Post Coital Rainbow trout and fat Browns in the far south of NZ

Into December now and still ducking and diving around the weather but we are getting better periods of more settled weather which is helping the timeless art of fly fishing for NZ trout.

Last week was spent chasing some post-coital rainbows and some still right in the act too in some small back country creeks with fish happily coming to the dry fly 90% of the time and a day on a lowland river that was also productive with fat browns wanting a lightly weighted nymph and one good crack at a veritable hog that would have gone 12 -14 lbs. Had a swim to get into position for it and after about 8 casts and one change the beast went for it and unfortunately my guy thought he had put it a bit to far to the right and went into relax mode and then was wondering what to do when his guide yelled STRIKE (the fish went at it hard and no time to warn my guy it was coming) - by the time the line was tight and rod lifted it was all over and this big trout quietly disappeared into the depths. Moral of the story - when your fly is in the water - FISH IT WITH PURPOSE! You won't get a second chance especially on big trophy trout!

It's been raining hard all day and there will be some bigger volumes in the river and also discoloration in some too for the next 24hrs before they drop back again.

Productive flies of recent: Green Humpies, Blow flies imitaions, Light half back nymphs and hare and coppers.

Winter Update

The Clutha in Otago, New Zealand is fly fishing well at present downstream from the Hawea confluence with plenty of rainbow trout either pre or post spawing so some are in good nick and other not so. When you combine the power of the mighty Clutha and even with small post spawning rainbows you've got a battle on. A quick trip the other day allowed us some great sight fishing opportunities to fish in riffles and between 2 fishers 8 fish to the bank and a few more lost. Due to the high fish numbers we decide to keep a couple of fish each for dinner and yummy they were. Biggest fish of the day went around 5.5lbs and smallest around 2 lbs

ANZAC Long weekend

The Nissan Safari all packed up with just about everything you could possibly need for a fishing road trip. We headed down for a few nights based in Lumsden and the last of the fishing left before the low country rivers close on the last day of April. We maanaged to get two good days on the Oreti - hard going with low light at this time making spotting hard (no need to be out the door early) of the year but we managed to get onto a few good fish on the dry fly and find some late evening hatches to attend. We also noted a pool that had 40+ fish in it but none feeding. It looked like they were waiting for a fresh (that was coming) to head on a spawning run. After dark may have been worthwhile but we had other plans.

Gunns camp in the hollyford was waiting for us with a cabin booked and a date with some rainbows. It is big mountain water and with the storm around remmbering wher you are and the safety that goes with an area that gets between 6 - 8 meters of rain per annum - any good downfall can see the river rise quickly. This is a place that fish can be found by pooking in thru dense Fiordland bush and finding pools and then spending time to spot for both rainbow and brown trout. Generally speaking the fish can be hard to catch at this time of the year but with patience, skill, some luck and targeting the 'bows when you find them can pay dividends. We had 2 good days here with some good bows to show for it and then it was off with a stop in the Eglington and a and some mayfly action before heading back to Queenstown. All in all a greta trip in an amazing landscape with some nice fish to boot.

SW Guiding Maps

Hi there - I have just been learning how to use nomao mapping for my blog and website - it's very good and easy to use. I embedded one below that you can scroll around on and look at my Queenstown base and Southland Homestay base locations and also get a photo and video - I hope you enjoy.

Pricked by SWGUNNY with Nomao

Beautiful Autumn

The first good autumn /winter storm came thru dropping quite a bit of snow down to about 3000 ft lowering to 1400ft in Queenstown. Snow to ground in areas south like Mossburn and Lumsden etc. This has been followed by a very cold night with big frost so will it be interesting to see the Southern rivers this coming week. All our backcountry rivers low and clean and I imagine similar in the South but it may create a small fresh followed by some melt fresh, stirring the browns up a little for spawning runs in some areas --- maybe!

