Fly Fishing Queenstown has seen a change in the last couple of weeks move into an Autmnal mood. The day time temps are still really good, pretty hot in fact but the early morning is cold and the temps take a bit longer to build. The sun is lower in the sky and droping everyday as we draw towards winter. This is my favorutite time of year to be fly fishing Queenstown and the surrounds, the terrestrial life is still there but ebbing off and the mayfly hatches are not far away. The browns are fat and going into an eating frenzy before they consider spawning runs in late April and May.
Fly Fishing Queenstown has not been the easiest since my last post as we have had a series of weather events that blew a lot of rivers out, some of which will stuggle to come back on form this fishing season. Many have survived the large floods well and have continued to produce some great results.
I was lucky enough to guide a couple of fellas last week, conditions both river and weather wise were not easy but we caught some good fish every day and the the weather finally improved so it off to find some big boys. A good long walk on a cold but clear morning put us in position for an epic day. The fish were out. Our first attempt went astray watching a large brown siddle off into the deep but from then on things improved. The sun was out and the heat was on but nothing would look at the surface so we went to them. The first fish we landed came in at 10.25lbs and then successive fish of 11.5lbs and 10.25lbs plus a 7 and a 9.5lber came to the net. Seven more refused to be subdued and were lost in battle, at least a couple of these were in the big boy class. Or as a freind likes to say 8+ because you know they are big but until you actually weigh them you don’t know. Here are some pics:
Hog Heaven
More Hogs
And another Hog
High country rainbow
Teamwork
Sweet Brown
Big Tippet for big fish in hard water
Can you spot the fish?
For those who put in the work the rewards are there!
Had one of those funny days too where a great hot day and again no surface activity to mid afternoon then Nek Minnit boom, somebody flicked the switch and the fish were just nailing cicada for the rest of the day…..thats fly fishing Queenstown!
A quick tip:
Tippet – as a guide I tend to use quite heavy tippet … as long as I can thread the eye I am happy. This means you can go harder at the fish and have a shorter battle and there is less chance of the fish “doing ” you. It’s a very rare occasion when fish are tippet shy. It’s usually more to do with crap presentation!
Book in now to get some of that late season Fly Fishing Queenstown goodness!
