We had the opportunity to chat with one of our good friend, Christiaan Pretorius. He is one of the most well known South Africans in the industry and has probably one of the largest species lists we know of. Not only can he fish, but he is also an avid hunter and photographer. With all of these outdoor interests, he knows how important wildlife and fisheries are. He truly is a key advocate for conservation.
Flylords: Who is Christiaan Pretorius
Christiaan: I was born September, 14th 1990 in South Africa. I was really fortunate to have been brought up by two amazing parents who really went out of their way to expose me to all the beautiful aspects of being outdoors. My dad is to this day still a very passionate fly fisherman, bow hunter, photographer, and outdoorsman. Well, long story short, I started casting at the age of six. Twenty-two years later and I am casting more now than ever before.
Flylords: When and where did you first pick up a fly rod?
Christiaan:Â Like so many of us, I was introduced to the great outdoors including fly fishing from a really young age. I caught my first fish on a fly rod when I was six years old.
Flylords: What led to your success in the fly fishing industry?
I think personally it was an internal commitment of trying to get as good as I could be because I enjoyed fly fishing that much. I wanted to work hard to get rid of excuses, but rather to identify where I could improve more. It’s for that same reason why I started competing at the age of fourteen. I just wanted to learn and grow, and the competitive circuit was the biggest learning curve of my career.
Flylords: How many countries have you fished in?
Christiaan:Â I actually sat down last night and started writing down the countries I have fished. I was actually a little surprised how much I have gotten to experience in the past couple of years. I have fished in 34 countries to date.
Flylords: If you had to choose, what was your most epic fight on the fly?
Christiaan: It’s one of those really difficult questions to answer so I will narrow it down to my top two. First off I can’t help but think of the Blue Marlin in Guatemala, fish like these really are not supposed to be caught on fly gear… Another epic battle was with a really big Roosterfish in Baja. It’s always nerve-racking when you hook into that fish of a lifetime on the last day.
Flylords: Is there a place you haven’t fished or species you haven’t landed?
Christiaan:Â Oh absolutely, the list is still long which makes me really excited. I think even in my lifetime it will be hard to tick all the destinations on my bucket list. I would say my next big trip would be New Zealand.
Flylords: What are your thoughts on how the fly fishing industry is today compared to when you first started?
Christiaan:Â There are both positives and negatives for sure. Just in my time, I have definitely seen the impact of plastic pollution on certain fisheries. Then again I have also seen more and more people get on board to help educate and contribute in efforts to make it better. There is a major influence from youngsters too in the industry which is ideal. Fly fishing is cool now!
Flylords: How else do you spend time outdoors?
Christiaan:Â I am a really passionate bow hunter and photographer. Fishing is very much a form of hunting. I am a hunter whether it be with a fly rod, bow or camera. I enjoy the journey, the process and the preparation that lead up to you finally making the cast, flinging the arrow, or getting that picture.
Flylords: Compare catching a trophy fish and harvesting an animal. Do they both get the heart racing?
Christiaan: Absolutely they do, otherwise, I wouldn’t have done it right? There are so many similarities between bow hunting and fly fishing. At the end of the day the biggest difference is that there is no catch and release when hunting with bow and arrow, so harvesting an animal is a big deal and one that I don’t take up lightly. Again this is where practice and preparation come in. The key is to be able to make that perfect ethical shot.Â
Flylords: What do you snack on when out on the water?
Christiaan: It’s pretty simple but either Biltong (South African Jerky) or Jerky. Depending on what I can get my hands on. Sometimes I do enjoy snacking on a beer or two…
Flylords: What is your favorite picture of you? Define it in one word.
Christiaan:Â Passionate.
Flylords: What was the best fly fishing film you were a part of?Â
Christiaan: I would say without a doubt the one we shot last year in Australia called “Glorious Bastardsâ€. It was a great group of friends, a great destination, and incredible fishing. It is currently in the Fly Fishing Film Tour making its way around the States, go check it out.
Flylords:Â Any advice to younger anglers trying to make a living in the industry?
Christiaan: Social Media aside, do it for the love for the outdoors, for the love of being in pristine environments with the bonus being catching a fish. But also document your adventure, tell your stories to others, and engage them in this fascinating adventurous life you live. Also remember you will never know everything in fly fishing, and it’s for that reason that I love it even more. So go out there and look around a little more, focus a little less on catching a fish and you will be surprised with how much more you take in.
Article from Flylords Content Development Lead, Collin Terchanik.
https://theflylords.com/2018/06/12/faces-of-fly-fishing-april-vokey/
https://theflylords.com/2018/07/12/faces-of-fly-fishing-jeremy-wade/
I remember the first time I got in a boat and began float fishing down the river, it seemed foreign, like I was learning how to fly fish again. I was confused with where to cast, how to mend, which way to set the hook. The river moved fast and I wasn’t prepared for the life of me to make the correct cast. But, as the day went on it began to click and I realized, exactly how effective float fishing is and the best part is you are able to spend the day fishing along with the people in the boat. It’s a ton of fun. It makes sense why a lot of anglers have boats and pay to go out in boats with guides, it opens up a ton of fishing opportunity.
Autumn in the north is an assiduous time; a time when daylight is a precious commodity and mornings are crisp with thin layers of frost and ice impinging the land in seemingly inconvenient ways. It is not a time of idleness nor fallow. The trees talk of change and the stiffness begins to settle into our bones from the cold. It is a time when we are busy stockpiling wood for those cold nights and upcoming harsh winter. It is a season for hunters and gatherers and a time of prosperity and abundance, with salmon filling the rivers and forests scurrying with wild critters.
