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.
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!!!
