Flicking flies in Barkly East

“You can catch everything from the same rivers: smallmouth and largemouth yellowfish, rainbow and brown trout, and muddies [mudfish],” enthuses Andrew Clark, chairperson of the Barkly East Angling Society (BEAS). It is this remarkable variety, he adds, that makes the myriad streams and rivers in the Barkly East district so tantalising to fly anglers.

Despite the presence of the indigenous yellowfish, a particularly fine fighter, fly fishing in Barkly East was actually kickstarted by the introduction of alien trout into the region’s rivers more than a century ago. And as pioneering fly fishing techniques for trout became entrenched, so new ones evolved to target indigenous species more effectively.