Fly Talk was started with the vision to provide the general fly fishing public with hands on information, since we believe “Knowledge shared is Knowledge multiplied”. The Fly Talk Team, consisting of Dr. Tom Sutcliffe, MC Coetzer, Philip Meyer and Pierre Laing bring you this very informative fly fishing website The cumulative involvement and interaction of all our members will lead to the growth of fly fishing, both in newcomers to the sport and the development of fly patterns and fishing techniques.
THE FLY TALK TEAM
Philip Meyer
Philip and his family are based in the Cape Wine Lands at Wiesenhof Game Park where he started Fundi Linecasters Fly Fishing Club in December of 2003. Philip has been fly fishing for the past 15 years, in which time he guided in Colorado (USA) and was a member of the Western Province fly fishing team and the South African President Team. He is a professional guide on the Western Cape Streams and spends most of his non fishing time thinking about fishing.
MC Coetzer
I started fly fishing during 1988. In those early days my fishing was concentrated in the trout triangle of Dullstroom, Belfast and Machadodorp. Fishing was mainly for trout in the rivers and stillwaters of this beautiful area. During the early nineties, while studying at the University of Pretoria, I started concentrating more on the species locally available in and around the Gauteng area. I fly fished mainly for Yellowfish, Bass, Barbel and Tilapia, but undertook the occasional trip to the north coast of Natal.
During 1995 and 1996 I lived on Bazaruto Island in Mozambique where I was employed as a fly fishing guide. In this perfect fishing environment your general fishing skills improve on a daily basis. All good things must however come to an end and I returned to South Africa to settle in Cape Town where I owned and operated a fly fishing retail business until 2000. I took up competitive fly fishing in 2001 and since then have been awarded Protea colours on three occasions. My spare time is spent fishing around Cape Town.
Tom Sutcliffe
Tom Sutcliffe has been fly fishing a little over 40 years. He has contributed four books to South Africa's fly fishing literature, his latest an epic 450 page volume titled Hunting Trout. He has also designed two of this country's most popular freshwater flies, the Zak, an all-purpose nymph and the DDD, which must rate as the most popular stillwater dry fly in use here today. Tom has fished in New Zealand, British Columbia, the United States, England, Switzerland, Germany and Tasmania. Closer to home he has made a few trips into the Okovango and in recent years has become very keen on fly fishing for yellow fish.
Tom is also an artist, concentrating on watercolour paintings of trout and yellow fish. More recently he has become captivated by the incredible synergy between fly fishing and photography, both for fishing landscapes and underwater studies, and is building up a portfolio of fresh and saltwater fly fishing scenes.
Tom started running fly fishing clinics when he lived in Kwa Zulu Natal. These were among the first of their sort held in the country, starting as far back as 1977. They proved immensely popular and taught hundreds of people to fish. Tom still runs fly fishing clinics and enjoys doing fly tying demonstrations.
Tom has built up a huge library of fly fishing books over the years and has kept up with the development of the sport through its copious literature. In addition, he has been a regular contributor to two major South African fly fishing magazines from their inception. At present Tom is the Chairman of the Federation of Southern African Flyfishers (FOSAF).
Pierre Laing
I developed an interest in fly fishing back in 2000. Most of my fishing was in and around the beautiful Boland area where my family and I live. I also work in this area as a web developer. It was on this note that I met Philip and after working on another project I was offered the opportunity to join the Fly Talk team and start development on the current site. It is my dream to see Fly Talk become the household name of every Fly Fisherman in South Africa and introduce many more to this exciting sport. And then take this vision abroad.
