The long hot dry spell seems to have dried up for now in the lower South Island but the Queenstown fly fishing has remained good and in fact has actually improved as there is more water in the rivers and the water temps have lowered a touch to much more favourable conditions for trout to feed. Over the hot summer months a good tip is to check out the river temps online before your trip …… 14deg C is optimium conditions for trout……if you are seeing 21deg C on that favourite river find somewhere else to fish as you will have a pretty hard day of it.

The Cicada’s are all go in some areas with areas recent fly fishing foray into backcountry river producing over 40 fish between 4 rods for the day. The rainbows were willing to move many meters to slam cicada imitaions. Other areas areas are just starting to see cicada action but the next 6 weeks should be pretty good for terrestrial fishing.

I just went online to Fish and Game’s web site and see that the have finally updated it …. well worth checking out.

I just love it when you get a shot in a remote fly fishing location of the airborne trout …. it’s alwasy hard to catch the moment just right!

The photo above is from my fishing buddy and good bastard Si Chu from a great days outing together……thanks Chuey.

Maximising your fly fishing oportunities is whats it’s all about and instead of re-inventing the wheel my good freind and guiding colleague Chris has some great tips here.

Remember there is great fly fishing from now all the way thru to the end of the season with March seeing (generally) the end of the terresrtrial fly fishing action but with April and the mayfly kicking in and the backcountry rivers staying open until the end of May as the big browns migrate up the systems there is plenty for anybody’s fly fishing taste. Book now to secure your mid to end of season fly fishing expedition.

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

Just back from a weeks guiding south of Queenstown with a couple of fly fisherman from the USA. The weather did not make things too easy for us with 2 really nice days out of 7 and the rest were a combo of hurricane like winds, heavy rain, chubby rain (sleet) and generally below average weather for March. We did get on to plenty of fish and even managed to fool a fair few of them. One of my clients  got to realize a 50 year dream of hooking and landing a true New Zealand Trophy brown trout.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions Trophy Brown Trout

Hooking this fish took quite a lot of perseverance as it was spending about half of its time chasing two other pretty large fish out of its feeding area before making the big boiling rise of a fish zoned into a certain food source. Each time the other fish were chased off it would chomp of the surface hard out for a couple of minutes and then the other fish would reappear and compete for the food source before again being chased off.

Finally this awesome 12lb fish was in just the right place, the fly was drifting thru the feeding zone and with absolutely no hesitation it charged up like a ballistic submarine engulfing our cicada pattern before a doggard fight eventually saw it to the bank. The area it was caught in favored the angler during battle as there was nowhere for the hog to run for cover (and it knew it),  it just used it size and weight component until the angler finally got it to the net.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCSn3-GWrgo[/youtube]

The fish was carefully weighed at 12lbs with a length of 27 inches and a girth of 16.5 inches. These measurements along with some photos will be given to a good taxidermist and the mounted replica will take its place of pride on the mantle piece along with the fly that caught it while the fish gets to live on to provide sport for another lucky angler down the line.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions

Some other bloody good fish were also landed including two of 8lbs which certainly went along way to make up for a rough week of weather and some fairly tough fishing.

So cicadas are still on the menu but things are changing and there are mayfly nymphs developing nicely in many streams and as we near the beginning of April these will come to the forefront of the trouts dietary patterns. The trout below was caught using an emerging mayfly  pattern.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions

Another  flood occurred a couple of days ago with most of Southland seeing muddy water and rising rivers but they are dropping and clearing again fast now. As we move further into autumn we should start to see more stable weather patterns although the temps are dropping quite a bit overnight but on the fine days the daytime temps are warming up nicely. Although 2 days ago I was forced to wear waders, damn glad I did because guiding in chubby rain and very cold southerly winds would have been unpleasant…….just goes to show you need to be prepared for all sorts of weather down here.

Don’t forget to book in for some great fishing during April and May

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

Fishing Queenstown and the surrounding areas sometimes you just have to do something different to get a fish to hit. It’s the time of year when trout are really zoned into chomping cicada’s but sometimes you have to thrown something bigger and uglier.  On my last Safari trip guiding a father/son combo we stayed on a high country station (ranch) for 3 nights to access some of the back country rivers nearby. We did get to present cicadas to plenty fish with some good results but on one particular occasion I put the young fella on to a trout feeding happily on the surface to cicadas. Due to the nature of the position we could not get a decent drag free drift and the fish went deep but continued to feed. I shortened the leader up and put on a big black double bunny and got the angler to lob it upstream like a nymph, letting it sink on the way back downstream before stripping to swing it past the trouts nose. On the 3rd  swing the double bunny was in the right place and the fish could not resist – man trout fight hard with a big arse streamer hanging out their mouths.

