Ronan's Report

In the Merry Month of May…

May 3rd, 2017 Ronan Creane No comments

April has been a fabulous month! I had lots of time to fish myself but was also kept pretty busy guiding. The fishing was excellent! With terrestrial insects still locked into trout brains and magnificent mayfly hatches to boot, most of the activity was on the surface. It’s rare that I’ll fish with a single dry but I did a lot this April, both for myself and my clients. Cicada’s, blowflies and mayflies were the leaders of the pack. April sees the most consistent and reliable mayfly hatches of the year in these parts. For the last 2 – 3 weeks of April, the main hatch kicked of at 2.40 every afternoon on a number of rivers from Omarama to Invercargill. The dry-fly action during the hatch was simply as good as it gets and the best for many years by all accounts. It was most welcome after the constant onslaught of wind and rain brought by the early and middle parts of the season. Summer lasted ten days!

Earlier in April, Nick Reygaert, Jeff Forsee and myself got together again to film another episode for Pure Fly NZ, this time series 2. We went to the West Coast to film a variety of fishing locations. I think we all worked well together to bring something pretty full-on to the screen. I won’t elaborate too much so that I don’t give anything away before the show airs, but watch this space!

Most brown trout rivers are closed now, but many of the rivers flowing into the Southern Lakes (and a few besides) are open until the end of May. A few rivers and most large lakes are open all year, so thankfully, the season never stops. It’s May now and time to stalk migratory fish! I love fishing at this time of year as the leaves change colour and fall from the trees. Fish start to move up river on their spawning run and opportunities arise that are unique to May and the winter months. These fish respond well to streamers, large nymphs and a little later in the season, egg flies. The first part in fishing for migratory fish is finding them. In many cases when you find one you find a few or lots – fishing for migratory fish is like that. The first cast to a pod can get a chaotic response from a lot of fish, then it gets a little quieter. It’s not unusual to catch a few fish from a pod. At times you’ll stumble upon a large fish or two which has spent the last 8 months or so deep in a lake. This is exciting stuff and I will be trying to make it happen this month! I think I know where some will be..

I must change the format for this blog! With the amount of time that passes between reports I struggle to choose what to write about and end up breezing over everything. In the future I need to try (try) to write more often. Maybe less, but more specific content, the way it was before guiding.. I’ll do my best! The pictures below tell the story of full-on month on April!!

Tight Lines and bring on May!!

Ronan..

I’ll be guiding until mid July for the few that are keen on winter fishing! Let me know if you’d like to plan a mission.. ronan@sexyloops.com or see my website http://www.ronansflyfishingmissions.com

PERSONAL GALLERY

: Perfect. This on a damsel nymph (no marabou!).

: Flowers. Breandan? About 10mm across.

: Such condition! 6.5lbs

: A sockeye salmon. Not the target species but quite aggressive towards my streamer.

: Wesley, early on a bitterly cold april day.

: The cold brought on a great hatch and we had some superb dryfly action. 17 to the net.

: Wesley working a big pool.

: First of the day..

: ..they kept coming..

: ..and got bigger as the hatch intensified!

: Best fish of the day. Almost 6lbs.. Did I say it was cold?? Feckin freezing!!

: The cut banks were great fun!

: The daylight diminished quickly..

: It was a great day to be out and about!

: Home time!

: Some recent filming with Nick Reygaert and Jeff. The Land Cruiser saved the day..

: ..twice!! 😀

: Lots of tactics utilised.

: Out in the Stabi Craft..

: Searching!

: Stunning place!

: I think we got some great stuff!! I won’t elaborate, you’ll see the show next season!! Pure Fly NZ – Season 2

: A recent trip to my secret dam!

: We found fish!

: This late season beauty was my best. Wesley had one about 6 as well as the one photographed.

: Great colours..

: Sometimes the only thing an angler can see when sighting a fish is that dark line on the end of the tail, very visible in this pic!

