Ronan's Report

Between late April and now I fished with a few good friends. First up was Dan, it was good to spend time with him on the water hoping for some late season magic. It didn’t really happen on the river unfortunately but thats how it goes. Staying at Peters Farm Lodge in the Maniototo was a bit of a treat. A cozy, homely accommodation with plenty old character. Getting back there after a massive day on the river was just right. We cooked enough for 4 and to our surprise we ate it all. It really was a big day. We burned off whatever food we had and a lot more. A frosty start on day 2, we gave it our all again. I had a small stream in mind but it had virtually no flow. Things didn’t really go our way but it was still a solid couple of days. Fishing is certainly not all about catching! We did manage to scratch a few out over the couple of days though.

Myself and Jeff struggle to line up our fishing schedules these days. However, we managed a trip in May and one in June. Long overdue. We had 3 fishing days in all, one in May and 2 in June. On the May Day we tore up the lake in Jeff’s family boat to a distant river. $100 worth or petrol each way. 100hp 2 stroke engines, holy feck they’re thirsty.. It was worth it though. We got into quite a few gleaming, fighting fit rainbows on a perfect weather day in a spectacularly beautiful, wild environment. Not a person to be seen.

In June we went up to Mackenzie Country for a couple of lake days. Jeff towed his raft to give us more options. We booked into Buscot Station backpackers. A place I’ve been staying at for over 20 years now. Tony owns and runs the place. He can talk at length on any topic with genuine knowledge from both sides. It’s a pleasure to stay there. Having the craic with Tony, warm clean beds, interesting guests; it’s always a great stay. Jeff and I had 2 nights there. A perfect fishing base. Day 1 we fished on foot. We walked a lake edge for the day mostly sight fishing. I also picked up a couple blind fishing murky water. The best fish of the day was a cracking 6.5lber. Sight fished with one of dad’s deadly epoxy buzzers. Even if still water fish are not specifically feeding on midge pupa they nearly always recognise them as food making them one of the most deadly flies to fish on any still water at any time of year. On day 2 Jeff put his raft in. Same lake but today we had the ability to fish the water we couldn’t reach from the shore. We did well. Landed about 7 up to 5 or 6lbs ish. The best thing about the raft day was how it tied the whole section of lake together. We covered a lot of water and left no stone unturned. between the shore day and the day afloat we now have a really good understanding of that part of the lake. Suddenly it doesn’t seem so vast.

Most seasons I catch up with Dougal for a fish. We left it late this year but had a good day on a high country dam in mid may. We met at the Adventure Hub Cafe. A great spot for a coffee and a chat before venturing up to the lake. Dougal wanted to learn the lake so he brought his boat. This suited me. For a change I wasn’t the one towing or operating the boat. I was able to advise Dougal on the safe runs and areas to be careful in and where I found fish over the years. We’d pull up the boat and fish the shore in opposite directions working the rocky edges. Thats where the fish seem to be late season. We had lovely conditions. Light wind and cloud and plenty active fish. Small brown buggers in the light wind worked best. A great day and I took a couple for dinner.

Had a good day out with Conor for the first time in a few years. Guy also came along and Lochlan too. fishing was surprisingly slow but we all had some action. I think we needed some wind. No wind and full sun all day. Thats not always ideal late season. Lochlan lost 3 in about 10 minutes. He wasn’t bothered, thankfully.

I had a few good days guiding too. Great to see Brendan over for his late season visit. He landed some brutes of trout. Nice to take Chris out again after so many years. We had a day pre covid with 2 of his friends but this time he was back to get the full one on one fly casting / fishing experience. New to fly he did great over 2 days catching fish both days and really getting to grips with casting.

To check out my range of flies over on Fulling Mill click here. 4 new patterns coning next year. I’m looking forward to seeing them available. Next season is almost fully booked but there’s still a few gaps here and there. If you’d like to get in touch you can do so through my website or email ronan@sexyloops.com

Peace – wouldn’t that be nice. Ronan..