There should be some great mayfly hatches in the afternoons - I am off to Lumsden for four days this coming week so I will let you know whats going on.

Makarora

A awesome sunrise this morning and and on the road headed for a days fishing with beautiful Autumnal weather at Makarora. Crystal clean water is what we expect to find and do worth a light southerly wind blowing on our tail. Pretty hard going this morning with fish being hard to find and those that we do we botch it all up and off they slide until we are well past. Around 1400 things changed as expected and the browns cam into the shallow riffles to feed on mayfly. We started to find fish and although no hatch was on we ran a parachute Adams over them and no hesitation with the fish coming up to suck them down. By 1600 wit the sun slipping behind the mountain tops and the temperature dropping it was time to walk back to the truck and head home happy with the knowledge of finding trout around the time we expected to see them and then managing to fool a few of them - another great days fishing in the late season. Oh by the way - still happy enough to wet wade on these nice days but wearing thermal underwear below the pants and carry a spare layer or 2 in the backpack.

Good late season fishing

6th April - leaving early today (0500) we headed off deep into southland to spotx. Arriving early we headed well up river before starting to fish to give us the best chance of undisturbed water (big walk back at the days end - oh well). As the light lifted we started spotting some good trout. We got them to lift to para adams #12 even with no hatch and when that didn't work we went to them and had success on Pheasant Tail #12-14. Got a good solid 1/2 hr hatch at 1400 - fish in the riffles - ye haa. 8 fish landed and about the same lost for one reason or another and a couple of missed strikes. The browns are moving up river for spawning so it is a good idea to check out upper reaches of water ways if the have reasonable water flow - look after a fresh. Well worth the longer drive today as the fishing in more northern southland has been harder as of recent. Still have got to chase those Salmon up the Dart yet. Next days fishing is friday 11th - will come back with a report then

28th March

A fresh came thru last night so we headed off to the Matukituki mouth to see if there were any salmon schooling getting ready to run or brown trout but to no avail. It was off on the hunt for rainbows in the mighty clutha - this proved quite successful with 5 fish taken and 2 lost (all on nymphs)one of which was a trout around the 8lbs mark. with all the rest coming in at between 3 and 5lbs but in the big water worked us hard like fish twice the size.

Apparently the salmon are schooling off the Dart mouth at the moment so that could be worth a crack next up.

The Autumn weather should be starting to create some good mayfly hatches on some of our southern rivers.

Easter Guiding

Based at Mavora Lakes saw 4 great days of fishing. One on the upper Oreti with fish sitting in riffles and taking either h&c nymphs or off the surface with Para Adams. One day in upper Mararoa with fish willing to come to surface and take black nats and similar terrestials, one day up in Windon with good fishing and again terrestial going well with good fish action. Last day on Oreti but lower down and a bit harder with cloud cover making spotting difficult but good fish found in backwaters and could be tempted to come to the surface with small dry's. All in all a great Safari trip for some good end of March fishing.

Back in the Whakatipu

Great to be back home after a very successful trip up north. I had a chance to chase some snapper and also some kingfish in the Coromandel on the fly with mixed success but lots of enjoyment. Snapper for dinner one night!

The weather is starting to cool down in the South as Autumn is approaching but the fishing is still great. On the Oreti river yesterday with no wind and early cloud cover burning off provided some great fishing. Trout sitting under lips and taking nymphs were enticed easily with accurate casts and later in the day fish started coming to the surface taking dry's and provided some more sport. All in all 5 to the bank and lost 3 so not a bad day!

As we move more towards the end of March and into Autumn we will start to see some great mayfly hatches on some of our rivers while the mountain rivers will conitnue to provide great sport right up until the end of May. The brown trout have had a great summer and are coming into awesome condition as the season drifts towards closing of the lowland rivers at the end of April and the back country rivers the end of May. From now to the end of the season is one of my favourite times to be on the river, big strong fat fish and awesome weather, scenery is pretty good too!