Ronan's Report

Flies for New Zealand – No Secrets!

October 2nd, 2018 Ronan Creane No comments

I spent the last 2 days tying like a madman and sorting out my flies for the season. I thought after all my boxes were tidied up that it would be a good chance to share with you all just what goes into a seasons worth of flies for New Zealand. Well, almost a season worth. I still need to tie about 120 varied sizes of my standard dry. I photographed every page of my boxes. Some I carry every day and some only when I think I’ll need them. With the flies from the first few pictures I’d be confident on 95% of days on a NZ river or lake. I’m very lucky to have my father sending me over regular batches of flies. His flies are excellent and are catching fish over here even when he’s not driving them! I also use a lot of Stu’s flies. His flies are well tied and well designed. If you’re coming over and need a full range of flies then he’s your man. Check out his flies here. Manic Tackle Project supply the shops. I use a range of their flies from worms to wee dries. I also tie myself. I generally try to tie 6 before every day on the water.

I’m fishing myself for the next 3 days. After that the fly boxes will be a mess again!

If you haven’t done so already, please check this out and make a submission.

For bookings and information about the coming season please see my website or email me ronan@sexyloops.com

Tight Lines, Ronan..

: I spent the last 2 days tying this box of flies. Pretty much every nymph I need for a season! Tungsten and lead 12s down to unweighted 14s and lightly weighted 16s.

: Cdc dries, Mirfs Brown Dry (green post), Blow Flies and big stonefly nymphs. Mostly from Manic.

: A range of PT and Hares Ear nymphs. Mostly 14s and 16s. Also a few #16 Dads Favourites on the right. My father and I tied these.

: Mostly unweighted PTs in a range of sizes from 18 to 10. Also some heavy caddis nymphs. Mostly from Manic Tackle Project.

: Worm flies, large dragonfly nymphs and large indicator dries.

: Dads Hare & Coppers – mostly 14s.

: Cicadas / Indicator dries. Mostly tied by Stu Tripney.

: Streamers and very heavy nymphs. Mostly tied by dad and myself.

: From left, #16 unweighted Hares Ears, Cdc mayflies and caddis, Buzzers plus random. Mostly tied by Joe Creane.

: Small buggers, damsels and general nymphs. Mostly tied by Stu Tripney. I recommend Stu to get you sorted with everything you need for a NZ season!

: Sedges, hoppers and cdc mays. Tied by Joe Creane.

: Mostly my own spiders tied with lakes in mind. Unweighted and lightly weighted. 14s.

: A range still water stuff here. Streamlined nymphs and bushy buggers for windy days. Tied by Joe Creane.

: Some caddis and PT nymphs tied for me by and Irish angler. A friend of Con O Flynn whim I never met! Great flies they are..

: These were a gift from Padraig Costello tied specifically for the intricacies of the Mataura. I haven’t used them yet.

: Some still water stuff by dad!

: More from dad..

: I hope I see more of these this season!

Categories: Expedition Tags: Cicada, Con O Flynn, Flies for NZ, Joe Creane, Manic flies, Stu's Superior Flies

The Fly-Fishing Connection…

January 26th, 2016 Ronan Creane No comments

You’d think after 5 years writing this blog that I’d be somewhat computer literate. Well, far from it. I just wasted 3 hours of my life trying to make photos smaller on Iza’s Mac (2mp or less to fit in wordpress blog). With Windows you just select the pics, click “make smaller” and its done. On the Mac you have to select the photos, export them (fuck knows where they go) then make them smaller after you’ve found them, then import them, then export them back to iphoto but they wont make it there, they’ll get lost on the way, then do some other shit to them, then you loose them, then you try to do it all again a few times before giving up and without pulling out whats left of my hair. I did well not to make bits of this computer while the steam was leaving my ears and curses hurtling from my mouth.

Firstly, to all of you who enjoy my ramblings on NZ fly-fishing, sorry its taken me so long to put this together. Life got away on me a bit leaving me little time to write. Which is a good complaint I guess!

I had a great 2 day mission with Bob Wyatt and Robbie Mcphee a good while ago now. It was weather for waders, freezing cold mornings and lots of rain but the sun eventually made an appearance. We all caught fish on a range of tactics. We spent the night in a farm cabin, no better place to catch up. A glowing fire, good food and few beers with good friends is hard to beat, to be honest I think the fishing came second.