I had great few days fishing with Graeme down south in early October. The highlight was 2 days on a lake we both wanted to explore. I had a tiny bit of info about it but it was really a blank canvas for both of us. The challenge in exploring a new lake is how to approach it. There were 4 main types of water – stream mouths, shallow reedy bays, native scrub shorelines and beaches. We spent time on each and covered most of the lake over two days. To our surprise, the stream mouths were totally dead. The reedy bays were okay on day 1 but very dead on day 2 – apart from a superb 7lber, the only fish we moved from the reeds that day. The native scrub shorelines were okay but we needed to cover a lot of water to find fish. The beaches were consistently good and really beautiful to fish. Sight fishing would be possible from the beaches although we got them all blind fishing – mostly with my Bruiser pattern from Fulling Mill. The lake was weird though. In a good way. It didn’t feel like fishing for trout for me. I felt like I was chasing black bass in another country! Not a single fish rose in 2 days which compounded my feelings. We had calm conditions at times with chironomid hatching but nothing on top. This made the search more challenging because there were no clues. We had good success all up with 10 fish for the 2 days. We worked for them. We were on the water early each day and fished til almost dark each day. Without fish rising or the sight fishing option we had to continuously cast and cover water each day – mostly from the drifting boat. I grew up with this type of marathon fly fishing and I love it. For many anglers it’s too much, too much like a workout and I get that. It is a work out but sometimes it’s the only way. The lake was too high to wade any of the shorelines apart from the beaches. It would be a very different place in low water. I’m looking forward to another visit.

I’ve included some pics from last winter – Some great days out guiding. Other days with my kids and with friends and sometimes both together. Lochlan and Adaline are both regularly catching a few fish now. Lochlan seems more interested than Adaline at this stage – mainly because we sometimes go for a pint and a game of pool afterwards. Not sure why he’d enjoy the pub?!

January, February and March are full but besides that I have some availability. Feel free to get in touch at ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website . To have a look at my range of flies over at Fulling Mill click here.

Tight lines and Free Palestine, Ronan..

What a month October was. After a dry winter, the rain came with a vengeance in September. By October most rivers were too full and dirty to fish. My policy is to never cancel because there’s always somewhere to fish regardless of past or present weather – and there is! But I can tell you, I was stretched at times in the last month. It became a game of watching online river flows like a hawk. Waiting for gaps between rain events and snowmelt. The latter is so hard to gauge. I’d check the flow late in the evening and it’s looking positive, check again in the morning and it’s jumped 2 cumecs but there’s been no rain.. feckin snowmelt. Sometimes I could successfully get in and fish a section of river before it was blown again the next day – these were the wins!

Another challenge was the state of the 4×4 tracks to get to some of the locations I fish when the shit hits the fan. Holes, ruts, washouts, river crossings etc.. “thanks for the four wheel driving extravaganza” one client said. 4x4ing is usually a relatively small a part of this game but in the last month it was almost a daily occurrence. I had to use my rear locker and low range on multiple occasions during October. The vehicle took some abuse but thankfully I was never stuck for too long. I think only one flat tire for the month was pretty good going. Having had a triple locked 80 series Land Cruiser for 9 years I was a bit spoiled with off road capability but so far I’m loving the Hilux. I’d like some more clearance but besides that I’m very happy with it..

With all the challenges came a few blank days but also some incredible fishing. Most notable was the number of very big trout. I’ve always liked October for big trout and the one just gone has been one of the best I’ve had. Big fish for clients and a few for me too. No doubles though, but there’s plenty time to search out one of those!

I do like when the weather doesn’t cooperate if I’m being honest – although, not as much as the month just gone! I like being pushed onto still waters with clients who’d normally prefer rivers. It gives me an opportunity to show them just how good still waters can be. It also adds locations to my repertoire which helps keep it interesting for me and my clients. Most of my regular clients are now more than happy with either river or still-water, whichever makes most sense on the day, regardless of the weather. The lakes really shouldn’t be a back-up plan, for me they’re a legit option on any day.

With all the flood water around for the last month I have barely seen my local rivers, so I’m looking forward to that. Hopefully the flood damage is minimal. With floods increasing in regularity and vigour some local water can become unrecognisable after a big flood. This one seems like a prolonged flood more than a big one so hopefully no damage will be done. Time will tell.

For the flies that did the damage all month you can check them out here.. For bookings or enquiries you can contact me on ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.

No end to the list of war crimes and atrocities from Israel. The plight of the Palestinians is never far from my thoughts… but the world just watches a live holocaust unfolding…

Tight Lines, Ronan..

As fly fishermen we often refer to the fishing gods. Good luck or bad, the fishing gods are there. I think for many of us its mostly in jest but with a little belief in there too. Maybe even a lot of belief. After a great moment or a great day I frequently find myself thanking something that I can’t see, usually looking up while doing it. This – or these, are the fishing gods. There would seem to be more than one as we always refer to fishing gods, plural.

