The Bay of Pigs!
Lake Benmore from the boat was the plan. We arrived late because I slept in. The lake was blowing a gale! We drove towards the boat ramp, not too happy about our impending soaking while driving the boat back through the heavy wave to get to the mouth of the Ahuriri. I turned the truck around thinking we could use a different (much closer) access to launch the boat, but a sign clearly stated that no power boats were allowed.. so we turned around again and went back towards the boat ramp.. then we changed our minds altogether in favour of some exploration… I had never fished our chosen lake from a boat and only skimmed the surface from the shore so this was new for both of us. We searched lots of likely water and did quite a bit of drifting with limited success before drifting into one very good weedy bay. We moved about 10 browns to streamers landing a couple. The exploration continued. We checked out all sorts of water; all with potential for different times of year. Then one bay got our attention. We figured there would be a chance of a big trout because fish from the canals could get in. Soon after starting we spotted a monster brown beside the boat. He calmly drifted away and out of sight. Multiple drifts produced nothing and we didn’t see any more. Jeff had a huge streamer on which I was expecting to be eaten at any moment but it wasn’t. I was using a clear intermediate and Jeff was on a floater, both with weighted streamers. I decided to change to the di7 rig. Almost immediately, I was into a solid fish.. I hoped it was a brute but the short head shakes gave his size away. A good fish though and I kept it for dinner. A few drifts later a solid thump from the deep. I had counted the line down so I knew I was well below the surface. Jeff saw the flank and knew it was a big rainbow. I was well armed with my 8wt tcx and 13.5lb tippet. He fought hard and heavily before Jeff put the brute in his net. We chose Jeff’s net for the boat because of its long handle, never thinking it only went to 14lbs! We’ve both seen a few very big fish from the canals and we agreed the fish was not less than 20lbs and not more than 25lbs. Jeff named the bay “The Bay of Pigs”. Apt indeed. Our exploration day certainly paid off! It’s funny how fishing days transpire sometimes..
In other news, the Clutha is fishing okay. I think it will improve when (if) it rises. Much of the water I did well in last winter is too low now but there are new areas for me to explore. The power companies release huge amounts of water from Lake Hawea on a regular basis but the water is short-lived and not there for long enough for fish to move into certain ares, or so it seems.. I’ve also had a look at some other rivers which are open until the end of May around these parts, but with limited success. The potential is there though. All my personal fishing seems to be exploratory. Guiding is a little different. I had a great wilderness heli mission with Jesse & Kaisa recently. We saw about 15 and had 4 or 5 eat the fly. That day also included one of the most intense fish fights of my guiding so far! It included the fish going through a snag with me following to get it out, me falling in the river and drowning Jesse’s iphone which was safely (oops!) in my top wader pocket, the fish going through my legs mid stream and just madness in general, all in the 200m battle.. by some miracle we got the fish in the net… where the hook fell out! A fantail landed on the rod at the beginning of the fight. They say this is good luck. Maybe it is!
The next 3 days I’ll be out with Tim Kempton. I’m just off the vice after tying 30 flies.. I have a plan – sort of!!
Tight lines..
Ronan..
For bookings and information contact me ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website http://www.ronansflyfishingmissions.com
- A recent day exploring with Jeff gave some good results! We landed 4 including this one..
- ..and this one!! Not pretty but my biggest trout yet. Somewhere between 20 and 25lbs.
- Bringing in the brown trout at the Brown Trout Cafe in Athol on April 29th. “last orders”
- The Clutha has been okay so far this May. It’s still too low for much of the winter water to fire.
- Into a healthy rainbow..
- This one took me way out into the main flow which made him hard to tame..
- Sight fishing with nymphs has been better than streamers so far. This fish was spectacular!!
- Beautifully marked..
- Heading home!
- Some exploring on the Southern Lakes tributaries recently. The rainbows are keen to eat if you can find then. The browns seem to have other things on the minds!
- Cows near Wanaka. Managed to make 6 fish eat the streamer, landing one.
- A great day none the less!!
- These fresh of the vice for the next 3 days of guiding. I tied 6 of each all on Kamasan B175. This is a size 14, Tail red game, body possum, wing is cdc under deer hair. Works when trout are eating small stuff off the top. Specifics rarely important.
- Size 16, 2.5mm tungsten bead, possum dubbing, red game tail. Good profile with weight to get down into Mataura riffles.
- Size 16, red game tail, possum dubbing. The partner fly to the weighted 16. A deadly combination.
- Size 12. This for trout on emerging khaki queen. Simple and effective.
- Size 12. This time with the khaki queen nymph in mind.
- Time for one of these!