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At Tourette Fishing we realize that your guide plays an integral role in the success of your African fishing Safari. Tourette Fishing guides are all professional young men, with a passion for Africa, her fisheries, wild places, and unique wildlife.

When traveling with Tourette Fishing, you can be assured that your qualified guide has been chosen for his experience in the field, passion towards his career, professional attitude and charisma. The value that your professional guide adds is not merely from a fishing perspective, but his rich knowledge of flora, fauna and culture will greatly enhance your experience of what Africa’s finest fisheries have to offer.

Guides Profiles

Keith Clover (BSc Honours, UNP) - Director and Head Guide

Background:
Keith’s passion for fly fishing and the African wilderness emerged when growing up on the family farm Game Pass on the Mooi River. Stalking wild browns with his Father and Grandfather in the mountain streams was his introduction to the beautiful pastime of fly fishing. The second fish he managed to hook on fly was a trophy brown which was lost due to massive inexperience. “At the age of 8, the joy of hooking such a fish, the sadness of subsequently losing it, and the adrenalin coursing through my body during the brief tussle, left me in no doubt that fly fishing was to become a major driving force in my life from that moment on”.

Subsequent to his schooling and during his tertiary education at the University of Natal, Keith was fortunate enough to lead mobile safaris throughout Southern and East Africa. During these carefree days he had the opportunity to fish numerous remote inland and coastal waters between Cape Town and Kenya. Keith’s passion for fly fishing grew as did his understanding of Africa’s fauna and flora. In conjunction with his University studies, Keith completed his FGASA (Field Guides of Southern Africa) level three qualifications.

Keith’s keenness for exploring remote African waterways is tangible. When not busy in the office or guiding, Keith’s time is spent researching and scouting venues throughout Southern and East Africa. Devoting a large segment of time, money, and effort to exploratory trips, ensures Tourette Fishing remains at the forefront of the African sport fishing frontier. It is through such endeavours that the trophy fish of Duma were discovered in 2008.


Guiding Log:
Keith has guided extensively throughout Southern and East Africa and the Indian Ocean islands. He is an accomplished and respected guide in both salt and freshwater, writing and contributing on a monthly basis to both local and international fly fishing publications. Keith is widely regarded as one of the leading experts in targeting tigerfish on fly and has developed a number of productive, and area specific, patterns for targeting these ferocious predators. Landing the first 20lb plus tiger on fly was the highlight of his angling career; that was until he guided the first fly fishing group to Duma where his guests successfully landed and released 8 fish over 20 lbs in as many days.

Keith’s attention to detail and thorough guiding and operations management principles are appreciated by all who fish and travel with Tourette Fishing. His relaxed and unassuming nature combined with his patience and sense of humour make him a pleasure to be with, both on the water and off.


Rob Scott (BSc Honours, UNP) - Director and Head Guide


Background:

Rob has two life long passions: fishing and African wildlife. These two aspects have dominated every aspect of his 30 years on this planet. Rob's childhood on the wild coast of South Africa exposed him, from the earliest age, to every conceivable form of sport angling, whether it was Rock and Surf, Estuarine, Light Tackle, and Fly Fishing. The offshore opportunities along the Wildcoast became a constant fascination, and the promise of being able to explore and target a wider - and larger - variety of fish, saw Rob exploring unknown reefs on fishing kayaks. It was in these young days that he became a pioneer in the popular sport of targeting game fish off fishing kayaks, and this remains close to his heart today.

After completing a BSc Honours at the University of Natal, Rob spent 2 years guiding photographic and walking safaris within the Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve, firstly as a ranger, and then subsequently as head ranger. Although these were fantastic days, it was not long before the lack of a nearby ocean, and good tigerfish waters, forced Rob to leave the Lowveld bush, and to pursue his first love, fishing.


Guiding Log:
Rob is a Director and full time guide for Tourette Fishing, and has guided extensively throughout the Salt waters of South Africa and Mozambique. Although there is a tremendous amount of salt in his veins, Rob has successfully made the transition into the freshwater guiding arena and has since become an expert on the tiger fishing waterways of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, and Tanzania. Rob guides extensively for both small mouth and Natal yellowfish each year on Sterkfontein and in the KZN Midlands.

Rob’s vast fishing knowledge and contagious enthusiasm makes him extremely popular among all the guests that he has guided. Strongly conservation minded, his philosophy towards the sport and his guiding career is to instil a love for Africa’s Fisheries while ensuring their future existence.


Leonard Flemming - Guide and Head Aquatic Scientist - (PhD Microbiology, Stellenbosch University)


Background:

Leonard’s love for aquatic life and fishing was evident since the age of three and has since taken him across South Africa in search of indigenous and exotic fish species in remote places where few have been. These interests, amongst others, earned him a PhD in natural sciences, a field editor position at The Complete Fly Fisherman magazine and eventually a guiding position at Tourette Fishing. Although he has spent a large part of his fishing career with all tackle types and represented the Western Province art lure team for several years, for the last 5 years his focus has turned to fly fishing. He has landed more than 40 fish species on fly and now enjoys the challenge of targeting the most demanding of fish species on fly tackle.

Since high school Leonard enjoyed fishing for trout in the free stone rivers of the Western Cape. However, besides trout Leonard is experienced in catching a variety of fresh and saltwater fish species on fly and has traveled abroad to Zambia, Madagascar, Zanzibar, and India in search of desirable fish to target on fly.

