The good fishing is still on around the Southern Lakes and Queenstown with the fine weather continuing. The weather has been hot and the rivers  around Queenstown and the Southern lakes  are low and the fish are fairly spooky due to this and the increased angler pressure so being a master of the fly fishing game up your chances along with thinking outside the box a bit.

Time of day…. mix it up …. fish get used to seeing anglers at certain times. Recently I fished a section of water behind another group who had set off at about 0800, we started on it at 1500 and found fish out and feeding happily and we hooked and landed fish easily.

A client yesterday saw benefit from fishing a large Queenstown still water with 6 fish in 1hr ….. sometime rivers are not the be all end all ….. all the fish hit bully imitations.

Don’t piss (more on this later) around, get your fly on the water with limited or no false casts. Flies only catch fish when they are on/in the water and have good presentation ….. the so called “trick” casts work …. learn how to use the right one at the right time.

Find areas where cool streams of water enter the main (warmer river) here you will find fish eager to feed.

Make the most out of your opportunities ….. even if you semi spook a fish be patient and change gear (try a streamer swung in front of it’s nose once you have let things settle for 5 mins).

If you are hooked up on a big fish watch what is happening to the fish and where it’s heading. It will tend to take care of the slack line with out the need for you to get onto the reel immediately. A big fish went begging the other day after we had fooled it, the angler took their eye off the fish to get all the slack line sorted and the fish almost new and proceeded to go down the wrong side of a big rock and into no mans land never to emerge again …. ahh bugger!

Go hard early, know where the limit is of your gear and knots and get that fish sorted out!

Sighted fish on the nymph …. get rid of the indicator ….. watch the fish.

Refusal on the dry? Drag maybe but whatever change that bloody fly and put a similar possibly smaller pattern on and cast again and with no drag occurring.

Be nice to your fellow anglers …. a good way to satrt with this is to leave a note on your vehicle as to wether you went upstream or downstream (or how far you intend on fishing) and the time you started.

My friend and guiding colleague Chris Dore has written a blog recently with some good info that ties into this check it out here.

So here is a quick story from New Years day. After a few drinks the evening before with my client to see the new year in we were on a scenic big fish river river and I was wandering along being ever so stealthy looking for trout to put my guy onto. The mix of the evening before drinks and several morning cups of java and possibly a bit of age creaping in I decided to have my 3hundreth piss of the day. My client was on the other side of the river and a bit downstream so I just did what I needed to right there and then. The wind was the blessed southerly so I sent my stream with the wind and into the grass a touch upsteam of where I was standing. Great, job done time to get back to spotting trout. Two more steps, shit there’s a bug fush and I promptly throw myself to the ground and right into my own piss. The only good news is we caught him! It’s amazing what a guide will do to get you into fish. Happy New Year!

 Book your Queenstown NZ Fly Fishing Expeditions Trip Now

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

Southland fly fishing has been a mixed bag since the opening of the season.  I spend a great deal of my time guiding and fly fishing Southland. Sometimes staying for periods of time in our Lumsden fishing crib (house) and sometimes traveling to and from Queenstown for just day fly fishing trips. The first 2 weeks of the  Southland fly fishing season had pretty bloody good weather and low river conditions with some nice mayfly hatches on many of the streams and rivers. Southland fly fishing can change pretty quickly.  Especially as you live and work in the middle of the roaring forties and it’s spring time. Suddenly we were bombarded with heinous weather. 72 hrs of solid rain at low levels and heavy spring snow in the high country. This was followed by a rapid warming trend for 2 days before the next warm ish storm came thru delivering a bunch more water to the already full and discolored water ways. These 2 storms came from different directions so most water ended up getting hit pretty good.  Especially with the extra snow melt most rivers and streams had very high flood levels rip thru them.

aparima in flood

Southland fly fishing offers a huge amount of different water to fish but most had been blown out (it was pretty much the same up the whole of the eastern side of the South Island) and to get to something clean ish and fish-able meant driving a bit further than normal, finding those elusive spring creeks, using educated guesswork on what might be clearing and spending a great deal of time studying the  flow gauges and rainfall stations and employing some different fishing techniques. It’s times like this when I lose sleep worrying about getting my clients to good water and giving them chances on big NZ trout. Some good judgement and maybe a little luck allowed it all to pan out with some good fish to the bank and happy fishermen over the last week. The photo below was taken on a day where most rivers around the region were running full and chocolate.

Southland Fly Fishing

Come and do a Southland Homestay fly fishing expedition and catch fish like this!

Book Now!

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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 Queenstown has one month to go before the 2011-2012 new season opens. Ye haa!

