Ronan's Report

I’m just back from a great trip to Ireland and the US with the family. We also visited Sardinia. I squeezed in a couple of days fishing while we were there, but more on all that later. I had most of the work on this blog done before we left about 7 weeks ago but never found the time to finish it. That’s proof of a great holiday. I’ve certainly been chasing my tail a bit in the last year trying to keep the blog as current as I can – I think it’s always like that though. This takes a lot of time and effort and it really get away from me at times. The photos below are from April, May and into June and this brings me up to date with my NZ fishing photos which almost never happens! Next up will be Ireland and Sardinia – possibly in the same blog or maybe broken in 2.

Late in the season I finally got over to Dunedin to fish with Robbie on some of his local water. A very interesting estuary it is. It was very windy when we were there which limited how much of the lagoon we could fish. It’s certainly not for everyone with electric fences right to the water making fishing risky and tricky. Much of it gets very weeded up and it’s certainly “cow shit country” with this area very intensively farmed. Lots of muddy, shitty drains leading straight into the lagoon. It’s amazing to me the level of pollution that goes unchecked in so much of this country. “Clean and green” it’s not but in the face of all this, there is still great fishing to be had both in general and at this lagoon. Some fisheries have died though and the future of fishing here is not certain – but enough about the negative, I just felt the need to mention that! The fishing was hard that day. Between the 2 of us we moved about 5 trout landing just 1. A lovely trout about 4.5lbs on a red and grey fry imitation of mine. We could see in pretty well at times but we sighted very few trout – those we did see had no interest in a bugger. A little nymph would have been better. The best action we had came from blind fishing. We also took a wander down to the rivermouth but didn’t see anything fishy. It was great to see the place and I’m looking forward to going back.

Since I’ve been home there’s been a mixed bag of weather from snowstorms to lovely warm days. We’re slowly getting over the jet lag. It’s harder with kids because we’re awake when they are. I should get a few opportunities to go fishing pretty soon which I’m looking forward to. This time of year can be fantastic! Be sure to get in touch if you’d like to lock in some late winter fishing – many fish have long finished spawning by now and are piling on condition.

If you’d like to check out my flies available on Fulling Mill you can see them here. They accounted for some lovely browns on Lough Corrib in Ireland recently and most of the fish in the pictures below. Here’s a little clip from August a couple of years ago with my Bruiser streamer doing the business..

I’d like to mention that I recently bought some Primal Bold rods for my clients who come without gear. I don’t get too excited about expensive fly rods in general and these rods are testament to why that is. For the money these are excellent. Great rods regardless of price. The 5 is a gem. It does exactly what a 5wt should do. The 6 is also a very capable rod. I have no issues with it at all. The 7 is a powerful weapon – great for launching heavy streamers, windy days, big rivers etc. I highly recommend these as a back-up or as your primary rod. When they’re previously rigged for clients I don’t bother rigging my own rods because these rods are sound.

Next season is filling up fast! January and February are full but there’s still limited spaces in the other months. Contact me on ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.

Tight Lines! Ronan..