and minimal darkening. I own a pair of Smith optics, my pride and joy, except that with my eyes I am now forced to wear prescription glasses, and for now I have just picked up a cheap pair of fit-overs. I feel hard done by! Does anyone do high quality choroma pop type fit overs? Come on: impress me! 

Other stuff:  I Often carry one of those collapsible hiking poles as a wading staff come, "poke-that-hole-in-the-grass-to-see-whats-there" stick. I attach it to the side of my pack, quite high up, on one of the stronger
stream net magnets. 

2. Leader material, build up, length and knots.

I used furled leaders for a long time, and still have them on some of my set ups. I was taught to make them by Darrel Martin himself, and make up my own tapers etc using a blend of very fine nylon and fly tying silk. But in the last two seasons I have become a convert to the flat butt Yamame  leaders made by Varivas.  They turn over beautifully and don't have memory which is great.  Their one downside is that if they do sink, they drag the tippet and fly under on pickup, so I find myself greasing them fairly often to ensure this doesn't happen .  I tie a tippet ring at the end of the leader to save it, and of course my tippet from there. I am not as fastidious as perhaps Ishould be when it comes to tippet, in that I don't measure and work to a formula. I simply go from 4X down to 5 or 6 in a few pieces of even length. If it is windy and I am struggling to turn it over, I may put more of the thicker material and less of the fine stuff, but that is as technical as I get. I am aiming for an overall leader length of 10 to 15 feet. I use a surgeons knot almost exclusively, but I do a triple knot. At present I am oscillating between nylon and flouro. I like that flouro sinks easier, as I want a sunk tippet unless I am on very rough water (which is rare here). But flouro is not great for the environment and costs a bomb!

To tie on my fly: I am a creature of great habit and for more than thirty years I have used the improved clinch.

3. Approach and stealth.

Stealth is a big one for me. I have seen too many trout scooting away as I approach, for it not to be. I try to move slowly, and with fluid movements between long, dead still pauses, when approaching a piece of water. I use the pauses to scan for fish, even though on many of the waters I fish, sighting a fish is very difficult and doesn't happen often. I still do it. I don't wear camo, but I do choose drab colours, and I avoid heavy footfalls and scraping rocks. If the terrain is open, I will lay casts across the bank into the water in order to stay back, and I use bushes and rocks for cover where I can. I also try to fish from a shaded area or steep shaded bank. 

4. Reading the water.
I fish for Browns most of the time. This typically means that you should read a textbook about where rainbows will be in a pool or run, and then fishall the places they don't show you!  I have come to expect fish is slack, still, sometimes quite unattractive looking water....back eddies with flotsam for example. I also know to throw a fly under the base of a small tuft of grass, right against the edge, and I scan the tail-out of a pool with the greatest of care when approaching.   I do typically bypass water with flat bedrock, unless flows are high, but even then I scan for fish and spook them from the most unlikely open spots.  I have learned though, that if the bedrock has a seam of gravel or smaller, dark rock, no matter how narrow, it is worth putting a fly over, particularly if it is a long stretch of bedrock with little other cover.

5. Casting ability which casts are essential.
I don't know how good my casting is. I can drop a fly where I want to, and have gotten better over the years in reducing hooking up on my backcast. I have also reduced my false casting which I think is very important to reduce line and rod flash. My roll casting needs work, but I do know that I instinctively use a roll cast as a pickup method, particularly when I have fished a cast out to the very end, hoping for a following fish.  I think if you can get your rig out onto the water through thick vegetation, side cast under a bush, throw some slack into the leader, land a fly in a hoola hoop at 12 metres, and punch a fly into a breeze, you will be OK.  But accuracy is always something to practice!

6. Entomology, what should we know.
We can get hung up on latin names. If you enjoy that, hey...that's cool, and you will no doubt impress me. But really you just need to look at what bugs are around and copy them. Looking at what bugs are around is the important part. It requires real observation. Close, considered, and deeply enquiring observation. Where I come from there is no hatch chart. No one knows what hatches in the second week of May. It is a free-for-all, and they are mostly tiny. So just read Dave Whitlocks book, then put it away and take your eyes
with you to the water.

7. Rise forms Can they tell us something?

We get some wild midge hatches here, and the tell-tail turning dorsal gives that away. Other than that we try to master the difference between a surface rise, and one that is in fact from the trout taking an emerger. That'll do.

8. Fly selection, Size, shape, materials, which flies are essential.

For me, presentation (including stealth, and avoiding drag) trump pattern every time. But I switch flies when I am not getting interest. My selection will typically be between a terrestrial, a Para RAB ( A South African
pattern), a caddis imitation (CDC and Elk, G & H Sedge etc), a klinkhamer....that's about it.   To expand on the terrestrials: here I have some fun, largely as an outlet for my fly tying, but my mainstays are an
Ed's hopper (another SA pattern), a black DDD (also from SA), beetles and ants.  A dry/ dropper works for me too. At present I am keyed in on a small, delicate Eds Hopper, with a very small (#18 to #22) sunk ant behind it.

9. Presentation and drifts.

I encourage people to take note of Dave and Amelia Jenssens videos in this regard. I believe in the notion of dropping the fly "on the edge of the dinner plate" when fishing to a sighted fish, before dropping it on its
nose. And similarly, when fishing blind, I start on the outer edge of the seam, and work inwards to what looks like the sweetest drift in the run. Sometimes they move to the side to eat, sometimes you have to take it to
them (especially in faster water)....but start with the former proposition before trying to throw a first cast straight into the best spot without duffing it. Drag is not negotiable. Amazing how it scares even tiny young
fish, which you might think are less discerning!

10. Upstream or downstream?

Here in South Africa we have kinda been taught that its upstream, or tossing bait downstream, with not much room to consider the downstream dry fly. Call us inculcated! But in recent years I have solved that difficult problem of approaching a flat, calm tail-out where a good fish lies. All too often you approach it
from downstream, and  low: so low that there is glare, and you can't see a thing. Then, on the hunch that there might be a fish there, you start far back. This means that the fast water at your feet catches the line and whisks it away, dragging your fly, ruining the presentation and probably spooking the fish.  Alternatively you try to get in really close, and the fish sees you.  A downstream and across approach solves all this. I sneak in low at the mid-point of the pool, and study the tail-out. You do need to stay well back, because the fish is facing upstream, straight at you. Short cast upstream, long cast downstream is an adage you will find from books in the 1920's (Howard T Walden and others), so its not new.   Spotting fish is easier. Drifting a quartered fly (45 degrees or thereabouts)  down to them with a loose leader, is not difficult. The fish sees the fly first, not the tippet. And unsuccessful casts can deliver the fly over the lip at the bottom of the pool, for retrieval hard against the bank, usually leaving the mid tail-out section undisturbed and ready to receive another attempt. Remember to wait for the fish to turn when it does take the fly, otherwise
you are pulling it straight out of its mouth.

11. Fighting fish.

I try to get them in quick. Your tippet is stronger than you think. Side
pressure works the fish hard in a more confined space and lessens the chance
of it racing past you downstream. Don't let it get below you! 

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