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions

Like fishing anywhere to be successful fly fishing Queenstown it pays to get your gear ready prior to the start of the season.

I find it is a good idea to check through all your fly fishing equipment in the month or two before the fishing season starts.

There’s nothing worse than turning up for your first day’s fly fishing to find that something is missing, the floating line is sinking, the flies are mixed up or the wrong size, the reel has jammed up and x number of other things that make you look and feel like a complete muppet!

I am sure these and many more problems have happened to us all at some time or another so let’s see what we can do to make to our fly fishing Queenstown and other waters go smoothly throughout the coming year.

RODS

• Check guides and be sure there’s no damage.

• Check reel seat.

• Clean your rod.

• Get rod repairs done

REELS

• Clean the cage and remove any grit or dirt

• Check the mechanisms and oil only as advised by the manufacturer

• Check springs and pawls

LINES

• Wind the lines and backing off the reel onto a line winder.

• Once you have the line and the backing, you can re-wind, checking the backing for rot or damage as you go.

• Now check the connection to the line. If in doubt re-do the connection.

• Before you start to wind the line onto the reel clean the line; a soft cloth, soap and water is all you need. Use ordinary soap! Do not use detergents like washing up liquid as these tend to damage the line. Run the line through the soft, soapy cloth to the end and rinse through the cloth in clean water by winding it back again.

• Treat your floating line with silicone to improve its performance.

• Check the braided leader loop for wear (if you use one) and check that the line has not cracked where it joins it. If in doubt, replace the loop.

• Check your shooting head lines for wear where it joins the running line.

LEADERS

• Replace all the leaders with new ones. I like to use tapered leaders and add tippets to suit the length I want to fish.

• Check out your leader wallet and re- stock with new leaders.

FLY BOXES

• Tidy flies

• Remove used and rusty flies

• Tie up flies or buy in replacements

FISHING BAG

• Empty out and check tools, priest, temperature gauge, scales, de-barb pliers and any other bits and pieces you take with you.

FISHING VEST

• Empty all pockets and remove dross

• Check:  zingers, nippers, scissors and knot tying tools if you have them

• Replace flies in fly boxes

• Check sunglasses for damage and clean

LANDING NET

• Check for holes and repair or replace

• Check the net release if you use one

WADERS & BOOTS

• Check for waders for leaks and repair or replace as necessary

• Clean waders

• Check boot soles and heels are not loose – replace if necessary

• Clean boots

WET WEATHER GEAR

• Make sure it is waterproof and check for holes or tears – repair or replace if necessary.

WADING STAFF

• Check the lanyard attachment and the rubber shoe at the base.

FISHING LICENSE

• Fly Fishing Queenstown and any fresh water in New Zealand requires a fishing license. These can be purchased online.  F&G NZ have made it easier than ever before (apparently) to do this see this excerpt from a recent email from them:

“We would like to take this opportunity to invite you to beat the rush and renew your Fishing licence online through the Fish & Game online ordering system. We are confident you will find this a simple and convenient way to purchase your 2011/2012 Fishing licence.

Step 1- Follow the link below

Step 2- Accept the terms and conditions when you arrive at the online ordering site.

Step 3- Enter your 2010/2011 licence number and your date of birth into ‘Previous Customer Details’. This will bring up your details for renewing your licence. Licences purchased online will be supplied as an attractive, durable plastic card. Plastic licences will be mailed within 5 working days of being ordered. Best of luck for the Fishing season ahead – you can order your licence now at: https://fishandgame.eyede.com/public/get_page.php”

Fly Fishing Queenstown

This should give you something to do over the next month before the Queenstown fly fishing season opens and you are fly fishing Queenstown waters for trout that have not seen an angler for 5 months or so!

Check out the Fly Fishing Queenstown Expeditions I offer and get in touch if you want to customize anything to make your fishing vacation even more memorable

Make sure to book your2011-12  fly fishing Queenstown expedition with me now.

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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

Since my last post the weather has been stunning, the rivers in great nick and the trout have been there for the taking. With all the water open down our way the is plenty of choice of where to fish on any given day and we have seen plenty of rainbows and browns to the bank. Even some on the dry fly.

The fish of the week was this great 11.25 lbs rainbow trout which my new Scott S4 6wt dealt to with ease.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions 11.25lb NZ Rainbow trout

The fish was released by the way.

