Dullstroom Happenings

New on the Shelf

Rapture of the River

Book: Rapture of the River
Author: Sydney Hey
ISBN: 0-9584950-3-3
Publisher: Platanna Press, Randburg, South Africa
Price: R195,00

Only one edition appeared in 1957 and it soon sold out. Now, almost 50 years later, Platanna Press managed to obtain the right to reprint the book.

When reading the foreword by Tom Sutcliffe, one realises that this book is a true treasure, one that the owners of the first copies kept almost under lock and key. If, by any chance, a copy appeared in a second hand book store, it was grabbed by an avid fisherman in seconds.

Rapture of the River is an account of Sydney Hey's fishing career, starting late in the 1890's on a stream in the Queenstown district where tiny gillieminkies were the target, through his progression to springer fishing and later trout fishing in especially the Eastern Cape where he worked as employee of the then Postal Service.

Sydney Hey spent most of his fishing chasing trout in the many streams and rivers of South Africa, and he was also party to the initial stocking of many of these rivers.

The style of this book is traditional for the period it was written in sometimes a bit long winded but still a fascinating read. Since this is a reprint, the style was left as it was written initially, the way it should have been anyway.

What makes this book such a classic is the very descriptive and accurate accounts of fishing trips all over the country, but it seems mainly in the Eastern Cape where he was an employee of the post office. Many of the names that crop up in today's fly fishing conversations were visited by him, often stocked by him and well fished by him and his companions.

One can see from this book that fly fishing has certainly changed over the years, with many streams and rivers unfortunately not providing the sustainable fishing it was hoped.

Such a respected angler and fly fisherman was Hey that he was seconded to the Department of Mines and Industries to undertake a survey of inland fisheries of the then Union of South Africa. In 1925 he, for instance, suggested that trout would hold trout, but the establishment of the trout in the dam would be difficult due to the large population of indigenous fish and carp. In fact, trout were introduced to the Hartbeespoort Dam in 1906, but none of the fry were ever caught.

It seems that anglers those days were obsessed with sport and edible fish such as trout and bass and where the trout would not survive, bass were introduced. Hey, however, also relates his experiences in catching yellow fish of 10 pounds or more in the Transvaal streams and dams which he investigated.

Rapture of the River provides an interesting and valuable insight into fishing in the South Africa of yesteryear, the attitudes of anglers and the growth of the pastime/sport in the country until the middle of the previous century. It makes a fascinating read and is truly a classic work. It contains numerous black and whit photographs of streams and rivers and the people involved in fishing in those days.

Platanna Press certainly achieved a coup when it acquired the rights to reprint the book, to give modern anglers some new insights.

Bosman Olivier

Available from most fly fishing dealers, or from the authors directly at platannapress@telkomsa.net

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