From across the continent in New York State, Jared Zissu, founder of Fly Lords landed in north-central British Columbia, ready for two days of fishing on one of my favorite trout rivers. I had hired a local woman from this small community to shuttle us and our boats up the river. She greeted us in true northern fashion; immediately asking if we could make room amongst our gear to collect a fox that had just been hit on the side of the dirt road so her and her husband could make use of the fur; “welcome to the north,” I grinned. As we began to pump up the boats, the wind howled down the chute creating waves capped in white and forcing us to continue layering on down jackets. The water was low and clear and speckled red with tens of thousands of sockeye salmon.
Passing what seemed to be hundreds of thousands of sockeye salmon below, we floated over what Haig Brown described as “the last true sample of immense natural abundance of the North American continent.” Sockeye salmon flood the river, with large rainbows following suit to gorge on eggs; compelling the trout angler to follow their suit as well.
After that it was one good arm work out 
Mike Hennessy: My name is Captain Mike Hennessy, and I’m basically a fly fishing guide. I cross the cultural boundaries of the fishing world… I do offshore fishing and tournament captain fishing for giant marlin and tunas, but I also love to fly fish. Anything from small rainbow trout to the biggest bonefish in the world. I also guide in places like Hawaii and Christmas Island chasing GTs and triggerfish. So pretty much everything. If it swims, I’m going for it. And I think that’s kind of who I am.
Mike Hennessy: I would say I’m quite nomadic. My daughter is on the World Surfing Tour, so I travel around the world with her. When I’m not doing that, I’m either in Fiji chasing tuna and marlin at Namotu Island, or I’m on Cabo San Lucas fishing the big marlin tournaments. I then shoot over sometimes and chase roosterfish with
One of my favorites to this day is the Hawaiian bonefish because of how technical and large they are. I think the Hawaiian bonefish is the most challenging of everything. I’m kind of at the point in my career where I want to do the most challenging thing there is to do for my soul.
Mike Hennessy:Â I would say one thing that has changed would be the fish have gotten smarter like they do in every fishery. Another major change is that they’re bigger and there’s more of them now. Thanks to the two or three different guide services, we have really made a big push on conservation and make efforts in helping the Department of Land and National Resources (DLNR). We educate on catch and release and are proactive in stopping the gillnetting. There’s a bunch of illegal gillnetting going on in the early days. I think we’ve really curbed that as a team. Basically, it’s a culture of Hawaii to keep the fishery awesome.
Mike Hennessy:Â Well, the biggest one a client caught was 16-1/2 pounds, but that was on a spinning rod. It was funny because the guy had never fished before and he thought they were all that big. Personally, my biggest is 13.8 pounds and then my head guy Kenny also caught that exact same fish 13.8 pounder six months later. It was missing a scale, so we could tell it was the same. Anywhere from the 12 to 16-pound range is pretty rare, but we have seen them weigh above that. You just can’t stop ’em, because of all the coral. So even if you hook ’em, catching them becomes a whole different issue. It’s epic just to see it unfold.
When fish get over about 16 pounds, they actually change their diet and start eating in deeper waters. Everywhere in the world, it’s the same way, they just can’t survive on eating shrimp alone. Luckily in Hawaii, we have such a big bait source. The big meta shrimp are on the flats and they get up to four inches quite often. So there’s enough food for the really big ones to come and since it’s compression at the same time, you have more shots at big fish. That’s the real magic of Hawaii.
Mike Hennessy:Â You can compare them in that you’re reading nature. You start predicting different waves coming at certain times and incoming tides. It’s almost the exact same with bonefish. I can say, “You guys watch over by these mangroves at 10:00, on that incoming tide, the 10 pounders are going to come over that ledge.” Well, its’ kind of the same with surfing. You learn to read nature, you learn to read weather reports, and you can kind of base your immediate future on paying attention to nature. I think that’s what fly fishing and surfing have in common.
Mike Hennessy:Â To slow down. That’s it.
Mike Hennessy: Well, of course, it’d be one of the ones that I tie, but there’s one that’s called an Itchy Scratchy. It’s amazing, but I would say my Crab Two is pretty insane. That’s two flies, not one, so this is the trick, you have to have a crab fly and you have to have a shrimp fly for bonefish. It’s like a hatch for trout, they’re eating something, or they’re eating something else. They switch from crab to shrimp quite often and then you can get more technical and go to colors.
Mike Hennessy: The
Also, practicing to cast. You don’t really have to have a super double hull, but you need to practice your timing casting into the wind, and a little bit side wind, because of everyone practices downwind. Downwind makes them look good.
Mike Hennessy: Well, my original partner, Dave Hill, he got a little aluminum Jon boat from Montana and made a two by four culling platform and he shipped it to Hawaii. He then just started palling around with a stick and that’s how we did it in the first couple of years. There were a few other guys that did it walking around and it just kind of evolved. We always knew they were there. Jimmy Buffett caught about a 15 pounders in 1975, there’s a picture of him with the float plane on the sand bar that’s pretty amazing, but he kept it secret.
My dad and I used to catch them there. In 1978 I caught my first one fishing off the back of a sailboat on that same sand bar. We’ve been catching fish there forever, the fly thing didn’t really catch on really until the mid-2000s or something.
