Fly fishing Queenstown New Zealand in May the temps have dropped. All the lowland streams are closed for spawning but we still have our high country water open until the end of the month. The fly fishing is pretty bloody good! Make sure you come and get some before the season closes!

Here’s  a wee video from a recent trip:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0HNOPsYIJo[/youtube]

It look s much better in HD which you can see by going to my You Tube Channel and then selecting 720p HD

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions

A quick tip. Wise choices can get you away from fishing at those tricky browns that are in spawning mode at this late stage of the season. A recent foray saw us go past a tributary that sees quite high numbers of browns.  Getting high up on the main stem where the resident rainbows were all go, chomping on anything we threw at them.

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New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions NZ Fly Fishing Expeditions New Zealand - Fly Fishing Queenstown, Southland and Fiordland New Zealand

One week to go until the NZ rivers open for fly fishing on the 1st of October. Excited – I bet you are! I am!!

So are you going to go to one of your old fav’s or are you going to look for some new water to hit on the opening? Sometimes it can be a tough call. Going with what you know or putting yourself on new water where you have to figure it out anew – always an interesting dilemma!

I am heading down from Queenstown to my place in Lumsden Southland to switch the house on as such and will spend a few days basing from there. I will most definitely explore some new water and refresh on some of my old favorites. The biggest call will be working with or around the weather to get the best fishing on any given day. Most of New Zealand has been hit by some pretty serious spring weather and down in the lower South Island there has been tons of snow to very low levels. If the temperatures stay low and limits the amount of melt and run off some of the main rivers will fish well especially further towards the headwaters of the system. Rain fed smaller waters could also be a great option but even these may have run off from melting snow over the first week this season. Watch this space as I will post updates as the season opens. I have some great weather and river information links on my public NetVibes page - look for the Weather and Cams Tab.

I am sure that you have all been out practicing casting drills, replenishing the equipment and watching plenty of SPAWN (fish porn) and are already to go.

Here’s a clip from last seasons opening [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rBsUyPPCIU[/youtube]

You can check out more by visiting my You Tube Channel

I would suggest that when you hit the water over the weekend especially down in Southland and Otago that you are very mindful of the farmers remaining livestock if you are fishing thru farmland. They have taken some big losses of lambs (some of the worst in 50yrs in Southland) and they maybe a little out of sorts. Please make sure that you respect the farmers and their land. If you are not using a public access point be sure to obtain permission first. Leave gates as you find them. Don’t block access ways. Let the farmer know if you see any livestock in trouble. If you want to know more check out New Zealand Outdoor Access Code this will give you some great info.

I have started a Newsletter so if you want to receive it be sure to sign up – look on the right hand side of the screen. For those of you that use Facebook  check out my FB Business Page – another great way to keep up to date with what’s happening down this way.

There is some great fishing in Southland through October and before the high country rivers open on the 1st of November so make sure you get out there.  If you are after a guided fly fishing trip make sure to get in touch with me so I can show you some of the secrets of early season fly fishing – go to my booking page and secure your time with me.

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New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions NZ Fly Fishing Expeditions New Zealand - Fly Fishing Queenstown, Southland and Fiordland New Zealand

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFDPIn0L0Uw&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Carl is going to be releasing a new DVD (in Nov) of fly fishing casting technique and this is part of the series – well worth watching! It will certainly up your fly fishing game massively by being able to master these casts and the end result will be more trout to the bank.

Anglers – get stuck into it, now is the time to practice before you come on your fly fishing trip to NZ.

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New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions NZ Fly Fishing Expeditions New Zealand - Fly Fishing Queenstown, Southland and Fiordland New Zealand

In my last post I recommended up-skilling your fly casting ability before coming on your fly fishing trip to New Zealand.

Carl McNeil has a great clip below that shows some of these casts that will really up your chances of catching more fish while in NZ (or anywhere).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOdvCH1vA80[/youtube]

Carl is also one of the makers of the fly fishing film “Once in a Blue Moon” which is filmed in Fiordland and Southland, New Zealand where I do a great deal of my guiding. This is a great film and one certainly worth purchasing.

