New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions Streamers, big fish love them

The West Coast whitebaiting season is now underway and and there will be sea run trout and kawhai to hit in the estuary’s and mouths over the next while,  a perfect time to get some of those streamers in action. Word has it the upper Clutha is fishing very well with rainbows being the sport. Time to leave the skiing in Queenstown for a couple of days and head over to South Westland via a session or two on the Clutha. A good time to get some kaimoana!

Make sure to hit my bookings page to secure your New Zealand  fly fishing expedition for this coming season.

I have a 15% discount (GST free)  on my guided Southland Homstay fly fishing trips during October 2010.

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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).

Click here to view the embedded video.

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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The gear to bring with you should be right at the top of the list now.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions, Carlin Bamboo

If you are into a bit of comfort with a roof overhead, hot running water, a real bed etc during your fly fishing trip  follow this link for some good ideas of what to bring, make sure to scroll to the gear lists.

If you are looking at the more adventurous options of camp out style fly fishing or multi day hiking fly fishing try this on for size for some good ideas.

One thing about gear however is that especially when it comes down using the rod I see many an angler that can have a very frustrating time fishing in New Zealand and this usually stems from poor presentation in adverse conditions. We fish into a lot of wind particularly in the South Island. If you want to maximize your chances make sure you get some serious practice in before you come. Learn how to cast accurately into the wind, make sure you have a good variety of different casts up your sleeve. Roll casts, reach casts, the wiggle cast, curve casts, double hauling can all be very handy. These will allow you to maximize your chances and get more NZ trout to the bank. When you are out on the water fishing and particularly in an environment such as New Zealand it is not really the time to be practicing these things. Get out on the grass and do the hard yards before you come fishing in New Zealand (or anywhere for that matter).

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions, preparing for battle

Choosing a guide can also be a very important aspect for many when coming fly fishing in New Zealand. A top notch guide will be able to help you with many aspects of your trip to NZ prior to your arrival into the country.  Guides often specialize in different things so be sure that you ask them the right questions to solicit whether or not they will be the most suitable guide for you.

For example I specialize more with multi day fly fishing trips with either homestay or camp out options into the remote back country of New Zealand. I have a sports teaching background as a internationally recognized ski instructor which offers a good transfer of skills when it comes to fly fishing casting tips and instruction but there are other guides who have actual fly fishing teaching certification and really specialize in the teaching arena and there are many other types of guide who offer a variety of different skills in different locations.

Make sure to ask if  your prospective guide is a member of the New Zealand Professional Guides Association,the first place to go when choosing a guide in New Zealand.

Check out the guides testimonials page and ask to get in contact with one of the people who have written the testimonials – it shouldn’t be a problem.

You and the guide will be working as a team on the water and good communication right from the outset should be expected and enjoyed.

New zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions, on the job

Check out this post for some handy gear to get for your trip or when you get to NZ, comfort is key.

Make sure to SUBSCRIBE and get the latest posts from www.flyfishingexpeditions.co.nz coming to you.

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There are many things to think about when planning your trip and the obvious starting point is figuring out your budget and length of time you can be here to fly fish. One of the important factors in this is understanding that New Zealand is made up of 2 different islands that both offer very good fly fishing yet are extremely different in nature.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions NZ satellite image

In general terms the North Island is primarily a rainbow trout fishery and has by far the best saltwater fly fishing where the South Island is  primarily a brown trout fishery with options to chase Chinnook salmon although both islands do have both species of trout. Again staying quite general the North Island has higher fish numbers than the South Island but it also has a higher human population. Approximately 3/4 of the population of New Zealand live in the North Island. New Zealand is quite a small country about the same size of California with about 4 million people in it.

If you have ample time (lets say 2 to 4 weeks) you may be able to split the time half and half fishing both islands but if your time is more limited (10 days or less) you will be better suited to spending all your time fishing in one island – maybe save the other island for your next trip because once you have been here you will want to come back!

Each fishing region (state) of New Zealand offers quite different experiences and each has many different sorts of water ways ranging from the true back country experience to fishing estuary’s for sea runners with everything in between.

New Zealand is not a expensive country to fly fish in but nor is it cheap. Travel to New Zealand is the first thing you want to look at and a good site to check out is One Travel where you can check out your different options on how to get here.

A NZ season fishing license is around NZD 105.00 and allows you to fish everywhere with the exception of the Taupo fishery where a specific additional license is required.

Once here you will require a vehicle to get around in the fishing areas in. Renting a vehicle is probably the best way forward and a great starting place to look at especially if you are fishing in the South Island is Overland 4WD Rentals. Not all rentals are equal with many rental companies not allowing you to take their vehicles over certain roads in NZ – you will lose your insurance cover if you do! Overland have a great variety of fishing vehicles that do not have rules of where you can and can not go (within reason of course) and can also supply camping equipment. Our roads are in good nick but it usually takes longer to get somewhere than you may think – bear this in mind with your time constraints.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - 4wd drives are the way forward

New Zealand has many accommodation options to take care of all fishing budgets. Using backpacking type hostels and also our many designated camping areas around New Zealand can keep the price down considerably. Of course there is everything else from farm stays, bed and breakfasts, self contained units motels, hotels and of course the luxury lodges.

This article is a part one of a series so be sure to subscribe so you can get the next ones that come out.

