The Wild Trout Association in Its 30th Anniversary Year by Miles Divett
The year 2021 sees the WTA celebrating the 30th anniversary of its formation in 1991. I’m sure that all Flyfishers acquainted with the WTA and the rivers and streams within its jurisdiction in and around the village of Rhodes would like to celebrate this anniversary in a manner appropriately suited to the occasion… in other words, involving a full weekend of partying based around Walkerbouts Inn, a gathering of like-minded Flyfishers and their groupies, good fishing, drinking and general carousing and with many sore heads and tired bodies (and stories) at the end of it all. And with everyone involved sharing a real sense of it being a reunion of friends, all of whom share a deep connection and love for Rhodes and its fishing. With the world in the grip of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, however, it is just not possible to hold such a celebration. This is sad, not only because such a party would be a lot of fun and serve as a welcome reunion for many diverse friendships from far and wide but also because it is a truly notable achievement for the WTA to reach the age of 30 in the challenging environment within which it operates. I will return to this latter point a little later as it is real and needs to be recognised.
In the enforced absence of a suitable party weekend in Rhodes, therefore, I would ask all those folk who come to read this to find a way to quietly recognise and celebrate the pivotal role of the WTA over the last 30 years in managing and facilitating (and more) the fishing which those folk so love, and in building the connection and love which so many of us share for the region and its fishing waters. For myself, I will this evening break open a special bottle of Red Wine (perhaps a nicely aged Meerlust Rubicon or Rust en Vrede Syrah and raise a toast to the WTA and those through whom it functions, notably Dave Walker as the long-standing Chairman of the WTA, Margie Murray as the secretary and Rhodes Information Officer, the entire staff of Walkerbouts Inn and especially the riparian owners who make their waters available to the WTA. Without riparian members, we would not have easy access to the wonderful fishing which we so enjoy…. And also to all those who had the vision 30 years ago to see the need for such an organisation and who saw to it becoming the reality which we know and from which we fly fishers benefit. My apologies to anyone else who should have been included here whom I may have omitted.
I ask one thing more from those of you who do as I have suggested. When you do your personal celebration of, or toast to, the WTA in this its 30th birthday year, please take an appropriate photograph and email it to Dave Walker or Walkerbouts Inn so that there is some record of our Flyfishers’ recognition of this milestone. We can’t get together to hold a party to recognise the milestone, but we can do this … so please do so! I will lead the way by doing so this evening.
When originally constituted 30 years ago, The WTA was known as the Barkly Wild Trout Association (“BWTA”), and it sought to bring the many and diverse fly-fishing waters in the surroundings of both Barkly East and Rhodes, and anglers’ access thereto, under a single management and booking body. The geographical spread of these waters extended from Lady Grey in the West to Elands Heights, Maclear and Ugie to the East. This is a vast area involving many hundreds of kilometers of rivers and streams as well as some still waters and a total road distance from West to East of some 200 kilometers, Logistical and communications difficulties were bound to result from this from a management and coordination perspective for the newly created body.
At the time of its formation, the then BWTA had access to some 42 kilometers of river. Today, the WTA has access to some 300 kilometres of river and stream plus approximately 100 hectares of still waters, all of which can be accessed by anglers at a cost of R150 per day. A portion of this cost is paid to the relevant riparian owner and the balance is retained by the WTA to offset portion of its running costs. The split is currently R110:R40/rod/day.
As to its overall activities, these are neatly summarised in the annual guidebook produced by the WTA entitled “A Guide to Fly Fishing in the Eastern Cape Highlands”, which is a full-colour fount of comprehensive information regarding the fishing, accommodation, history, botany etc. etc. of the area and which now exceeds 200 pages in length. It is a good read containing much of interest and much humour, for anglers and non-anglers alike!
- “The WTA is an organisation of riparian owners with trouting waters at their disposal and affiliate members who provide services and facilities such as guiding and accommodation. The WTA is thus a fly- fishing marketing body that promotes fly fishing on a sustainable basis on behalf of its members.
- The WTA is responsible for the administration of the fishery, including the central booking and other administrative functions such as data capture and processing, permit fee disbursements and marketing.
- In addition to making the fly-fishing resource more easily accessible, the WTA has concentrated a great deal of its efforts on making the attractions of the Eastern Cape Highlands known to the general public.”
