Ronan's Report

It’s busy now! Not much time to think let alone write. The usual for this time of year. The pictures below take me up to early January. They begin with the continuation of Jeffs trip. A tough trip in general but we put it together and had some brilliant moments and solid fishing… and a blank or two!

Christmas was a family and friends affair. I always keep a week over Christmas free just for that. There’s usually a straggler or two who appreciate a place to go for the celebrations, namely Alan, who didn’t make it this year. Hopefully we’ll see him next season. Wesley and his family were here for a few days, Guy was here as always and Robbie for the first time in ages. Usually he fishes on Christmas day but now that he’s retired he’s a bit more relaxed. Plenty fishing chat, beers and craic. Absolutely brilliant to be surrounded by friends and family.

After a generally tough early season things have improved a lot. I’ve really enjoyed this summer guiding. I generally don’t guide much locally from about mid jan til march because there’s nothing much left in the rivers after the farmers irrigate their land. They also get quite warm, due in part to their low flows. Instead I’ve been road tripping and getting into a great mix of water from Southland to Mackenzie Country to the Maniototo. It’s been really good but more on that when the relevant pics make it into the blog.

One thing I’ve been doing recently with great success is alternating between two patterns which have been killing it for me this summer season. Dry fly fishing has been A1 and I’m talking dries now. One is my Tussock Cicada in a 10 (also a good caddis pattern) and the other is Mcphails Blowfly. Both available from Fulling Mill. What I like about this combo is the contrast. If one doesn’t work the other probably will. Now that I think about it, I should have fished them both together instead of changing from one to the other.. I used to do that in the past and I really enjoyed fishing 2 dries. When they want dries, fish 2! Why not.. Next time. I’m glad writing this reminded me of that old tactic.

To see my full range of flies with Fulling Mill click here. There’s a few additional sizes this year which really add to the versatility of the collection. My hotspot is now available in a 14. The brown nymph is available in a 16 which is a little heavier than the claret 16. My cicadas are available in a 6 so when you need a big terrestrial you have it. Also the willow grubs are now available in size 18 and 20. Check them out! Also available in Patagonia Queenstown. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about them.

Next season is filling up quickly. Feel free to get in touch about booking or with any questions. There’s still availability in April and May this season and through the winter season. ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.

Tight lines everyone.. Ronan..

My first visit to South Westland was during my initial visit to New Zealand back in 2003. I had an immediate connection to the place. It felt like home. Over the years I spent lots of time there with many friends made along the way. I lived there for 4 months at one stage. So many adventures and stories – roofing sheds way down the Cascade River, night time earthquakes in the wilderness knocking me to the ground, trouble with the cops for night shooting where we shouldn’t be, catching a big shark at Open Bay Island, trying to surf, trying to hunt, camping with Iza, lots of fishing and so much more.. On a recent trip to the Coast I brought my 2 kids for the first time. We rented a little beach house in Okuru for the week. An ideal base. The beach in front of the house can be a great fishing spot. The scene from the beach back towards the mountains was the scene that connected me to the place 21 years ago. I remember the moment because it was much more than just a beautiful view. It was like I recognised it. It was very special for me to see my 2 kids in that scene.

I wasn’t sure how the kids would cope with the sandflies! On the first day they didn’t seem to be around but at the end of the day they both had lots of bites! especially Adaline. Lesson learned for me. Every day after that I put repellant on them – non deet stuff. It worked really well.

I didn’t have to try too hard to entertain them. They made their own fun. They loved the fishing and spin casting, building dams, skipping stones, shooting cans with the air rifle, beach walks, climbing rocks and so on. All the stuff that kids are supposed to do but that seem to be less and less of a priority these days. Not for me though. I think proper rough and tumble play is essential for kids. Their playful, adventurous personalities suited the coast. They loved every minute of it.