The house in Cromwell has been a hive of activity for the passed couple of months with friends coming and going, mostly flyfishers but not all. My old friend Sean stayed for a few days. The fishing was tough then but we managed a few good fish. Then Nico arrived, Nico’s first fish on fly was an artic char on Lough Inagh in the west of Ireland a few years ago. What are the odds? They are a rare wee fish indeed in Ireland. We had a couple of days on Dunstan and he managed a couple of good fish on fly. That was Christmas day, we kept one to eat raw as a christmas dinner starter, it was fantastic! Mark Adamson was next, we had a feckin tough day on a west coast river where we managed one decent trout. The surroundings were spectacular and the sun was shining which made a tough day a little better!

Since then we’ve had Fergal Cormican, another friend from Ireland come and stay for a few days as he learned how to take on NZ rivers and lakes, we fished Lake Dunstan around Ranfurly for a couple of days where we found a few good stretches of the Taieri and its backwaters.. A great training ground for both river and still water angling.

I recently had a day on the water with Dean Whaanga up the country a bit. We checked out a truly spectacular valley to see how a recent flood might have reshaped the river and surrounding creeks. We found a few fish but they were difficult. At that time fish seemed to be difficult everywhere, possibly due to falling barometric pressure, I’m not sure.. I don’t pay too much attention to that kind of thing because I’ll be going fishing regardless! We landed a couple of fish and had a great day on the water. I met Dean when I first came to NZ in 2002 at my good friend Bob Tofflers house, we all enjoyed a feed of mutton birds! I’m delighted to have fished with him finally. It was a pleasure to see a fella with 30 plus years of guiding under his belt has not lost any enthusiasm for fishing during his time off..

The most recent visitor was Con O Flynn, also a friend from Ireland. We had 2 big days on the river together, I took him into one of the toughest gorges I know of. I asked him was he fit! He said yes and he looked like he could handle it so off we went.. Theres a point in the gorge where you need to get out and drop back in farther up. We got to that point and climbed out, then climbed back in. No problem. I looked for my usual crossing point to continue up river and I could see it, I just couldn’t get to it. I could see another crossing a little farther down river which looked easy so I decided on that one rather than going up river to climb down to my usual crossing. This turned out to be a mistake, Con took a dip in the river as he crossed and then going up on the other side of the gorge proved quite difficult because of a crevice keeping us from my usual way, we had to keep going up! We got there in the end and then we could continue up river with only a couple of minor climb-outs to get around bluffs. We found a few fish but not as many as I was expecting, saw a couple of brutes. Con landed a solid brown and hooked a much larger fish which straightened the hook. It was really great to bring a fella like Con into a special place like that. Win, loose or draw its a great place to be alive as long as your the type of person who can appreciate it for what it is. We left it all on the river. See you next time, Con! We have some unfinished business with NZ trout.. Thanks for everything!

I’m expecting a visit from Ken Whelan any time now, he’ll be passing through with his Brother, Brendan on their way south. I expect we’ll fit in a mission at some stage, David Lambroughton will also join us hopefully.

Between friends coming and going, Fly-fishing and trying to set up my guiding career things have been very busy indeed.. Long may it last!

Tight Lines Eeryone.. A little tip for you all, 18 is the new 16!

Ronan..

ronan@sexyloops.com

: They don’t come much nicer than this!

: Gisle with 7.5lb brown..

: Back he goes..

: Fishing with Bob Wyatt and Robbie Mcphee..

: Into the gorge..

: No fish but plenty fish talk!!

: Bob and Robbie in the forest..

: Dinner in the comfort and warmth of a farm cabin..

: Day 2, A cold start.. Robbie off the mark.

: A quick pose for Bob’s camera before releasing this big trout..

: A perfect specimen for Bob..

: Number 2 for Bob..

: And then one for Robbie..

: And then one for me… All from the same 100m.

: Robbie and Bob down below while I spot from the top..

: Iza into one..

: She has taken a serious liking to the Hot Torpedo, and why wouldn’t she?!

: A fabulous fish..

: And one for me a while later..

: You can target big trout in still waters.. here’s the proof!

: ..and more proof.. 6.5lbs

: A stunning golden trout, took a small dry held on the water 2 feet below my rod tip. The explosive aftermath to the strike from such close quarters needed to be seen to be believed!