If you want help with organizing the New Zealand Fly fishing trip of a lifetime please get in touch with me.

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New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions Browns, browns and more browns

Our recent guided expedition saw us hooking into trout after trout, both rainbows and browns. Many of the brown trout were well into spawning mode and at times were hard to hook as they were interested in other things but using a streamer fished up stream and ripped  back past them got some good responses as well as my special pattern X. Many of these fish were holding in very small, shallow areas of the river and you could find groups of 10 fish together looking at pairing up.

The rainbow trout were generally holding in deep long rocky runs and employing Czech nymphing tactics worked well – get deep fast and stay in contact – wham, bam, thank you mam.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions great late season back country rainbow

It just goes to show that May is an awesome time to fly fish near Queenstown, New Zealand.  Most NZ anglers have switched to other recreational pursuits and the foreign anglers just really are not here and there is tons of very good fly fishing to be had if you are prepared to do the yards  to get to these incredible back country waters. Yes, the days are shorter and colder, dry fly isn’t so much a part of the game but getting to fish as my last client said for trout that average over 22 inches  and many going into the 24 – 26 inch range (or as we kiwis like to measure our trout not in length but pounds 4 – 8 lbs) and with shots at fish well into double digits (lbs) it blows all other trout fisheries in the world out of the water. Add to that, over the two days he fished with me he landed about 20 fish, lost another 10 (including one trophy) and blew good chances on another 20 or so.

Tight Lines!

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NZ Fly Fishing Expeditions - Cocoon Bivvy's

The weather was about as good as it gets although bloody cold at night with frost developing on the bivvy’s by 19:30 which is just on dark at present. The fishing was pretty damn good too with plenty of both rainbow trout and brown trout to the bank, a few spooked and some that just spanked us – no slowing them down once hooked and firing under rocks in this majestic little mountain stream.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - Mountain Brown trout

Carrying a heavy pack for a mission like this into a boulder strewn back country stream and catching fish with it on is no easy task and certainly by the end of the trip we were both a little footsore and tired but very happy.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - Hardcore fly fishing

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - woo hoo!

I even had the chance to cast for a fish or two and enjoyed the success of a well presented special pattern x – the Wilkie Wonder.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - chunky mountain brown trout

These sort of trips hiking into the back country and doing the hard yards to fly fish for trout are not for everyone but those that are willing to carry a heavy pack and sleep out certainly get to enjoy the spoils of fly fishing for trout that often have seen no pressure (or at least not much) and puts you into places that helicopters can’t legally land and are simply superb for the peace and solitude they provide in New Zealand’s stunning wilderness landscapes.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - Wilderness rainbow trout

I’m at home for a few days now, enjoying family life before my next guided trip starts next week, a mixture of the Southland Homestay fly fishing trip and Safari trip and we might throw a heli fish in for good measure depending on how the weather pans out.

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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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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 10.25 lbs beautiful brown trout hen

The hard yards getting into (and back out of) these areas when the weather was right saw most fish caught on terrestrial patterns – Cicada and Blowflies being the big winners along with one of my home tied flies we will just call the Wilkie Wonder!

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions 7lb back country brown trout

Many of the fish that were caught was on the first cast. Making it count first time up makes life much easier in catching New Zealand South Island trout.  Over the week we landed approximately 40 trout and lost another 15  – 20 fish – what a week! It doesn’t get much better.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions 10lb back country brown trout

These particular clients are some of my regulars who have fished with me on quite a few occasions now. They have been applying the tips and tricks I give them and better still before each trip with me they get some practice in ensuring when they get here they can do the business, after all the guy on the end of the stick has to do the job at the end of the day. The Scott rods  were bent all week, the Airflo lines were making light work of the wind,  my new C&F design fly patch worked great – I didn’t lose a single fly all week while crawling thru all sorts of spiky New Zealand river side foliage while trying to find unsuspecting trout.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - team work

These guys work really well as a team, both with each other and me as the guide. Between us we got some great video footage – so keep an eye out for some new videos at my You Tube channel or/and Hook TV

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions releasing a brown trout

I’m at home for about 36 hours before I head out on my next Safari trip so it’s catch up time with my family and restock all the kit ready to hit the rivers in the lower 1/3rd of New Zealand’s South Island for another blast of trying to fool big NZ trout.

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4 days camping out in quite remote back country proved very successful for these visitors to New Zealand who landed some good fish each day and lost a few too. Most of the fish were caught on Cicadas or similar terrestrial patterns.

Once again apart from one fish it came down to making the first cast count. If we got it right first time, right line and right drag free presentation the fish were into it – if not hey presto the magic disappearing trout. The only time this was not the case we worked a fish for 1 hr and had it swing over to the fly and look several times but refuse. Many, many fly changes later the fish finally took the fly and client forgot to say ” God save the Queen”, probably only got the G in God out before setting and nothing there but the fish stayed in its feeding position and kept feeding. About 20 minutes later a “random” fly choice got another response from the fish and this time all went to plan with a great 6.5 lb trout to the bank. This sort of scenario is quite rare but the client never made a bad cast and the perseverance paid off.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - Perserverance pays off

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - Scotland on Steroids

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - Scotland on Steroids with Rainbows

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - Happy Scots

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - Happy Scots and big New Zealand Brown trout

I’m off again tomorrow on another Safari trip for 8 days and will in search of some more majestic scenery and big trout – watch for the next post.

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