Make sure you check out the guided fly fishing trips and expeditions that I offer and be sure to get your time booked by making your inquiry now.

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New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions NZ Fly Fishing Expeditions New Zealand - Fly Fishing Queenstown, Southland and Fiordland New Zealand

Good trout are being caught near Queenstown New Zealand and the Cicada imitations and other large terrestrials are working well in the rivers. In the lowland streams willow grubs are a main food source for many trout at the moment but we have also been picking up some nice trout feeding in the runs and riffles on emerger patterns.

Fly Fishing Expeditions - Great Condition Mid season Rainbow trout

Well done HB on recent your PB.

Tip of the week – get cracking early to the water you want, the early bird gets the worms as such. If some one else is there already have a chat to them, stick to the arrangement you make. If you don’t know what the etiquette is on the rivers ask someone and what ever you do don’t jump other anglers – it’s a recipe for disaster for both parties.

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New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions NZ Fly Fishing Expeditions New Zealand - Fly Fishing Queenstown, Southland and Fiordland New Zealand

Fly fishing New Zealand’s remote trout streams can be a rewarding experience and not just for the fishing alone. The magic of getting into these remote places and the solitude they offer is truly awesome – at least when the weather is good.

I recently took a trip into one of these places – a long, rough 4WD and then a considerable walk gave us the access. The weather was perfect blue skies and hot temperatures. Our initial fly selection was a black blow fly and proved very successful in fooling the trout. Late morning gave us the sound of Cicada’s and so we switched and continued with our success.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions Green Cicada

Due to the nature of this small stream of the 12 trout hooked we only managed to get 5 to the bank, all the rest were long line release – pretty happy with that.

I had the pleasure of using a new gadget on this trip. Fly fisherman fall into two categories, the gadget freak and the guy’s that have jack shit but still catch all the trout. This gadget is not for catching trout but for making life easier at the beginning or end of the day or whenever you are back at your vehicle. The C&F Design Magnetic Rod Holder is great, set your rod up and clip it into the rod holder (I place mine on the front of my truck so I don’t forget the rods are there and drive away dragging them down the road) and then rig whatever you need to start your day with no worries of been blown over, stood on, trapped in a door or the myriad of other ways you can damage a fly fishing rod around a vehicle and trust me I know many of them! It certainly makes life easier.

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New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions NZ Fly Fishing Expeditions New Zealand - Fly Fishing Queenstown, Southland and Fiordland New Zealand

The last week in Southern New Zealand has seen quite a change in the rivers with the arrival of some wet storms instead of the dry windy ones we have seen over the last 2 months. The rivers have pretty much all come back up to much more normal spring size with the additional flows of water coming from the mountains. The fist series of storms were warm to high elevations and created some good size spates. The next lot of storms to come through were colder at elevation – in fact it snowed up high and the spates were not so big but keep the river volume high.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNBHY3zgF5k]

Many of the rivers have felt the impact with discoloration especially lower on the systems. The upper parts of most system have remained sight fishable but it has been much harder work finding the trout due to the extra volume of water. Generally the trout have been sitting in the same places but now that means they are down much deeper and really heavy nymphing gear is needed to get to them.  We have been swinging streamers with some success with some big brown trout hammering the woolly bugger like a freight trains and putting up tremendous fights.

The weather looks like we will see another fairly disgruntled week with some wet storms again towards the end of the week. Lake Wakatipu has gone from being unusually low for the time of the year to just below the first flood warning criteria – watch this space over the next few weeks!

I think its a great thing that we have finally seen some good run off and it will freshen everything up and certainly give the fish some respite going into the busy Xmas and New Year period.

Certain isolated areas down here have mice populations going nuts and the result is the fish in these areas is to be seen to be believed. Most fish even in the areas where there are no mice are in very healthy order due to the easy spring we have had and the lack of big water knocking the trout around and will provide some excellent quarry over the next few months.

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New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions NZ Fly Fishing Expeditions New Zealand - Fly Fishing Queenstown, Southland and Fiordland New Zealand

The windy weather continues here in Southland New Zealand but the smart fly fisherman has been able to juggle the wind by going to the right places to get out of it or just has the skills to deal with and succeed in catching NZ trout in howling gales.

