Ronan's Report

Sight Fishing During the Winter Solstice…

June 24th, 2014 Ronan Creane 2 comments

The shortest day of the year had a gale in tow but the second shortest brought with it ideal sight fishing conditions. I was on Benmore. After a hard frost in the morning the sun rose over the mountain and heated things up. No cloud, no wind, perfect. There were good numbers of fish about. Some appeared to be feeding but more seemed to be cruising by default. These were very tough to catch and exceptionally spooky. The fly and method I had most success with was a size 14 lightly weighted spider, cast to a moving fish and then moved with the figure of 8. Most fish that I hooked took after following which is a little unusual. Normally a follow does not result in a take. There were a few that charged the fly and missed (or I missed!) and a couple that connected. It was a magic day on the water and I’m going back very soon!!
Ronan..

: Kevin passes some wisdom to his daughter Macy..

: Which worked!!

: 5 minutes later the beard was gone!

: I tied these to represent the dark little snails on Dunstan. Size 18. Turned out it was too windy to fish them so I went to Omarama and the central lakes instead. Turned out it was even windier there!

: Fishing was tough on Saturday afternoon in the gale. I found shelter and a few fish in a little corner near the Otamatata mouth.

: Back he goes, A luck shot with the 10 second timer!

: Walking back to the truck from the mouth..

: It’s a bit of a bush bash!

: Sunday morning. Having a coffee and waiting for the sun to heat things up a bit..

: Welcome rays of sunshine across the frozen ground..

: Turned into the perfect sight fishing day. The second shortest day of the year!

: There were good numbers of fish about. Difficult and spooky but my size 14 lightly weighted spider accounted for a few fish..

: No wind all day! What a relief after the gale the previous day.

: The fish were all in pretty good condition.

: Evening on Benmore…

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A Hover of Trout!

June 12th, 2014 Ronan Creane 1 comment

The weekend before last, Chris Dore and I fished the Frankton Arm. Last year I learned that bright sun is not ideal on the Frankton Arm in winter and that stands true this year. The fishing was slow for most of the day apart from the hour between 2.30 and 3.30. We had 4 in that time slot.

Good old friendly rivalry was alive and well in the boat, 1-0 to Chris, a few hours later 1-1, Then I got a couple (I may have been dragging the line behind the boat as I slowly motored to the next drift, not trolling of course because it was…. an accident, yea.) Some dirty tactics from Chris as he snagged my fly-line almost scuppered my roll to victory. Then another, 4-1. The end score was 4-2 but we weren’t keeping score of course.

I had some good fishing to reasonable numbers of cruising fish at the head of Lake Dunstan last Saturday. I was pleasantly surprised at the numbers of fish about. On Sunday, Kevin and I went on a firewood mission on the Kawarau Arm on Dunstan. We found a hover of trout instead. (My brother with his vast knowledge of all things trout just informed me that a group of trout is known as a hover. Thanks Conor!) I ended up having 2 hours of really good but tough sight fishing. The dull day didn’t matter because the hill on the opposite side was high enough to cut out the glare and spot against. I’m pretty sure they were eating tiny snails, some floating. Another pleasant surprise to get good sight fishing during the worst fishing month of the year only a kilometre from the house! I remember watching Bernard Venables on the telly years ago. He spoke of “a swagger of perch”. Maybe many species have their own specific word for a school.

No fishing this weekend! Iza and I are off to watch the the All-Blacks v England in Dunedin. We’ll also be catching up with some friends. Looking forward to it!

Ronan..