On a day with Marcus earlier in the summer the fishing gods played a major role. The plan was to go after a big trout on a river we both love. I had been having a shocking run of luck on it. Constant bad days for almost 2 seasons. Everything going wrong – perfect forecasts turned to shite, beaten to it due to a flat tire, getting jumped or just generally not getting it right. For years previous to to that run of bad luck I couldn’t put a foot wrong. The fishing gods nearly always seemed to be on my side. I had a feeling that they were about to side with me (and Marcus) again.

We set off in the morning with a great forecast. Quietly confident that we’d get it right. We gave ourselves 2 days to do it so it was a big advantage to know that if things went wrong we had another chance the next day. It all started when I got overtaken by a guide (we’ll call him Jim) on approach to the dirt track. He accelerated ahead as I got stuck behind a farm truck. I wasn’t happy about this. The farm truck stayed on the main road as I peeled off onto the dirt track and put the boot down. I realised to my delight that my opponent didn’t take the shortcut – so I did. I cut him off at the top and took my rightful place in front. I knew I’d see him at the first gate anyway. When we got to the gate Marcus hopped out to open it. I drove through as did the other guide. Then the fecker tried to sneak around me! I was out of the vehicle at this stage to have a chat. When he saw me he stopped. “Ronan, I didn’t know you in your new truck” he said! We had a good laugh and then chatted about how we’d share the river. We both wanted the first beat. I was just about to let him take his first choice (since we had 2 days) but he got in before I could speak to offer a coin toss. Why not I thought. He won the toss so got his first choice. I actually prefer the other beat anyway but logistically it made a little more sense to do the lower beat first but it really didn’t matter. So meeting Jim changed the order of our days to the 2nd beat on day 1 and the 1st beat on day 2 as opposed to the other way around.

We got to the second beat and tackled up. Everything felt good. It was peaceful with nobody else around and warming up nicely. There was no rush getting started. The sun is very important for spotting and it encourages the cicadas out of the ground so we let it rise a bit before starting. Not too far up there was a very good pool which I know well. We took our time on it fishing both banks and picked up a few blind fishing. Two 3lbers and an incredibly fat 6, all on my green cicada. A really great start. As the day progressed the cicadas started to get on the water. Nothing major, just little flurries of them now and again. Marcus had a couple of opportunities both resulting in an eat but no connection. Then, in a pool I don’t generally see a fish in, we spotted a brute. Marcus got into position. I knew it was a very big fish. I could see the depth, width and length clearly in the water. There was a flurry of cicadas coming down at that time and the trout was making the most of it. Trout often cruise the pools looking for cicadas making them a little harder to intercept. This fish was on station only moving forwards and backwards a little while swinging left and right to slurp down cicadas. This gave us a great chance. A dream shot at a really big fish. First cast was dead right. Fish came over and a refused. Second cast on target – another refusal. I quickly took off the green cicada and put on a smaller tussock cicada. Cast 3 was on target and the brute lunged over to eat it just like a natural. The strike was good and fish was on. I was confident from the first sight that he was a double. During the fight I remained confident. The moment he went in the net I called it. “10 maybe 10 and a half” I said. I lifted the scale and he went straight to 10 and a bit pounds. Just over the increment. 10 is the magic number for trout fishermen and Marcus now has a magnificent double to talk about. He’s been close many times and this was something he really wanted and worked hard for so it couldn’t be more deserved. Come what may for the rest of the day or the next day, we’d achieved what we came here to do.

On day 2 we fished the first beat. We saw very few and never had a decent shot all day. We met some Fish & Game officers up there who told us they’d just spoken with a couple of anglers who were dropped off somewhere on the 2nd beat in the morning. It’s a good thing our order of beats changed or those fellas would have been in front of us and we’d never have known without a vehicle to mark their presence. Fishing behind someone on this river would be a waste of time. So this is where the fishing gods came in. Jim overtaking us in the morning lead to us getting the order of our two days just right. It simply had to be in the order we had it in, and that order was down to luck – or fishing gods! Jim told me afterwards that he had no joy on the first beat either so it really was vital to fish the second beat on day 1. So, a big thank you to the fishing gods! Whether you believe in them or not..