Guiding Log:
Leonard’s knowledge of trout has inspired many clients on the Western Cape streams and still waters, especially when it comes to sight fishing tactics for large individual fish. He has been a successful guide and fly tying demonstrator at many corporate events and he has also assisted clients on professional guided trips to India for golden mahseer and the western coastline of Madagascar for assorted saltwater species. Leonard now makes up part of the guides team in Tanzania, where he looks forward to helping guests successfully hook and land trophy tiger fish on fly tackle. Leonard will also be playing a major role in deciphering the feeding habits of the torpedo like ‘gundu’, and in doing so working on flies and tactics to consistently target these fascinating fish in fly tackle.


Lionel Song – Guide and Botswana Operation Manager

 


Background:

Lionel has been working as a safari guide since 1987. He grew up in the old Northern Transvaal along the Limpopo River where he completed his schooling.
He started his bush career in the Timabavati Reserve, after which he specialised in big game walking trails in the Maneyeleti Reserve north of the Sabi Sand Reserve. Lionel is a true bushman and is totally at home in nature and its environs. Lionel spent time managing Lloyd’s Camp in the Savuti area of the Chobe National Park where he fell in love with Botswana and its wild open spaces.
Subsequently Lionel started a fly-fishing company up in the Panhandle of the Okavango Delta, where he specialises in catching tigerfish and bream on fly.

Fishing has forever been a passion of Lionel’s. It was however when he entered the Okavango Delta for the first time that he was introduced to the joys of fly-fishing by his best friends father a local legend from the Cape Streams. Brian gave him an old beaten up Diawa fly rod that his son Charles had cut his teeth on, and his lifelong passion for the beautiful art was born.

Lionel has a strange fascination with water, be it a pond or the mighty Pacific. He just needs to know what lies under its glassy surface and whether its scaly inhabitants can be tempted into the light of day with a well presented fly. Lionel’s ingenuity and ability to fish “out the box” is a precursor for his uncanny ability to put his guests into lesser known species. Lionel is at his happiest when his guests have a fish on the end of their rod and a smile on their faces!

Guiding Log:
After moving down to the Midlands from Botswana Lionel guided locally, for both trout and KZN yellow fish before starting his operation in Botswana. Lionel has spent time guiding and managing fly fishing camps in Zambia and Botswana. He spent an incredible month in Gabon in the Petit Loango Reserve building a fishing camp, where he tested his skill some of remarkable fish including giant Cubera snapper to threadfin to name but a few. Lionel’s guiding and fishing have lead him through all of Southern Africa and to the North America’s. Lionel is presently on a mission to the island of St Helena where he is rehabilitating an historical hotel while tempting the local fish to take his fly.

People cannot help but be drawn to Lionel’s infectious personality and his manic zest for life. The well being of his clients are his top priority. If its laughter you’re after while you catching copious amounts of fish then he is your man!


Bryce Perrett- Guide

Background:
Having grown up in the Kwa-Zulu Natal midlands, Bryce’s passion for fly fishing was nurtured fishing in the stillwaters and rivers of the area for trout from the age of 7. Bryce’s early exposure to the joys of fly fishing set alight his lifelong passion for the sport and the beautiful surrounds in which it takes place. Through high school his weekends and holidays were taken up targeting Scalies (Natal Yellowfish) in the Umngeni and Umkomaas rivers, Trout in Lesotho, Smallmouth Yellows in Sterkfontein and various saltwater species in Mozambique and northern Kwa-Zulu Natal, as well as Tigers and Bream species in the Okavango delta and the Zambezi.

Since leaving school Bryce has guided in a number of destinations, including, Kenya for sailfish and Tanzania for trophy tiger fish. Bryce spent 6 month working in New Zealand. This time giving him the opportunity to experiencing first-hand the legendary trout fishery of the Land of the long white cloud, as well as learn from some of the worlds finest guides.


Yuri Janssen (MA Hons, University of Aberdeen, Scotland)

Background:
A client once described Yuri as the only person on earth who can squeeze more than 24 hours of fishing into a single day! Indeed fly fishing has been Yuri’s passion ever since he pilfered his father’s rod at the age of 5 and cut his teeth on the lakes and mountain streams of the Southern Drakensberg and Lesotho. Since then Yuri has turned fly fishing into a career and an entire way of life.

Guiding Log:
Yuri has an exceptional record as an international fly fishing guide and operations manager with some of the world’s most reputable outfitters and in some of the most exciting destinations on earth, including Scotland, Russia, British Columbia and New Zealand. In addition, Yuri has accumulated an impressive resume of experience in the big game safari industry, having worked as a PH, trail guide, game ranger and camp manager for some of the Africa’s leading safari companies and destinations including the world famous Mala Mala. Most recently however, Yuri was the Operations Manager at The Northern Rivers Company on Russia’s Kola Peninsula, the world’s premier Atlantic Salmon fly fishery and the world’s first and only internationally recognised Atlantic Salmon Reserve.

An exceptional guide, charming host and fly-tier extraordinaire, Yuri’s specialities lie predominantly in the pursuit of trophy trout, yellow fish and tiger fish and the exploration of new destinations and their waters.


   
 
   
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