Tom Sutcliffe

Tom passed away April 8, 2024 so I moved the original posted on June 18, 2020 forward.

Tom Sutcliffe is certainly the grandfather of South African fly fishing. Tom owned a fly shop in the early 1980's in Johannesburg (source: Leigh Perkins' book 'A Sportsman's Life', page 147), is an accomplished author, fly tier and a wonderful painter.

We got in touch when I subscribed to his newsletter called 'The Spirit of Fly Fishing' Tom started in 2010. His weekly newsletters has been a wonderful potpourri of South African fly fishing scenery, short stories and pictures sent in by subscribers from all over the world. Even a few short stories from me. Fast forward to March 2020 Tom announced the end of the newsletter.

Over the years through Tom I also got in touch with several South African friends like Ed Herbst, Peter Brigg, Koos Eckard, Stephen Boshoff and Gavin Erwin. As a thank you to Tom I decided to send him a frame with a couple of flies. I asked my friend André Frijlink of Frame Your Fly to help with the frame. The result is top notch.

Thank you Tom for your friendship!


Update April 29, 2024:

Tom's daughter sent me a few pictures of Tom's study.

It's so nice to know that Tom, when walking to his study, would take a glance at the frame 😢

Update April 18, 2024:

A memorial service for Tom was held at the St Andrews church in Newlands.

Update April 8, 2024:

Today the sad news arrived that Tom has passed away...

Good bye Tom


Update July 3, 2021:

Tom's June 2021 newsletter mentions he is pleased with the frame 😄

Update June 10, 2021:

Wow, what an adventure.

I shipped the frame on June 18, 2020 to South Africa. The parcel was seemed lost as Tom never received it. May 25, 2021 (almost a year later!) the parcel was returned by the South African postal service. The address was correct so why it wasn't delivered is a mystery. I'm glad the frame returned back undamaged.

I shipped the parcel again, this time with UPS and as of today (after more than a year) it finally arrived at its destination!


Update Jan 10, 2021:

Tom decided to revive his newsletters again!

Blue Winged Olive

Green Hulk?

Found this green kapok dubbing in my tying bag.

The body looks like the green paint on the TV series The Hulk 😂

Elk hair Green Drake

Elk hair Green Drake dun and spinner (aka Coffin Fly).

The idea of this design is to make a large profile fly with less bulk.

Using a 1x (or even regular length) hook, less bulky body (strands of Elk hair rather than a long dubbing body) and long pheasant tail fibers for tails.

In this video I show how I tie the Coffin fly. For the dun use an olive dyed elk hair for the body, some sort of dun shade hackle tip for the wings (I like the wider profile of a hen feather) and a dun hackle.

Corey Ford

Corey Ford - a fly Walt Dette named in honor of writer Corey Ford.
These days a rounded rooster hackle tip is next to impossible to find. This was the best I have in light cream.

Tying a Gray Ghost

Land of little rivers

The delightful documentary 'Land of Little Rivers', originally only available on DVD, can be watched on Youtube for free now! Not sure if it's legal, so watch it before it's taken down.