Sight Fishing During the Winter Solstice…
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..
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- Kevin passes some wisdom to his daughter Macy..
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- Which worked!!
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- 5 minutes later the beard was gone!
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- 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!
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- Fishing was tough on Saturday afternoon in the gale. I found shelter and a few fish in a little corner near the Otamatata mouth.
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- Back he goes, A luck shot with the 10 second timer!
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- Walking back to the truck from the mouth..
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- It’s a bit of a bush bash!
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- Sunday morning. Having a coffee and waiting for the sun to heat things up a bit..
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- Welcome rays of sunshine across the frozen ground..
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- Turned into the perfect sight fishing day. The second shortest day of the year!
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- There were good numbers of fish about. Difficult and spooky but my size 14 lightly weighted spider accounted for a few fish..
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- No wind all day! What a relief after the gale the previous day.
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- The fish were all in pretty good condition.
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- Evening on Benmore…
Looks like a great day, and perfect conditions, as you mentioned before the hills, would have helped the spotting. Even on the shortest day with the low sun angle.
Hope you recycled the beard into flies 🙂
I’m afraid I didn’t recycle the beard! I was once going to tie a “Ronan’s nose hair nymph” but it never materialised!!