Fishing Queenstown

This technique really comes into its own at certain times and recognizing these can give opportunities that many anglers would probably give up on. In this case it was a nice 3.5lb rainbow but the big brown trout love to chomp on a big juicy morsel too. A few days later the wind was blowing into our faces making life fairly tough to turn a dry over. I had found a big brown feeding right on the seam edge and again chose to offer a streamer this time fished as a dead drift – bingo first cast and the result was a great 8lb brown trout to the bank about 10mins later.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions

Needless to say Dad is very proud but did mention that I had now ruined his son for life —- better than crack tho!

We did get quite a few fish  on the cicada and here is Dad with a great rainbow, again on the first cast. Make those first casts count and your hook up rate will be higher.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions

We ate very well on Safari each night— roast pork, beef, lamb with vege’s from our garden, what a great option to refuel the body after some serious back country fishing and hiking.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions

I think a teenage boy really appreciated the big kai, they seem to have appetites of horses.

Fishing Queenstown

I have a busy few weeks guiding ahead thru until the end of March so keep reading the blog for updates as I get the chance.

Anyone still looking for some great fly fishing should seriously think about booking in for April and May – it is one of the best times to go fishing Queenstown and the surrounding regions, the browns are putting on plenty of weight in preparation for spawning runs, there is some great mayfly match the hatch fishing, the rainbows are beefing up too and the back country rivers really fire up over the last 2 months of the season.

Get in touch with me to make your late season booking with NZ Fly Fishing Expeditions.

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

Since the big Xmas floods the weather has been quite indifferent with a new front every other day bring wind then rain hard on it’s heels. When we have had fine weather its been great but the fine weather holes have been quite small before the next front has slid in. This has meant picking where to be on any given day to be a very important part of providing a successful days outing. Some of the rivers in areas that got hit hard by those big xmas floods are still recovering with trout numbers a little low – but rest assured they are be moving back up the systems slowly but surely.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - Can you spot the Fish?

Cicadas are about all over the shop at the moment and on the hot windy days plenty are ending up in the water for hungry trout to engulf.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - zoned into cicadas

Speaking of engulfing food my new camp cooker has proved to be worth every cent. Enjoying Greek spiced roast leg of lamb, pork roast, amazing beef fillet (even some wild Hare loin),  fabulous breads and perfectly cooked vege’s from our garden has been a great add to the Multi day Safari expeditions.  Of course when we move away overnight from the vehicle we are back to a bit more basic food. Overall I think I have been putting weight on -  need to walk faster – yeah right!

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - A couple of nights in a remote high country hut

The weather looks looks like it will remain very changeable over the next week although we might see a good high for Friday, Sat and Sun ridge in – great for the weekend warriors. The patterns look like it will stay this way for the next couple of weeks so plan well and have a couple of backstops up your sleeve and make those first cast count!

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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 or so has seen some unbelievable weather. Some of the biggest and wettest storms for a fair while. Many rivers have been up and dirty and the lakes are rather full in fact close to flood levels with Lake Wakatipu on its first flood alert. More heavy rain is expected over the next 24hrs so it will bring things very close to the tipping point for the Lakes.

I have been out guiding a regular client over the last 7 days who fishes with me for a week each year. This year was his tenth visit and was highlighted by catching his 6th New Zealand trophy trout with me. We had to put in some yards for this fish and they certainly paid off. We only got two chances for the day, both on large browns. Unfortunately on the fist chance the hog lifted off the bottom and sucked in the dry fly of choice but my client underestimated the size of the fish and slowness of the take and went a bit early pulling the fly right out of the trouts still wide open mouth. This fish was big, bigger than the one we did hook and land, again on the dry fly.

NZ Fly Fishing Expeditions - another trophy brown trout 11.25lbs

During the week  my client Aki got to fish a great deal of new water because many of his favorite spots were blown out with either wind or rain or both. He managed to catch some great fish in all these amazing places and lost a few too but nothing could get close to trumping the fish above.

After this next storm it looks like we are in for a good period of hot stable weather as a couple of large highs are lining up. This should see some hot weather and I am expecting to hear the cicada about as soon as it happens. It will be nice to see summer conditions back again.

Happy New Year and may the fishing be good to you.

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

The weather has continued to be unseasonably warm and the rivers have all been quite low but in excellent condition and producing some very good fishing.  Fishing a dry fly has certainly been great on a number of days, especially on the rainbow rivers where they have been lifting to take all manner of terrestrial patterns. The usual go to dries have all been working.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - nice rainbow trout

Brown beetle are out and about. It won’t be long until the green arrive. Cicadas are arriving early too. Driving back from yesterdays outing where we fished a remote Otago back country stream using the odd combo of one rod fishing dry upstream and the other rod spey style, skagit on a switch rod hitting the water the dry could not cover (both produced about the same amount of fish) the cabbage trees were in full bloom. In fact I can’t remember seeing them blooming so much. A big bloom of flowers on the cabbage tree  suggests a long hot and dry summer ahead. Given it was 31 dec C in the shade where we were yesterday and of course much hotter out on the river stones I would agree. In a month we will probably be praying for rain!

