Ronan's Report

About a year ago I noticed some good looking water on Lake Wanaka from the top of Rocky Mountain. The weekend before last I went to check it out. The day was perfect, little or no wind with bright sunshine. I spotted the edges and saw very few cruisers. The few I cast to were extremely spooky and just fecked off from even the most delicate presentation. I was there for about 2 hours without catching before I started putting it together. I noticed some fish rising well out, some in range, all sporadic. I saw a few chironomid on the top. I thought it would be worth putting on a team of two buzzers on a long 4lb tippet and fishing it blind. After about an hour I got one. Once I found a reasonable concentration of fish I got a few more. It went to plan! I found a few fish and figured out what they were at and got some. When fish are difficult to catch it makes it all the more rewarding when you do catch! It’s worth mentioning that as I get older I’m getting more disciplined in this type of fishing. In the past I needed to be doing more. Stripping I guess! Now I can stay focussed while just staying in touch with my flies for as long as it takes. Like my father! Alhough it will be many more years before I come close to his skill level with a team of buzzers.

The following day I went to Dunstan, my home water. It never fails! I know it well at this stage. After my buzzer fishing on Lake Wanaka the day before it seemed like the right choice for Dunstan too. I battled the silt and blind fished the water in front of me as I steadily walked to keep covering new water. Critical when blind fishing. The more water you cover the more fish you cover, it’s as simple as that. I had about 10 fighting fit browns and a rainbow, mostly on the buzzer. In the afternoon I tried out some new water on the lower Kawarau. I had a couple on the woolly bugger. Another great day, Its always a bonus to successfully try out some new water.. Great to catch up with Mike Wilkinson, Kevin and Alan Mc Intire on the lake too!

The weekend just passed was a mission to the coast. The forecast was for sun and light winds. Ideal conditions. It turned out we had very strong wind for most of Saturday. That coupled with big surf made the going difficult. I heaved out the flies all day long to no avail. I might have had one touch but probably not. Iza, on the other hand, did well. Her soft plastic fish imitation fooled 2 trout and a Kahawai. One of her trout was the fattest seatrout I’ve seen on the coast. Stuffed to the gills with something, whitebait or toheroa most likely. One of the Wakitipu Anglers Club members had a  trout stuffed with toheroa! On Sunday the winds were light and there were very few people around, not even whitebaiters. With the place to ourselves we still couldn’t get a fish. Not even on Iza’s spin gear. I hooked and lost a good trout in the morning which was the highlight of my fishing for the weekend. The Wakitipu Anglers club, with which I’m a member, also had a gathering there at the weekend. I haven’t heard many results but I don’t think many were caught from the river mouths. This is usually a great time of year over there so I don ‘t know why the fishing was so bad. The whitebaiters are saying that the bait has not turned up yet so maybe its all about to happen…

I’m taking bookings for the season ahead, so if you’d like me to guide you on your NZ trout adventure contact me here! You know you’ll be in good hands.. October is only a week away! (ronan@sexyloops.com)

Tight lines, another weekend is almost upon us!

Ronan..

ps..      If your in this area the Wakitipu Anglers Club is a great club to be a part of!

Buzzer fishing in the flat calm accounted for 4 good trout...

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The following day, Lake Dunstan. My home water!

Another healthy brown goes back..

The buzzer cleaned up on Dunstan. I had about a dozen. Same little black buzzer from the last blog.

I decided to try out some new water on Lake Wanaka..

The best fish of the day..

A feisty rainbow!

I also had some decent sport on the lower Kawarau on the same day.

A hedgehog..

All curled up in his spiky sleeping bag!

Back to the West Coast!

The fishing was extremely slow for me on the fly but Iza did well with soft plastics..

Then this! The fattest seatrout I've seen on the coast..

A west coast river..

Whitebaiters!

In the thick of it!

This is all I landed for the weekend.

Allister and Iza.. Allister is also in the Wakitipu Anglers Club. We all had a west coast meet last weekend.

This is like a scene from Lord of the Rings, I asked Iza to move forward a little!