This latter point should be noted especially as, prior to the formation of the WTA, the Eastern Cape Highlands was a somewhat remote area with little tourist traffic and to fish its rivers necessitated some form of personal connection or referral, without access in any way for members of the general public. The WTA’s promotion of the various attractions of the area has over the years led to a significant increase in general tourist traffic with growing interest in its varied montane and floral attractions. Accordingly, there has been a consequent proliferation of accommodation becoming available to house visiting anglers and other tourists, from which the village of Rhodes and its farming surrounds have benefitted especially. Essentially, the WTA has harnessed and marketed all the attractions of the area and, with the growth of its reach, provided critical focus on the area from which the greater community has benefited. Some years back, a survey was conducted under the auspices of the University of Port Elizabeth as to the role of fly fishing in the economy of the region (a region of endemic poverty and high levels of unemployment), and concluded that fly fishing has, in the period since the formation of the WTA, resulted in some R6 million of annual income coming into the region. In addition, the creation of at least 30 permanent jobs. These figures are several years old now but (in normal, non-Covid years) the upward trend has continued.
The WTA has, in addition, organised and run a fly fishing festival every year since 1996 which has been an immense and continuing success and which has resulted in the creation of a close body of Flyfishers who return year after year to enjoy the familiar company of friends and the wonderful fishing and scenery of the region. I have lost count of the number of these festivals that I have attended, initially as a paid-up participant and for nearing 10 years now as a guide. It is a fly-fishing festival like no other, being almost like the annual gathering of like-minded members of an extended family but without the complications of “family gatherings”! To miss a WTA festival now is, for many, almost unthinkable!
Earlier in this piece I alluded to environmental difficulties with which the WTA must contend. Certainly, the vastness of the area falling within its jurisdiction, and the relative remoteness of certain of the WTA’s members/riparian owners from Rhodes, has created difficulties at times, and not long after its formation, the name “Barkly” was dropped from the name, thus resulting in the WTA as we now know it.
Furthermore, humans are a strange species of animal. The success of the WTA in the role it has played inter alia in marketing the attractions of Rhodes as well as the greater area without necessarily limiting itself to the fishing, has resulted over the years in certain jealousies and divisions which are compounded by the small size of the community within which the WTA operates. For whatever reasons, therefore, certain riparian owners have, over the years taken their waters off the WTA’s books, leading to a loss for the WTA of some very fine stretches of river. This has, through the years, led to the formation of an angling entity, which now has jurisdiction over certain prime stretches of the Bell, Bokspruit, Kraai and Riflespruit Rivers. And, again for whatever the reasons, a number of the best stretches of the Kloppershoekspruit, the middle and upper Bell River have more recently gone “private” as far as the river angling is concerned.
Of course, riparian owners are at liberty to deal with the angling on the rivers flowing through their farms as they like, subject of course to law. But this does lead to a fragmentation and duplication of process for a visiting angler wanting to fish these non-WTA waters, especially where there is not the infrastructure regarding the non-WTA waters as there is for the WTA’s waters. And the whole range of benefits of a single booking system covering the entire region is lost. For the visiting angler, this is hardly ideal and it is frustrating…..I envisage that, in the next few years, this may well become even more of an issue, and I would respectfully caution that the WTA should not ignore this and that it cannot afford to just rest on its past laurels. In saying this, I do so as a fan of the WTA with whom I have had years of dealings as both visitor and riparian owner, inter alia. Its formation was predicated on sound thinking which was at the time visionary and which remains just as sound in the present day. It makes life for a visiting angler delightfully easy if he or she only has to deal with a single booking/management entity to fish the entire area. It’s perfect! The more this ideal fragments, however, the more difficult life becomes for the angler especially where the competition does not have the WTA’s infrastructure and accessibility, and accumulated knowledge, of the totality of the fishery and fishing conditions.
I have said enough, both on that topic and more generally! So, it remains only for me to say, as a self-confessed fan, congratulations to the WTA and all those involved with you on reaching the age of 30 and for doing the fine job that you do and have done all these years, from which your broader community has indubitably benefited. May the years ahead continue to be good for you and for all. I have much enjoyed the many years of our association and friendship, and I look forward to that continuing long into the future. May you thrive and happily resolve whatever perils and difficulties for you that the future may bring!
Cheers and happy 30th!!!.