This brings me to March so I’ll get onto that as soon as I have a chance. If you’d like to see the flies I use on a daily basis, including everything from this report please click this link. They’re all available from Patagonia Queenstown too. Right now for the April hatches my Kiwi Dun 14 with a 16 claret nymph trailer is deadly. Best fished on 5x tippet. I’ve been getting some good reports about my streamers doing the business on Lough Mask in Ireland and my hotspot and claret nymphs are working well for stalking trout in the UK. Great to hear the positive feedback. Next season is about half full so please get in quick if you’d like to book. Visit my website or email me ronan@sexyloops.com

Tight Lines.. Ronan..

December and into January… December is a great month to fish. Trout start looking up and responding well to terrestrials. Everyone seems to love dry fly action! There were some nice mayfly hatches too. Usually short and fickle but we made the best of it when it happened. As January arrived many of my local fisheries got too warm for good (or ethical) fishing. With this I venture away to find cooler water. I like to mix it up anyway.

One day I went to a high country river in the hope of some cicada action. We got to the river at 9am and got the piece of water I hoped for. At 11am, perched high on a rock I could see a vehicle (large black ute) pull up 1 kilometre above us. They could see us I’m sure and I’m pretty sure they saw my vehicle earlier too. It’s totally unethical to do this. It takes quite a brass neck to arrive there so late and then just cut someone off. They were just too far up for me to go marching up there for an argument so we pulled out and went downstream only to get jumped again by another clown fishing downstream from an upstream access point. A really infuriating day. We should all treat other anglers as we’d like to be treated. To cut someone off so blatantly is basically stealing someones experience. I’m pretty sure I know who was in the black ute and they should know better. Sadly, I heard that they make a habit of this. Against the odds we managed a couple of good trout! One on my cicada and the other on my unweighted nymph.

All my flies are working well on their relative days. They’re available from Fulling Mill or in-store at Patagonia Queenstown.

More about January in my next blog! Its been a challenging but great month. A few days off now before KC and Mark arrive.. I’m looking forward to seeing these 2 again!

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..

After a hot and dry summer I was very happy to feel the weather cooling down. Autumn is a lovely time of year to fish as the leaves change colour. Trout also change colour as they darken up before spawning. Their colours can be quite spectacular. We generally get regular hatches on the rivers in April brought on by the cooler temperatures. These can produce some great sport. This year the hatches have been fickle so far, likely due to too much water in the rivers. Fish start to move up rivers and congregate at river mouths in preparation for spawning. This can also lead to great fishing opportunities. I have only a few more bookings for the season so it looks like I’ll have some time to indulge myself! I’m looking forward to that. Locally the rivers are in flood right now and they’re very slow to drop because the land is so saturated. One extreme to the other. It’s no surprise as this season of extremes continues. There’s always somewhere to fish though so I’m not too worried!

It was great to take Bernt Johansson fishing in February! We Have a few mutual friends – Paul and Stefan to name a couple. Bernt is a very successful distance casting competitor and has been part of the sexyloops brotherhood for years. Hopefully we’ll meet again.

Much and February and March are covered in the photos below. It wasn’t always easy but the results were mostly very good. I might actually get up to date with my photos when I next write a blog! This year I’ve always been at least a month behind. Enjoy the pics anyway! They tell the story..

You can check out my flies here. If you’d like to get in touch about guided fly fishing over the remainder of this season, over winter or next season you can contact me ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.

Tight lines! Ronan..

It’s great to be busy guiding again after a couple of hard years. November was a challenging month to guide. Not many nice days! Lots of rain and stormy conditions. The rivers were regularly coloured up as a result. Now and again I had to use lakes and still waters to keep my clients on the fish – but of course I adore this type of fishing so for me it’s not really a plan B, it’s just another option. All up it was a successful month through bad weather. I enjoy the challenge of finding good, clear water to fish through these rain events and I’m yet to cancel a guide day due to weather or water conditions. There’s always water to fish!

Fish were a little leaner than usual earlier on in the season. I put it down to the harsh winter and more specifically a monster flood last July which completely changed many parts of my local rivers. Some of my favourite beats were unrecognisable when I went back to fish them with dad in October. Fish numbers and quality certainly suffered as a result. It was really heartbreaking at times. Walking upstream and not even knowing where I was on the beat. Large corner pools gone – pools that I never thought would move. Long sections of pools and bends bulldozed straight and useless by 460 cumecs. I’ve been using all my spare time trying to get out there to rediscover them and find out where is or is not worth fishing. Thankfully I’m getting a good handle on where is fishing well. Fish are in good condition once again and the rivers are starting to get comfortable with their new courses. Certainly my biggest fear going forward are these huge floods. Hundred year floods they call them… the annual hundred year flood I call them! The flood in July did so much damage around the country. I can’t imaging what 2 or even 3 of these events in a short space of time could do. Utter destruction to rivers and fish populations. I have already been hearing some sad stories from the top of the South Island. Anyway, right now the rivers down here are recovering well and fish numbers are still healthy in most of the rivers. Many rivers were unaffected, thankfully.