A coastal beach..

There was thumping surf all weekend..

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The evening was stunning so we fished into darkness....

The sunset reminded me of a Salvadore Dali painting..

Iza's first Kahawai! Thanks for the jacket, Irene!!!

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You can pick up the over grills from a Waste Busters for sweet feck all.. They have revolutionised my bush tucker!

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Campfire cooking.. No need for a gas stove!

Back he goes, like a rocket!

My whitebait fly tied with white possum. Iza likened it to a character from Ice Age..

Loads of Toheroa (I think.. Breandan??) They were washed up, damaged and broken. The gulls were feasting on them. I assume its a natural occurrence, but it seemed odd to me.

The white patches are the washed up shellfish. I've never seen them like this before on the coast. One of the club members, Daniel Holik, Got a trout stuffed with them!

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The back country grill..

Bacon and left over spuds for lunch.. and a couple of eggs which I put on afterwards!

Another river season has come to an end. Many rivers are still open in May but I find myself looking toward other options –  lakes, river mouths, the canals or possibly the West Coast. Prior to a recent mission to the canals I did a little research on surrounding lakes, tarns and rivers to see if any remained open in May. As it turned out, all were closed since April 30th but it gave me lots of new ideas for next season. I’m actually pretty excited about it. There are some spring creeks, tarns and rivers that I’ve never fished, new territory to explore and some of it is not too far away. That’s one of the amazing things about this country; waterways in abundance and always something new to check out if you make the time to explore. Try something new instead of the tried and trusted.

Mark Adamson, Robbie Mcphee and myself finished off the brown trout season with a 3 day mission on a river we all enjoy. The fish were difficult, not really looking at our offerings at all but we all managed a few fish. We had a fantastic hut to stay in and the craic between the 3 of us in the evenings was as good as the fishing. I had a bad cold to deal with and deal with it I did with a few hot whiskeys. Mark had a couple too just because they’re a great drink to warm up the bones after a cold day on the river. The story of our trip is told in the photos below.

The lakes in central are fishing well! Iza and I had a great trip there 2 weeks ago. We had plenty cruising rainbows to fish for in certain spots and browns in others. I got my fathers buzzers working on Benmore too which is always a pleasure. It’s a very underrated, or more to the point, unknown way to catch trout here in NZ. When they work, they really work!

Finally, Trevor Bourne, a long time sexylooper has just moved to Wanaka from the UK to build Epic fly rods for Carl Mcneil. you’ll be seeing more of him up here. An all round good bugger and great angler. Welcome Trevor! And Happy Birthday..

Tight lines.. Winter is not closed season, its just the winter season!

Ronan..

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Back he goes...

This Taimen like trout was incredibly long, it weighed 8.5lbs. with condition it would have been some fish, but, as we say in Ireland, "If your aunt had balls she'd be your uncle!"

On day one I got the fish of the trip. This went 9.25lbs and was one of my best this season. This fish never saw a mouse!

Breandan??

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We regularly had to climb out of the gorge to make the going upriver a little easier.

The river was high and remained high each day due to constant snow melt and lots of rain.

Myself, Robbie ans Mark at the beginning of our 3 day mission.

A cracking late season fish for Robbie Mcphee. I love the "W" spot!

Robbie with a nice wee brownie.

Day 2, Mark into a good fish after a few false starts!

An old gold miners hut.. I'd like to light a fire in the fireplace and spend the night in it!

Back at camp, Mark shows us his battle scars..

..while I make the hot whiskeys!

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Mark into a fish on day 3.

On a day when fish were not in taking mood at all, this one went all out to eat Marks nymph.

After what is always a tough climb out we had the ease of a track to walk out on.

Torrential rain on arrival back at the river. I hooked one, then we decided to get to the safe side of the river.. shortly after we decided to call it a day.. and a season!

We decided to pass quite a bit of hardshp while we were up there. With limited fishing time due to the river rising quickly we had to hit straight for the best bit.

As the rain came in we climbed out of the gorge to skip a bluff..