Adaline is just old enough to learn to drive the boat. She was pretty good at manoeuvring me around the shorelines while I sight-fished from the roof of the cabin. Her throttle control nearly threw me off the roof at one stage but she learned not to be too quick with it. When she gets a little stronger she’ll be better. It’s great fun for me watching them enjoy and learn about all the stuff that surrounds fishing. I’m not pushing them in to it, I’ll just expose them to it all and hopefully they’ll find their own path. I’ll be there to help them along.

It was a great week for everyone. Wesley had his own boat with him and had some very good fishing on the lakes. 7 coast days and only one rain day. Thats as good as you can expect over there. Iza was away visiting her family so unfortunately she wasn’t with us. I know she’d have loved to too. Also if she was there I wouldn’t have forgotten the hair brush for Adaline – I improvised with 3 forks. The kids are looking forward to going back – and so am I.

Some photos below from a few guide days over winter. Also some blind and sight fishing from recent trips to the Mackenzie lakes and a coastal lagoon. Buzzer fishing in the calm was superb at both locations. Early season buzzer fishing on NZ lakes can be unbelievable – and it’s still a relatively under appreciated way to fish. Buzzers – aka midge, chironomid or duck fly.

The new season has landed. I went out on Oct 1 to explore new water but couldn’t get there. Private forest roads and lambing kept the obvious 3 ways in unaccessible. I learned a bit though, including who to contact to get access and how to get there so I’ll have another crack when the lambing is over.

To check out my flies available at Fulling Mill click here. To get in touch about guiding this season or next you can email me ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website. Here’s a link to a recent Fulling Mill blog I wrote about September and October in NZ.

Tight lines and free Palestine – what a horrible year it’s been for them. Ronan..

I love the familiarity of arriving into Dublin airport. Arriving home. It had been 4 years and I was looking forward to that familiarity more than I realised. It felt great to be back. The family and I were all out of the airport quickly and onto a bus west. The public bus service in Ireland is fantastic. The bus was comfortable and I enjoyed the 2.5 hour trip across the country to Galway, while catching up on a little sleep. My brother and my mother picked us up from Galway. Iza and the kids travelled with my mother and I travelled with Conor. This gave me a great opportunity to pick up a few beers to make the final leg of the journey to Roundstone even better. Relaxing in the passenger seat chatting to Conor, drinking a couple of nice IPAs, enjoying the lakes and mountains as we continued west and then the familiar sight of Roundstone. As tempting as stopping for a pint in Kings was, we went straight home. It was so good to see everyone. Siblings, parents nieces and nephew. Home for the next 5 weeks. The objective now is to spend time with family, catch up with friends, drink a shcather of pints, and go fishing. I’ll talk about the fishing…

I expected the majority of my fishing would be on the Kylemore and Inagh fisheries so the first thing I did was buy a full season salmon license for e100. I was told that it’s mostly catch and release now. I’m all for C&R of course, but I couldn’t help seeing the hypocrisy of imposing this regulation on the angler while salmon farms continue to operate in the bays spreading disease, sea lice and pollution amongst wild populations. Anglers never impacted stocks to any serious degree, but here we are picking up the tab in a vain attempt at conservation. The ambulance parked at the bottom of the cliff.

I was there when the rain came after a long dry spell. The hottest and driest on record I think. The timing was perfect with the rain coming at the end of June when the first grilse run usually arrives. This should get the fish moving up river. Dad and I spent a few days out on the water after the first rain, but we were a bit early it seemed. We didn’t see many. I was lucky to get a beautiful fresh grilse of about 6lbs on our second day out. We left it a while before going out again, waiting on word of grilse being caught.