: Tom, Robbie and I fished together for a few days late season..

: We hit the canals one day.. Tom and I had a big salmon!

: 10lbs for me, 11.5lbs for Tom.

: The first of 4 for a day in a gorge..

: Robbie.. there were a few fish here.

: Still a few of these fellas about!!

: One of our favourite pools but no fish there!

: Lunch!

: In the gorge..

: Tom into a good one which ran round a rock and got off! These fish fight dirty..

: Robbies gap!

: This fish was hell bent on eating my possum / marabou streamer!

: Last day of the brown trout season, Mike Bonn into a good one..

: One for me from a rising colouring river..

: My spun possum and marabou streamer is doing the business. It has a great profile and movement in the water..

: Streamer fishing for rainbows at this time year can be exhilarating!! This was May 1st..

: A healthy hen, no doubt full of eggs.

: A quick grip and grin before she swims home..

Cicadas to sea-runners to speeding tickets….

February 7th, 2013 Ronan Creane No comments

Last Saturday Mike Bonn and I took the Wakitipu Anglers Club boat out on Lake Wakitipu to target Cicada feeders. I have not fished for trout feeding on Cicada’s very often but one observation I made in the past stud true on the day. The trout were sipping down the big morsels like little mayflies. There were very few smashing rises, In fact,we only saw about 10 free risers all morning. If they were smashing them we’d have seen heaps! They were clearly zoned in on cicada’s because our big, shop bought cicada patterns were all they wanted. I have often heard about fish hitting cicada’s very hard but I have rarely seen it happen. The truth is that once a cicada lands on the water he’s not getting off it again. Trout zone in on this behaviour after eating a few and instinctively adapt their behaviour to match ( I hope I worded that correctly Bob Wyatt, feel free to comment!!) Cicada’s range widely in size and colour so maybe they only sip down the medium sized grass green ones!! Who the hell knows.. Regardless, Mike and I had a great few hours on the water. Afterwards I went to James and Caroline Wilkinson’s Wedding. Thanks James and Caroline.. Great fun had by all! (apart from getting a speeding ticket while trying to keep up with Jeff on the way the the river the next day!)

Wednesday, Waitangi day. No work so Jeff Forsee and myself set out to catch a big searun brown. I’m tired now so I’ll keep this short! Basically, Jeff had to open about 15 gates before we got to where we wanted to go, then a 300m climb into a gorge, then about 5ks of very rough gorgy terrain to get a shot at a handful of fish. They were tough! We each had a 7lber. I lost 2 more one of which I reckon was 9 plus. Then the walk out. Down the river first then up a stream, then up and over a mountain, down a gorge, and back out the same gorge to find the truck a few k’s down the track. Fitness helps about as much as stubbornness! My knee gave up but still worked. Thankfully it’s almost fine today but my legs are sore! Jeff said his were too and Kanai is still asleep. Was it worth it?… Fuck yes.

Ronan..

: Last Sunday fishing with Mike Bonn on Lake Wakitipu…

: Mike into one of the better fish of the day in crystal clear water..

: The fish were plentiful. We had 20 for a morning on the water, all between 1 and 3lbs.

: The lake shelves off quickly and the stronger fish bored deep.

: All fit and healthy!

: There is always a fish or 2 around a stream mouth!

: Surprising golden fish from water where I’d expect them to be silver!

: Mike and I had one Rainbow each!

: One of the better brown’s of the day about to kick off..

: Wednesday with Jeff.. Wordpress jumbled up the pics at bit so they’re not in proper order!

: Nice pocket water but fish were few and far between..

: I could see where a fish should be!

: A deep, dark pool.. Jeff and I pulled heavily weighted streamers through it but no joy!

: Brand new second hand Simms boots.. These are dam good! The best I’ve used actually. They’ve got some funky studs on ’em that “stick like shit to a blanket” as Joe Creane would say!