My own fishing was pretty limited through November because I was so busy with work. I did get out for a relaxing few hours before a 10 day straight stint. Also one big day through a gorge on my annual pilgramige to catch up with my old friend. Check out the full story here. It’s well worth a read!

The gallery below covers the highlights of a busy month of guiding. I was out most days and now I’m taking a few much needed days off. When I get a chance I’ll put together an account of my time fishing with dad in September and October. We fished 26 days so it certainly warrants its own report!

You can check out my fly patterns, the ones I use on a daily basis over here on the Fulling Mill website. If you’re within NZ I may be able to help you out with a deal. Just let me know. I currently have 7 patterns available in various sizes but I expect to have 7 more patterns available next month.

My season ahead is pretty much full – There may be a gap here or there although I know April still has gaps. Feel free to get in touch about guided fishing this season or next (which is already filling up). Contact me ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.

Tight lines.. Ronan..

So far, this has been a good winter season. The Clutha has been the best in a few years. Still not great but way better than the last 2 winters – which were shite. That’s encouraging. Most days out have produced some decent results but the big fish are still nowhere to be seen. I believe the larger fish (5.5lb plus) are running as early as March and by the time me and the other winter anglers get to the river in May, they’re nowhere to be seen. If you don’t hit these fish on the run, it seems we’re not likely to get a shot at them at all. That’s my take on it anyway.

Myself and Jeff did our thing with Nick Reygaert in another episode of Pure Fly NZ. It’s always great to take on an episode with Nick and Jeff. We just go fishing – and often somewhere totally new! All the fun of fishing is still there, even with a camera on us. There’s no pressure – we just let it happen and it generally does. I guess there’s been a learning curve to get to this stage. You can’t force it – the harder you try, the less likely you are of getting a good result (I had to learn this – Nick already knew of course!!). It seems to be one of the few times in a season where Jeff and I actually fish together so that’s another bonus. I’m looking forward to seeing what Nick comes up with after the edit. I won’t give too much away but we certainly kept the best til last!

It’s been a great winter to catch up some good friends on the water too. I’ve had some cracking days out with Wesley, Conor, Matt and Chris. The results are well documented in the photos below.

In other news, I’ve been laid up for a while with a pretty bad injury. Recovery will take a while and fishing will have to wait at least another week or 10 days. I also have covid but to my great surprise I’m almost completely asymptomatic. After 2 dreadful flus this winter, I expected covid to kick my arse, but it didn’t – so I’ll take that bit of luck!

That’s all for now. Feel free to get in touch about winter guiding or trips next season. Contact me ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.

Here is a link to my fly patterns on Fulling Mill and this is my latest piece for the their blog.

Tight lines.. Ronan..

Just a quick blog today to clear the decks. I had a busy and successful season finale with some superb trout for clients. One very big fish to report on too. Before I get to that I’d like to share the rest of the seasons highlights. It’s a while since I put up a blog so some of these photos go right back to summer! I’ll also be changing back to the previous blog format after this one. Paul and I made this change back to the old format because it seemed like a good Idea, but the one I’ve been using for the last few years is much better for images. I put a slideshow at the bottom or you can click on the thumbnail images, but you have to go back to click the next one. WordPress can be very user unfriendly at times!!

Some exciting stuff coming up – Jeff and I will be doing another episode of Pure Fly NZ with Nick Reygaert. We have some ideas but nothing is set in stone as yet. Also the Piscatorial pot! I probably wont run it this month but I hope to run it in June. We’ll certainly need a good stock of wood for the brazier – which wont be a problem! Also a potential visit to the coast on the cards..

If you’d like to get in touch about guided fly fishing next season please get in touch. The season is already quite full but still some decent gaps for multi-day trips. ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.

Enjoy the pics below and I’ll be back soon with something more!

   Tight Lines, Ronan..

ps, Here is a link to my flies available from Fulling Mill. 

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