Even though there are lots of rivers open in May find myself drawn to the lakes.

Iza into a good rainbow at one of my secret spots near Omarama!

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Strong fish!!!

And another great fish for Iza. She's had a super season!

Fabulous colours..

I had some good buzzer fishing on Benmore to finish the Omarama trip. As always, we stayed at Buscot Station Backpackers.

A herron on the toilet!

Lake Hawea is a spectacular place..

Recently I caught up my old friend, Trevor. He lives in Wanaka now building fly-rods. The stars have aligned for him, that's for sure!

The only fish of the day on the first cast!

Back to hut. Fire, craic, beer and food. Oh yea!

Another season has landed so I better buy my licence. The fishing has been so good on the lakes for the last while that part of me doesn’t want to leave them! I will though, I have 5 options in my head for tomorrow and the next day. Two small creeks, two medium rivers and one in between. I’ll make the call in the morning. The forecast is not great so some willow lined water to cut out glare might be the go. I know just the place…

The last 2 weekends were simply fantastic. I had one in Omarama and stayed at the magical Buscot Station Backpackers and the other right here in Cromwell. Mostly sight fishing to cruising browns over sand and silt flats. I also had decent action along willow lined edges, swampy creek mouths, steep tussock banks, weed beds and even a treated effluent outfall! (surprisingly good fishing at the latter!).

There were plenty of great moments. I want to talk about them all but I have flies to tie for tomorrow. I’ll mention one .. I spotted a good fish cruising tight to the shore along a cut bank over sand. I got into position as the fish swam into a notch in the bank. This allowed me to get close and not be seen. The notch was approximately a meter by half a meter and about half a meter deep. I leaned over until I could see the tip of his tail, careful not to make eye contact and spook him. No need to cast, I unhitched the weighted nymph and put it where it needed to be. A little jiggle and the trout’s tail gave a quick kick propelling him towards my fly and out of my sight. I struck a moment later based only on when I thought he should have eaten the fly if he did at all… though I knew he would. A great moment when I lifted into a solid 4lber. My fly was wrong, at least, not my first choice but I was all out of spiders. The fly worked because I put it where it needed to be and moved it a bit to give an otherwise very dead fly some life. It wasn’t the fly that caught the fish, more where it was and what it did that did.

Trout are known for being wily, elusive, and spooky. They are, but not all the time. I spotted a cruiser on Dunstan last weekend and made a cast to him. I let the fly sink and started to strip it away slowly. I lightly hooked his flank near the tail. The fish was briefly but solidly pulled sideways through the water. When the hook came out the fish seemed happy again and I continued to fish for him. Sometimes he looked interested so I kept fishing until he ate. I got him. After unhooking and releasing him I noticed the fly had one of his own scales on it from the brief foul hooking incident!

Check out the rainbow in the bottom row of photos. My best fish from Dunstan for ages.. She is a magnificent creature..

Ok, That’s all for now.. I must tie some flies and buy a licence!

Tight lines all and Happy Season!

Ronan..

Some flies I tied for the trip..

they dont get much sparser than this! It worked very well, most took it static.

On the second day, when the going got a little tough, I used one of Fred Stevenson's flies. I only have 3 of his spiders and he's passed away now so I use them only when he tells me to!

Amazing sight fishing to quality cruisers... Again, spiders did the business!

For the Omarama weekend, the weather was great! Some cloud in the afternoon on day 2.

1st cast about 20m from the truck!

Thanks Fred!!

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I had some excellent close range fishing in here..

I kept one for Gravad Lax..

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One advantage of weighing 68kgs is that I can wade the Dunstan silt flats. Too sinky for most...

Amazing fish! I had another just like it about 20m farther down the bank..

The weekend just passed was another local one. Dunstan was excellent!!!

I saw a fish, made a cast and briefly foul hooked him! He ended up eating a fly with his own scale on it..

I had this brute of a rainbow figure of eighting a single buzzer blind.

Back she goes! "Shoulders"

Superb condition.. My best Dunstan fish for ages.

Away he goes..