Ronan's Report

I’m just back from a weekend on the coast where Iza caught all the fish. Before I talk about that I better mention the action on Lake Dunstan from the previous weekend. I was thinking about going back up to the central lakes but the road was closed to towing vehicles due to ice. That made it easy to make up my mind and fish Dunstan. To my surprise the fishing was excellent! Good action all day long each day. I was blind fishing with buggers around the weed beds from the Wakatipu Anglers Club boat. When the sun came out I had opportunities to jump out of the boat a sight fish the flats. There weren’t many cruisers, but I got 2 or 3 over the 2 days. Blind buggering with the intermediate was the way to go. If you’re in the area get out there!

The West Coast mission will be up later in the week… Its starting to fire over there too… sort of!

Ronan..

I drove the boat through coloured water and thick, freezing fog to get to where we wanted to go. Visibility was down to as little as 20 meters, but it was usually about 100. I know the lake well but the fog was very disorienting. I was searching for a specific area but not to look a gift horse in the mouth, I stopped the boat at the first sight of some weed beds. I knew where I wanted to be, but I had no idea if we were there or not!  Mark quickly drew first blood with a big 5.5lb rainbow. Before long he had another and then we drifted off the hot spot.  Trying to back track to the hotspot just didn’t work. I could not find it even though were we very close to it. Fog will do that. The drift was minimal due to little or no breeze; usually none, but there was some moving water from flooded rivers entering the lake. We haphazardly cruised along looking for more weeds while trying to keep land in sight. Without a visual it would be all too easy to get very lost. As tough as it was to find good water in the fog and murk, finding it was the only way to succeed. Therefore it was that persistence in searching that made the difference. The fog didn’t lift until well into the afternoon and then everything became clear. Our combined effort for day 0ne was 9 rainbows between 4 and 5.5lbs. We had no browns.

Day 2 started with a hard frost but there was no fog. We decided to go back to the same place. We hoped that the rivers would have dropped and cleared a bit over night and that the lake would be cleaner as a result. No such luck! Rain in the headwaters did the opposite. With the water even dirtier than the previous day, it was hard to find weed beds and the fishing started out very difficult. Mark managed 2 fast fish as per day 1 and that was it for quite a while. We used the same gear as day 1, Intermediate lines and buggers fished very slowly to match the extremely slow and delicate takes. After a while we realised the best fishing was in shallower, weedless extra dirty water. Weird. Once we cracked onto this we did well. Fewer big fish but similar numbers. At about 2pm the forecast SE change came in with a vengeance. The waves got big and messy. We braved it for an hour or so and caught a couple more fish, then moved to the shelter of a willow lined shore. I had seen some big browns under those willows while bank fishing a few weeks prior but did not catch any. I had a good feeling. Within a few minutes of starting the drift I was into a heavy, yellow bellied brown. He picked up the bugger with a tiny bit more haste than all the other fish from the weekend, but it would still be regarded as a gentle take. I don’t think I’ve ever observed such consistent delicate takes in my life; the same in both species. Every fish we hooked bar none.

Mark and I had one more each before the end of the drift and the end of the weekend. Our combined effort was 12 to about 4.5lbs. 7 rainbows and 5 browns. A total of 21 for the weekend. (11 for Mark… fucker!)

I might go back tomorrow!!

Ronan..

Mark into a great brown.

Heading out on a cold, misty morning..

Stopping on at the first sign of a weed bed paid off for Mark..

And what a fish. About 5lbs.

One for me as the sun tries to break through the mist..

The sun eventually came out to warm things up a bit!

Hot tea is a god send on these freezing days!

Benmore with Mark, July 2014 058_1024x768

One fat hen on Iza's neatly tied blue bugger!

The buff gives great comfort driving into the freezing air.

On route.. Day 2.

Some flies I tied for the trip..

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Benmore with Mark, July 2014 029_576x768

The photo does this fish no justice..

It looked alive as it surfaced!!

A drift close to the truck produced this cracker and 2 more smaller fish..

Another mission winds down..

Within about 30 mins it went from flat calm to big waves and white caps!

We caugh some fish in extremely coloured water..

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All big fish on day one. 4 to 5.5lbs.

It's always good to be on the water but when nature steps up a gear its even better!

Yet another solid fish for Mark..

15000 escaped salmon certainly attracts anglers! Iza and I went to fish the Tekapo canals near the salmon farms recently. The weather was perfect and there were anglers everywhere. We found our spot in the picket fence on Saturday morning but the fish did not come easily! Bait fishermen were catching a few. Iza’s soft-bait was not getting much attention and I had to pick my cast with the fly. We walked some of the the canal and got away from the masses. There were clearly a few hot-spots but we chose to have a bit of room to fish freely instead of fighting for position. Just up-stream of the cages there was not an angler to be seen. I walked and stalked from time to time and always saw a few fish, including some of the monsters up to 20lbs but these were never too far from their main food source . The smaller browns, the ones not thriving on fish-farm pellets,  were the ones I most enjoyed targeting. They were tough. Bright sun, glass calm and uniform canal edges meant anything out of the ordinary was noticed by my quarry. There were decent numbers of these 2to 4 lb browns and I have a feeling that this is a virtually unused NZ fishery. I know people fish near the cages for escapees and the pigs of trout that eat pellets, but who walks the edges to sight fish? I’m sure a few do. I will again that’s for sure.

The highlight of the trip was  hearing a loud call from Iza, I turned around thinking (and hoping!) that it was a “I have a fish” call and not a “I’m snagged” call. She was hooked up alright. I ran to her side to help her land whatever she was hooked into. The 5.5 lb salmon jumped repeatedly and fought hard but Iza kept the pressure on and before too long the fish was safely in my net. She has caught a few little fish and lost a big brown at her feet on the Waiau, but this was her first big fish hooked and landed by herself. A great and memorable moment for any angler. Its also some pressure off me!

It needs to be mentioned that these salmon farms are different to those in Ireland, Scotland, Norway and BC. They are contained in inland, man made waterways and do not appear to have any negative impact on wild trout at all. Quite the opposite in fact. Can a lesson be learned here?

Ronan..