The seatrout numbers on Inagh were encouraging. Dad was getting decent numbers for his clients. He had a great day with our mutual friend, Marcus when they got 8 to about 2lbs – a very decent west of Ireland seatrout. Dad had another day out on Inagh on his own where he landed a dozen seatrout and a 6lb grilse. Fishing like the old days. I was told that the some of the local salmon farms were not operating this season which would certainly explain the decent numbers of seatrout. It just goes to show how quickly seatrout could reestablish themselves if they were allowed to. Is there any chance the Irish government could just outlaw open pen salmon farming? Imagine what we’d gain? But alas, we sacrifice our wild fish and fishing to make the Mowi wankers in Norway even richer. Sickening. Anyway, We also fished Kylemore a couple of times. Fish were lower down in the system but we didn’t see any on the lake. Kylemore is a tough lake in general, painfully so at times but it can really turn on now and again. Every day I fish it, it’s in the hope of that magic window which so rarely comes. There’s also a chance of a big brown here which may offer a better chance of good fishing than grilse do – there’s not much know about targeting these big browns though so the only way to go after them would be through trial and error, and probably with a depth sounder.

Towards the end of the trip I had a couple of days on Corrib. One day with John and One with dad. On each day the fishing was good in the morning. We fished small dry sedges (size 14) and these gave us the best results. After the first few drifts each day the fishing went dead – and stayed dead for the rest of the day. I think the poor fishing in the afternoons was easy to explain. The water was warm. It felt like 20c when I put my hand in. I guess in the mornings the fish had some chance to feed in the relatively cooler water. June was incredibly hot and even though the weather was pretty cool in July, the lake temperature hadn’t dropped substantially.

So to sum up, the fishing was hard. Ireland is rarely easy and this was no exception. I’m happy with my lot though. I was thrilled to catch that stunning grilse on the Inagh river beats – certainly the highlight. I wish I was out with dad on his bumper day but I was away with the family in Sardinia. It was good to see some seatrout about. Many were very small but there were a few decent stumps about too. This might just have been a case of meeting the main run as it arrived, but let’s hope this will continue to be a good season for them and not just a flash in the pan. Corrib was good in the mornings of the 2 days I fished it so I was happy with that. I hoped to get out with Tom Doc too but for one reason or another we didn’t manage a day together. Next time hopefully! I tried for a pollack (or a bass) off the rocks with my friend Nigel too, but didn’t get a touch. Unfortunately I never made it out on sea in a boat. The weather was pretty wild out there for much of the time I was home. I don’t have a hell of a lot to report from Sardinia but I’ll compile that next.. Currently, back in New Zealand, I’ve been putting all my time into restoring my boat. Just that, no fishing! It’s complete now so I’ll report on that soon too, she’s looking great…

There’s still some space available for this coming season. Get in touch if you’d like to book something in or to ask any questions. Email ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website. You can check out my range of Fulling Mill fly patterns by clicking this link.

Tight Lines, Ronan..

There was a nice mix of fishing to be had in April. At times the rivers were in great shape between rain events and I made the most of those opportunities for myself and my clients. There were a few days where the rain pushed me away from the rivers to take on some lakes – this worked out very well. As anyone who reads this knows by now, I love any opportunity to fish the lakes. Generally my clients prefer rivers but for one reason or another, most of my regular clients have fished lakes with me by now. Some are a little bit on the fence with some aspects of still waters but the majority now love it and usually request at least one lake day on a multi day trip.

Later in the month my streamers really came into their own. As some chunky browns congregated around some high country stream mouths, it was time to get stuck in. I had some great fishing for myself and for my clients landing trout with a few over the 7lb mark.

After 7 months looking after Adaline and Lochlan, our Au pair, Ilana wanted to catch a trout. We got out for a day on Dunstan where I figured trolling sinking lines would easily do the business. It didn’t! She lost one right away, then got a few hits before finally (after many hours!) getting stuck in a 1lb rainbow. She was delighted and relieved, we all were! I prepared it for dinner, crudo style with lemon, salt, olive oil and capers. A lovely way to eat fresh, wild trout.

It was great to see many of my regulars over the month and a few new recruits too. Seeing people coming back for more certainly makes it all worth while.

If you’d like to check out my range of flies for NZ you can do so on the Fulling Mill website. It’s winter now so I recommend my hotspot nymphs for the larger rivers which remain open and my range of streamers for the rivers and lakes. You can see them all here.

Next season is filling up fast but feel free to get in touch to lock in a trip. You can contact me at ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.

Tight lines. Ronan..