Unique Flies of South Africa

South Africa offers unique fly fishing opportunities that have spawned fly designs created by local fly-tyers. In this two-part mini-series George Robey highlights the fly fishermen who have designed flies as unique as the species they target. PART 2: THE PLATANNA FROG FLY Rohan Koegelenberg “died” a tragic death before becoming one of South Africa’s top fly fishing guides. He emotively describes the night he was declared “dead” in a car crash and how his untimely encounter provided the clarity he needed to pursue his fishing dreams. “Dying brings regret but it’s not what you might think,” Rohan says. “It’s about little regrets and how they impact on your life. For me, it was all about fishing.” Rohan began fishing at a very young age, tagging behind his father who was an accomplished bait and surf angler. At age nine, Rohan encountered a fly fisherman and set out to mimic him. He found a long surf rod and reel spooled with mono, fashioned a fly onto a carp hook with button thread and dust mop feathers and did his best to loop a long flowing cast. The young Rohan took his makeshift outfit to a local bass pond and eventually tangled it at the rod tip. He strained to unloose the knot as the home-made fly bobbed on the surface, nearly underfoot. Surprisingly, a small bass took the fly and cemented his passion for fly fishing. Rohan’s life took many twists until the day he awakened in a hospital bed. “My life as a full-time fly fisherman started the day I died,” he proclaims with misty eyed passion. Rohan toiled as a successful African fly fishing guide for many years, serving his apprenticeship on the stillwater trout estates of the Mpumalanga Highveld. He graduated to the fast water of the Vaal and Orange rivers, specializing in both Large- and Smallmouth Yellowfish and today books clients through his company, Rapid Hunter. Rohan learned early in his career that the African Clawed Frog (commonly termed a platanna) represents a favourite food source for many game fish, including the yellows, and wondered why no established fly pattern had been created to replicate it. Rohan spent hours behind his fly-tying vice and developed a snag-proof pattern to be fished slowly on the stream floor with the profile, colouration and leg movement of the unique African frog species. The platanna looks much like any other frog but with a few variations – it has three short claws on each hind foot that are used to tear apart food, it has no tongue, teeth or ears and hunts food using its lateral lines, much like a fish does. It is small, green to grey in colour, and has a smooth, slimy skin that sheds once a year. They are plentiful in ponds and rivers within the south-eastern portion of Sub-Saharan Africa, spending most of their lives on the floor of various watersheds, but become vulnerable to predators when they come to the surface to gasp air. Rohan designed the Platanna Frog Fly in two sizes, on both a #6 and #4 B10S Gamakatsu Stinger hook, and incorporated tungsten beads for a nose-forward fall through the water. The smaller fly is weighted with 2 x 2.5mm tungsten beads embedded in the front section of the belly and the larger fly has 2 x 3mm Tungsten beads in the belly. He fashions a mono weed guard through the hook eye and ties Zonker Strips onto the shank. Pool table cloth forms the back of the frog pattern and the belly is filled with Pratley Putty's Wonder Fix, smoothed and formed as it dries. The fly swims along the bottom hook side up. The Platanna Fly should be fished slowly on the bottom of stillwaters or slack river areas by lifting it off the bottom and then letting it fall. The shape of the fly and movement of the legs imitates many forage species and remains attractive to virtually all freshwater game fish.