Here’s a quick clip from some fishing last week:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm154QYWXns[/youtube]

It looks like we are going to get a quick skiff of rain tonite and tomorrow morning and then it’s back to hot sunny weather right thru until the weekend, maybe longer!

It’s time to start considering longer leaders and finer tippets as the rivers get lower and clearer. Smaller flies may also be a good option. Yesterday we got a refusal from a fish (it swung and looked 3 times on the same drift) so we promptly put a smaller, very similar pattern on and nailed him on the next cast.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - awesome water and a hot day

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

Autumn can be a great time to fish for trout near Queenstown New Zealand for many reasons and one of them can be the last of the cicadas left in the back country. They have darkened right off to almost black and on a nice hot afternoon if you hear the odd one still chirping away it can be a great option to run past a trout as they are still zoned into that as a food source and being such a big morsel of food a trout may find it hard to resist.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions late season Rainbow trout

Fishing a small beaded streamer as a nymph can also induce strikes from fish that are not responsive to anything else.  Try not using a indicator and watch the fish, strike went it finishes the sideways movement or if you feel a knock or tug, tug back.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions Brown Trout Underwater

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

Wow – the finish of daylight seems to make such a difference down here to the light. It seems so much softer during the day.

The last week  saw a very wet storm front stall over the Fiordland and South Westland which dropped around 400 – 500ml of rain. This stuffed my plans to helicopter into a remote west coast river to do an overnight guided expedition with a client so when wisely changed plans and headed east away from the rain and had some good fishing  in quite low water conditions and still got trout to lift and take cicadas and blowflies.

Another big rain came thru and hit Southland and many of the rivers that way saw the biggest floods of the season with the Oreti going to near 500 cumecs. It’s  dropping and clearing now but in some of the mid sections has radically changed the lay of the river as much river bed has moved. It will certainly be a matter of finding old channels with good rocky structure and there you will find the fish.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - an ugly snout on a trout

I had a day in the backcountry yesterday and although the Southerly wind was cold the sun was out and the cicadas were singing happily and we got stuck into some nice fishing in an extremely beautiful little mountain stream with some good success.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - wee rainbow

This afternoon I pick up a client and we are heading out for another  mission into the wilds with one night in a remote hut and then one night in the bivvy cocoons further up the system before we finish back in Queenstown late Friday night. Hopefully we will track down some big trout that were eating mice early in the season and are super chunky and haven’t seen a fisherman in a while. The weather is looking conducive so it should be a great trip regardless.

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

Cicadas are still on the trout menu in the high country on a hot afternoon and can be quite a joyful experience for the fly fisherman but as Autumn is now sliding in and the days are getting shorter and temps are cooling down a bit the ciacada’s will not be on the menu for much longer but the fish are becoming more active and feeding on mayfly nymphs. We have been targeting rocky riffles in some of the rivers and getting some great success with the nymph (no indicator when possible) and also in the afternoons using a Cicada and sometimes a dropper off it.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - Colours of Brown trout

My special pattern X has also continued to solicit responses from difficult fish where all else has failed.

It’s certainly getting closer now to when the mad mayfly hatches start that we all look forward to near the end of the season down here in the lower South Island streams and rivers.   Remember all the lowland waters close the last day of April so make the most of it between now and then and the back country waters close on the last day of May.

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

Well the weather has been a bit unseasonable over the last week in the Queenstown region with some serious storms rolling in from the Southern ocean and bringing high winds, hail, snow and sunny breaks in between. Certainly made fly fishing a little harder but for those who persist with the right attitude comes success.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions 8.5lbs of brown trout

The interesting thing of note over the last few weeks has been the number of trout we have raised using cicada patterns. Getting the right presentation has lifted the fish to open it’s mouth and chomp the cicada. Many times however after the success of getting the right cast and presentation has resulted in no hook up due to the rod holder being to quick on the strike. It’s a hard thing to get right when you are not used to slow takes of big New Zealand trout and the urge to set the hook too early is strong in many anglers. Remember an appropriate pause is required to allow the fish to close its mouth before you set the hook. There are a few factors that influence when to set the hook.

Size of fish

Speed of water

Speed of take

Upstream or downstream take

My general rule of thumb is to say “God save the Queen” or “God save Dick Chaney” (he really needs it)! This  gets altered slightly depending on the variables above to be either slightly faster or slower (slower usually being the case).

Now the above may not work for you – you need to find something that does work for you to create the appropriate pause before setting. It needs to be something that works for you and your personality.

I have had clients say various things such as “not now but now”, “  don’t set the hook”, ” set the hook now”, “what a hog and set”, ” got you you bastard”, “look at the hooters on that”, and my all time favourite ” it’s as big as a thigh wader”!

Ok, you get the point now go catch some big New Zealand trout on the dry fly.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - bent rod on a hog

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