Celebtation time and a giveaway.

No fish or fly pictures today. Just a big thank you to all of you spending time to read the drivel I write. It slowly crept up on me and when I logged onto blogger today I notice that I have had over 10 000 visitors, 27 600 page views (who really knows what that means), 98 followers and 115 posts.

I haven't been able to spend much time on blogger lately with work and some serious health issues keeping me away from the computer and more importantly fishing. This is a fly fishing blog after all so I try to keep it that way, and with not being able to tie flies or go out fishing I haven't had much to share.

I do try to also keep up with everyone's blogs and though I don't leave comments enough I want to ensure you that I enjoy each and everyone of your blogs.

So here's a mighty thank you for reading and I hope I can keep all of you around for the next 10 000.

To celebrate I will be giving away a new copy of John Gierach's new book " No shortage of good days" valued at about $20.00.  If you are the lucky winner and already have this book I will send you a link where you can choose another book of the same value. (If it is a little bit more we wont worry too much)  The book will be posted to you. I am not going to give you a whole lot of if's/but's or disclaimers. You win the book you get it or one of equivalent value.

If you are a follower you are already entered. If you are a reader and not following yet then sign up and you will be entered. Leave a comment for a bonus point, spread some blog love on your site and you get another bonus point. Just remember to tell me about it. I will assign a number to each entry starting with who ever is currently at the top of my followers list at closing time  and work my way down. There after each comment will get a number and each blog love post will get a number. I will then do the RNG thing this coming Sunday (03/07). You all know how that works and announce the winner soon after.

Good luck.

Sunday fishing

Not being able to cast a line in the last three weeks has given me a serious case of cabin fever. This past Sunday I had enough and went out in a howling wind and pouring rain to Blue Gum Grove for a cast or two. With the weather the way it was I didn't expect to much, but at the end of the day I was pleasantly surprised. I caught quite a few hard fighting rainbows and lost a whole lot more. The fish is in a great condition and are in spawning mode cruising the shallows. Most of the hen fish I caught was full of eggs. After a few hours I was soaking wet and had my fill for the next while. Now if only I can get some free time to spend at the vice....

The best part was comming home and enjoying a nice Sunday afternoon snooze. Even my dog Roxy thought that that was the best idea ever. :-)

A South African flytying journey with Ed Herbst and friends.

I am finally back in Cape Town and look forward to catch up on all the blogs now that I have decent internet connection again. In the meantime have a look at a short trailer of a new DVD that has been made and released in SA.


A South African flytying journey with Ed Herbst and friends from Andrew Ingram on Vimeo.

No Water - No fish

Things on the blog has been very quite lately. I have been traveling for work and because of late nights and dodgy internet connections I have stayed away from posting anything. Not actually fishing also makes it hard to post anything worthwhile. Unfortunately for you this a no fishing post. I have to at least keep up appearances that I am still alive.

I am currently in the Karoo, more specifically Beaufort West, for work. The Karoo consists of vast open plains interspersed with the occasional hill in the distance. Scattered along the main road is small towns that pretty much rely on the national road to stay alive. Driving to site the other day I was listening to Knocking on Heavens door on the radio and memories of our holidays when I was a kid came flooding back. My parents would use to squash all 5 of us kids into the back seat of and old Chevrolet and he would tackle the long 12 hour drive to Johannesburg. My dad would keep us in check by threatening to turn back home if we dont behave. We were all so excited by the trip that we would mostly keep quite. One day he actually kept to his promise and turned the car around after already being on the road for 10 hours after we complained about one thing or the other. Luckily my mother calmed him down and after about an hour he once again turned around and we continued our journey. My dad used to tell us that the world in the Karoo was so flat that you can see a week into the future. I never understood what he meant till years later. This was in the days before the garage convenience stores and you had to pack your own "padkos" (road food). I fondly remember my mom's road trip chicken and the boiled eggs eaten cold on the frequent stops along the way. After eating the eggs one window or the other in the car would be wound down quite frequently from then on. Just to "get some fresh air" you understand. I still occasionally ask my mom to make us some road trip chicken.

Long straight roads and a view that lets you see what you will be doing in the future.

We are removing some railway wagons from a train that derailed a while back. Most of the time it is just sitting around waiting for trucks to arrive from Cape Town. The area has seen the worst drought it had in 150 years over the last while with even the towns dam running completely dry. Knowing about the drought and thinking that I would only be here for a day or two I didn't bring any rods with. Fortunately I did bring my vice and some materials with so I have been keeping myself busy with tying some flies.

We are staying on a beautiful olive farm and apart from it being very cold in the morning is it has been quite fun. Coming from the city it is amazing to see all the stars at night and it got a bit getting used to the absolute silence at night. There is non of the usual background noise of a big city  you get used to. Now that it is absent you notice it a whole lot more if that makes any sense at all.

Most evenings start with a bottle of wine around the braai (barbecue in American speak) fire and we then end up sitting in front of the heater watching television till late.




Occasionally we venture into town during the day but being a small town there isn't much to do. We found a Sushi place and even they have quite a spin on the "no water, no fish" idea. We got some sushi in true South African style. Smoked ostrich, cream cheese and Biltong (dried meat, sort of like beef jerky) Dipped in soya sauce and wasabi it was quite delicious. The wife opted for the more traditional Sushi though.  Being meat country though it is quite a pleasure braaing a 5cm (2 inch) T-bone steak though and my diet currently mostly consist of beef and lamb.

Karoo Sushi

Not sure how much longer we will be here as the transporters keeps on making promises that they dont keep, but for a change it is quite a pleasure getting away from the big city. The farm we are staying on has two dams that used to have bass and carp but due to the drought they had completely dried up a while back and even though there is now some water in them the fish obviously didn't survive.

I suspect this little guy might be missing some feathers by the time we leave.

Recently the big oil companies (Shell) has decided that they want to do some fracking in the Karoo. I cant believe that anyone in their right minds would allow this to happen to such a quite and beautiful place as the Karoo, but with corrupt politicians, a few bribes and anything could happen. Of course Shell is running a propaganda campaign telling everyone how safe and environmentally friendly it is. Read more here and click on that like button.

Catch Magazine Issue #17

Check out the new issue of Catch Magazine. Simon Graham from Pike Fly Fishing Articles has some awsome pictures of his Pike flies on show.