Happy clients have finished the day with some great tales to tell about the largest trout they have ever caught. Although fairly average by NZ standards it reminds me that many foreign anglers are used to catching much smaller fish than our average 3 – 5 lbs trout here in NZ.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - Big Smiles

As it gets closer to the time you are coming out to NZ be sure to get in some decent practice session with the fly rod, as we get deeper into our season here it becomes more and more important to make sure you can be accurate with that first cast, you might not get a second chance which is especially the case on our big browns. The rainbows being a bit more aggressive may give you more opportunities but still a good first up presentation will take you a long way.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - good times on the bow's

People practice for golf and skiing and most of the other sports they enjoy so why not get some practice in with the fly rod before your big trip to New Zealand (or anywhere). A few sessions on the grass and casting into the wind  (we do a lot of that here) will benefit you. Doing a casting clinic suited to your level of experience is a great way to get the right technique down but you still have to practice after it.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - yeah baby

The weather looks like we are going to see a bit of a change over the weekend with some precipitation and the next week looks like a slightly disturbed westerly flow will bring the odd bit of rain and wind but there will be some little gaps in there for those who can’t cast into the wind!

Book an expedition with me and make the most of your time here.

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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 Queenstown, New Zealand and the surrounding regions is a fly fishers paradise.  There’s always some good water to fish no matter what the weather is doing. You can travel to all 4 points of the compass to go fly fishing from Queenstown maximizing the weather on any given day. Serious anglers should be prepared for early starts and to drive for a good couple of hours to get the best opportunities at catching truly fine New Zealand trout often in quite surreal surrounds. Full day or multi day expeditions are the best ways to really see decent fishing opportunities.  To see how stunning fly fishing Queenstown really can be, a helicopter fly fishing trip can open up fisheries that would normally take days to get into by foot and some that going by foot is not an option!

Fly Fishing Queenstown

It’s rare to have big tallies of fish to the bank but the size of the trout makes up for this along with the gorgeous scenery. It’s rarely easy fishing and having a high skill level before you arrive will certainly help, the learning curve once you hit the water here is steep enough as it is. Many of the people I guide are here for the challenging nature and the big trout that fly fishing Queenstown South Island of New Zealand offers, something to really test skills against or to learn some new skills to make the fishing even more enjoyable.

I am always reminded at the beginning of each season how bloody great that fly fishing Queenstown is by some of my early season regulars and my own visits to the the fantastic fishing opportunities that abound around Queenstown.

Make sure to check the guided fly fishing options I have and get a booking in to secure your guided fly fishing Queenstown trip in this fantastic NZ fishery.

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

I just got back from 4 days looking around Southland over the opening of the 2010 – 2011 New Zealand fly fishing season. As expected the biggest storm in 50 yrs has had some effect on many of the rivers in Southland. Some big flood flows have moved channels around and in places covered good structure with fine gravel and turned over rocks. Snow melt is still coming off the mountains and many of the bigger rivers are still a wee bit on the clean green side but as the fine weather goes on this week they will continue to clear but remain on the full side.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - Exploring new water

Some of the smaller rain fed streams have seen some big flows as well and finding fish has not been easy although wherever there was good structure fish were found and most of them were in pretty good early season condition.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - Intrepid explorer

After two days of windy weather with high water flows and deciding to go exploring some new water with a mate from Colorado (and to be fair not finding much to get excited about) it was time to get into some fish so it was back to some tried and true old fav’s that even through the flooding looked as though they had remained in good nick. Sure enough they had and one river produced 8 nice browns to the bank followed the next day by 10 to bank using a bamboo rod (made by Pezon et Michel) just for kicks – I just love the way the ‘boo bends and you can feel every twitch of the fish during battle.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - Go the bamboo

All the fish ranged around the 4 – 5lb mark and the vast majority were caught in rocky riffles using a double nymph rig with the dropper nymph being a size 16 mayfly emerger style nymph doing the damage.

New Zealand Fly Fishing Expeditions - Bamboo and emerger nymph

It’s certainly been nice getting back out on to the waters I love and hooking up some early season brown trout. If you are looking for a guided fly fishing trip this summer make sure to get in touch with me and lets get you set up for a great session fly fishing on stunning New Zealand water.

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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 patterns have changed and spring is on us.  Now is a good time to be sorting out your fly fishing gear so it’s all ready to  go come the opening of the new fishing season in 3 weeks time.  Fix the busted bits, clean the dirty, tie or buy those flies you really need to re-stock the fly box and get some casting practice in on the new rod or the old faithful stick.  Whatever you need to do if you haven’t done it — do it. Remember to get your New Zealand fishing license sorted!

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.

NZ Fly Fishing Expeditions New Zealand is a post from: Fly Fishing Expeditions New Zealand

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