Ronan's Report

I’ve know Bob since my first visit to NZ in 2002, I actually met him a year or two before at his home in the US. He cooked dinner for us. A New York Strip I recall. A very memorable steak! Bob is now 82. My annual brief is to help him catch a trout on his birthday or he jokingly (I hope) reckons he wont be around for his next birthday. No pressure or anything!! To relieve some of the pressure we have 2 days to catch the fish because it’s still his birthday in the US the following day. To add a little pressure the trout must be caught on a dry. We’ve succeeded in our quest for the last 3 years and I hope we can keep it going for another 23! This year we had one heli day into a beautiful wilderness river and a day with our mutual friend Camo Guy in his boat. Both days we were successful on dries and the weather was great – unlike last year. Cheers Bob! Bring on the next one..

I remember fishing with Alun earlier in the season. We were having a good day. Fish were out and Alun was doing well. We got to a spot where we could see a fish on station. He wasn’t doing much but he was moving to eat now and again. Alun covered him a few times. He looked at the dry once but surprisingly never moved to the nymph. After a number of casts Alun gave me the rod to have a go. I sent in a cast and the trout moved right up to take the dry but refused last moment.. my dry / nymph continued to drift. As I was about to take it out to recast, 2 fish cruised up from a dark, deep pool below. I left my flies drifting.. they perfectly intercepted one of them which ate my nymph and I landed a lovely 5lb seatrout. A bonus, lucky fish. I was not complaining. After this I gave Alun back his rod and he had another cast to the original fish. Up he came and nailed the dry! A nice scenario from a great season.

The weather for this entire level 4 lockdown period has been flippin unbelievable. Blue skies and light wind just about every day. There is a chance we’ll drop back to level 3 in a week, in which case fishing will be allowed again. Personally I don’t think we should rush to level 3 but if we do drop back I’ll certainly be making the most of the last few days of the brown trout season. If not, there’s plenty fishing in winter whenever we do get to level 3, some of the best of the year actually. I’m missing the water, thats for sure, but I’m happy to wait for the greater good – not that I can harm myself or anybody else by fishing alone but that’s not the point..

Some nice images below from the season pre-lockdown. I hope you all enjoy them.. Also a link to a short film by a mutual client of myself and Jeff Forsee. It’s from a recent trip with his friend Matt. Thanks Pat! Here it is..

Let me know if you’d like to book a trip next season. No deposit necessary until the travel ban is lifted. Visit my website or email me ronan@sexyloops.com

Tight Lines, Ronan..