Back at home base in Queenstown today after a weeks great fly fishing in Southland. In fact we really didn’t get out of Northern Southland. We hit a few different small and medium size streams and rivers, encountered chubby rain (hail), sun, snow, and drizzel but not much wind if you used the topography well and worked with it. Clear and low cold water mostly everywhere and good numbers of brown trout in good condition for early season.
Sweet Southland Water Fly Fishing New Zealand
It will interesting to see how it pans out over the next month with quite a bit of recent snow fallen and warmer temps due we will no doubt see some changes in the water conditions as spring rolls on.
The Airflo Sightfree G3 fluorocarbon worked a charm once I got my fingers around and I didn’t lose a single fish through a failure so that made me happy. I was using a 9ft 1x (7lb) tapered leader and adding a length of Sightfree G3 (5lb) tippet to take me out to the desired length.
Fish were caught mostly on nymphs with occasional use of emergers and backwater specials.
Good early season southern brown trout
The fishing is great right now with awesome water conditions, the first mad week is over and already angler numbers have dropped off and will be weekend warriors mostly until mid December so stop thinking about it, get your A into G and book a fly fishing expedition.
I can’t tell you how much I appreciated everything you did to make my fishing trip unforgettable. That trophy brown was totally unbelievable! Frankly, I’m surprised we were able to land him. That was one of the longest fights I’ve ever had with a fish. Fighting that trout and the river current was a whole new experience for me. Your advice and help were invaluable. I will definitely call you the next time I get to New Zealand. And I really enjoyed your website article and photo. Thanks again for putting me in position to catch the fish of a lifetime. And it was almost a few fish of a lifetime. All in all…brilliant!!!