One fine and very rare still day allowed for some spectacular sight fishing and resulted in 6 trout to the bank on a afternoon excursion of a few hours  – most of the trout were caught using my emerger pattern again but one nice back water fish came to the surface and sucked in a #16 Dad’s Fav.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKGDHJWySh0]

A small rain fall came thru yesterday afternoon and most of the rivers have had some lifting occur but have generally remained clean. Snow melt from the warm winds over the last week has also seen fluctuations in river flows as it has been coming down thru the systems.

I am still in Southland but will be return to Queenstown over the weekend before the next trip away.

Keep reading – more reports coming soon.

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New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions NZ Fly Fishing Expeditions New Zealand - Fly Fishing Queenstown, Southland and Fiordland New Zealand

Half day fly fishing trips can be great fun for clients to get a wee taste of what fly fishing is all about near Queenstown and offers a chance for fly fishing anglers to pick up a few tips they can take with them on their travels in the South Island of New Zealand.

My last days guiding was just like this – showing a client some great water and improving his general casting technique and also some of the fine arts of successful nymph fishing tactics as this was not something he had done much of.

Get down to where the fish are feeding – it’s no point having the nymphs above where the trout are feeding in the water column. Sometimes they will lift and take it but more often than not they won’t.

To add quick weight to get that nymph deeper I often use a tungsten bead head that is threaded onto the tippet and then slides along the tippet and down to the hook eye – free running. This is especially good when you do not want to use a double nymph rig for certain reasons.

Sometimes the area you are in has other attributes than just the fishing and this trip was one of those as we had a close encounter with a NZ Falcon. I spotted a nesting Falcon and warned my client that a dive bomb run was likely and if or when it occurred to keep the rods raised above our heads in a vertical manner. Sure enough the New Zealand Falcon buzzed us twice but stayed clear due to the rods. At this point I decided to see if I could do something to film an attack and promptly gave my rod to the client and asked him to stay put. I got the cam running and walked ahead about 10 meters and sure enough in came Mr Falcon – he swooped past and rolled up behind me lining me up and came straight at my head on his attack run with no fear of the rod in its way – whack he got me – bloody brilliant.  My instinct to trust the sturdiness of my fishing hat was right but don’t try this at home!

Here is the footage – enjoy.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW6AahGLOCs]

All the rivers around the Southern Lakes, Queenstown, Southland and Otago are fishing well at present although the usual Spring weather is making life interesting with some big winds around. and some rivers getting snow melt in the afternoons.

I had some friends hit a Fiordland stream that I gave the direction on how best to approach and they had a very successful trip landing some nice rainbows and browns all in super fat nick – the boys thought there might have been some mouse action going on to create these super fat hogs although they never kept one to find out for sure – but if so bodes well for some big fish over the summer.

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New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions NZ Fly Fishing Expeditions New Zealand - Fly Fishing Queenstown, Southland and Fiordland New Zealand

Sometimes getting into the backcountry fisheries in New Zealand can be an arduous experience unless you can afford a helicopter to take away the hard yards but other times it can be as easy as driving to the end of the road and going for a wander up a stunning NZ stream. This is especially so in many areas of the South Island and my theory is get out the door early to make sure you have the water you want before somebody else snags it.

Nice NZ back country brown trout

The other day the weather forecast was terrible with 120 kph winds forecast (accurate too) and heavy rain falls. As wind is the bane of most fly fisherman I chose to do something a little unusual and instead of running away from the weather I decided that it was in our best interests to have a successful day to head straight towards it. My theory being that we could get under the leading edge of the front and beat the wind knowing full well that we would get rained and face a rising river – better than hurricane!

It turned out to be the right call an we got out of the wind, got rained on but spotted some good fish and better still my client got 3 to the bank and missed a couple to boot – not bad for a 1/2 day guided trip.

Check out the vid [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hhdyCD3wr0]

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New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions NZ Fly Fishing Expeditions New Zealand - Fly Fishing Queenstown, Southland and Fiordland New Zealand