Ronan's Report

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..

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..

Typical of this time of year, it’s hard to make time to write! There’s more photos than I generally add but I hope you can make the time to enjoy them. They tell the story of a busy month of fishing and guiding.

Something I’ve been thinking about a lot more lately is barbless hooks. It seems crazy that it’s taken me this long to really start moving away from barbed hooks. I was never too concerned about the barb. What I always told people was that I don’t have any trouble removing barbed hooks. This is true. The part that has always bothered me is breaking in a trout with a barbed hook left in his mouth, but it never bothered me enough to fish barbless. Now it does bother me enough. There’s a great relief breaking in a fish knowing the hook is barbless. There’ll be minimal stress on the fish since he’ll easily shake it free. I often heard that trout can dissolve a barbed hook quite quickly. I wonder if that is true? I should google it! The silly thing is I always knew that I’d loose feck all fish by going barbless. It only takes a second to crush the barb or better still, tie on barbless hooks to begin with. My range of flies with Fulling Mill are barbed so this is something I may look at changing in the future.

I had a solid month of guiding starting with Brendan and Dave. As usual for these two the rain came and blew out the rivers – it happens every time! We managed the fist day on a local river before they all blew out completely. Luckily, both of them love the lakes and we had some brilliant and varied still-water fishing with epoxy buzzers playing a very important role.

Next up was Tim and his brother Graeme. Great craic as always with the bros! Just about every fish was 5lbs. A very enjoyable few days.

Late in the month I had a new client. A man who knows my father quite well and fishes with him a lot back home. I also met him 25 years ago when I looked after the Inagh fishery for a season. His name is Jack Meredith. A very experienced angler who’s chased salmonids all over the world. I was delighted to show him around my area for a week. We mixed it up with local streams and rivers, backcountry fly-ins and highcountry dams. It was no surprise to me that the dams got under his skin. Anyone who fishes Irish loughs will have a head-start in understanding these special places, which are not for everyone. The fishing was very tough on the dams – but that’s not a bad thing. It just means you have to dig deep, fish to the conditions and persist – then enjoy the beautiful reward if you get one. Jack was not going to come back to the South Island after having a terrible experience a number of years ago. His guide didn’t know where he was going or what he was doing and spooked every fish in the river. I glad he changed his mind. I’m looking forward to next time.

A quick note about buzzer fishing (aka chironomid). This season and last season I’ve noticed a huge increase in buzzer numbers in many of the the lakes I fish and some rivers. On still-water days when fish have been hard, switching to a buzzer, usually epoxied, regularly made all the difference. I didn’t have a huge stock to begin with but my father can tie these in his sleep! One the phone one evening I asked him to send me a few which he did. Now I’m well armed with flies for these increasingly important tactics. Dad’s buzzers are particularly good too.

I’m very happy to say that my Fulling Mill patterns are now available in the new Patagonia shop in Queenstown. If you don’t live near Queenstown you can still order them online. They’re pretty much the only patterns I use. Check them out here.

Next season is just starting to fill up. Feel free to get in touch to make a booking or to chat about options. You can check out my website or email me ronan@sexyloops.com.

That’s all for now. Hopefully Decembers report will have a more user-friendly amount of photos. Tight Lines! Ronan..

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!