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Posts Tagged ‘Perch’

An Adventurous May..

August 28th, 2024 No comments

Sometimes things happen in fishing to put your resolve to the test. How much do you want to go fishing? Well, I answered that question one day in May when myself and a Wesley tried to get to a high country lake. There had been rain overnight so I expected snow on the higher portion of the track. I figured we’d have a crack regardless. I’ve towed the boat up there is various levels of wet and snow without any major trouble. Having said that, in the past, most of the seriously wet conditions I’ve experienced happened to be on the way down the hill, so I had gravity on my side. This was to be the wettest I’ve experienced getting up the hill..

My boat is pretty heavy – not sure how heavy exactly but it’s no dingy. Onwards up the track without issue. It was raining but the track was okay. We hoped the snow would be above the lake elevation but no such luck. Driving through the snow and everything still seemed good – no problem with traction. There were very fresh tracks through the snow in front of me so I assumed another angler had the same idea. This was comforting! We were almost at the lake when we had a steep decline before a steep incline. The decline was fine. Half way up the incline I lost traction. I reversed and tried again without success. Getting out to assess the situation I realised how bad the track was. A mix of mud, ice and snow. No chance. I put the waders on because it was such a mess! After a good few more attempts the truck was well stuck in the ditch with the trailer at an angle. I tried to take the trailer off but the weight on it due to the unusual angle made it impossible to remove. At this stage I couldn’t go forwards at all and the angle of the trailer meant I couldn’t go backwards either. What now? Reduce air pressure maybe.. Then the fella who was ahead of us came back down. He was from the North Island and just down for a tour. I was very happy to se him. His 4×4 was well kitted out and he gave me a tow out. Even with him towing me we couldn’t get to the top of the hill with my boat on the back. We did manage to straighten my truck and trailer. We had no choice but to abandon the boat and fish the bank. It was now easy to remove the trailer but turning it around wasn’t possible. Just too steep, slippery and generally shite so we rolled her back into the ditch where it was safe and secure. I hoped we’d sort that out at the end of the day when the track had (hopefully) dried a bit. Without a trailer and with the help of my new friend we made it to the top of the hill. It was to be an easy drive to the lake from there. I jumped out and thanked our saviour. Peter I think he said his name was. We said farewell. As his Pajero passed my boat, he started sliding towards it on the greasy track. I tried to push his truck away from the boat, for all the good I did and also called at him to floor it.. It was that or he’d hit the boat. He just about scraped by without contact and went about his day.

Now there’s a new problem. In the unlikely event of another vehicle coming up he would also be likely to slide into the boat, especially with the track in such a mess after our antics.. so I can’t leave it there. The lake is in sight but I have to rethink this. On the side of the the steep, muddy track there was a strip of grassy verge just wide enough to drive on. Traction seemed good and the ground firm, but there was no room for error with a steep hill on the side. The only chance was to reverse back down the hill on the grassy verge, hitch on the boat, pull it out of the ditch and then floor it up the hill on the grass and then get back onto the track on the top of the hill before the big rock.. Jeepers.

Aside from the safety issue of abandoning the boat in a dodgy place, I really wanted to use the boat on the lake that day so the decision was made. Let’s do it. I reversed down with a few test forward movements to make sure I could go forward. Everything seemed good. I got near the boat and we were able to pivot her in the ditch and hitch it on. Rear locker in, low range too. I popped the boat out of the ditch and gave it the beans up the hill. The left turn before the rock to get back onto the track proved tricky, probably due to the rear locker engaged and snow on the grass. I couldn’t stop, thankfully the front wheels got some grip and got me back on track. Fuckin hell. Relief. That took hours. It might seem crazy with the steep hill on the right to have attempted this but I had to get the boat out of there. We looked at other options too like rolling the boat down the road without the truck attached but we were already half way up hill when the shit hit the fan. This was likely to end in disaster. With the state of the track reversing back down was not an option.. Whether I should have done it or not, I did.. and was it worth it?? Yes. The question is, If I still had my old 80 would I have gotten stuck???

May was also a good month of guiding. Not always easy in a some crazy conditions. 3 blizzards, rain wind, you name it, May had it. Certainly an adventurous month where nothing got in the way of the fishing.

To see my flies over at Fulling Mill check this out. They’re also available in store at Patagonia Queenstown. To enquire about this seasons guiding availability you can get in touch here or at ronan@sexyloops.com

Tight Lines and Free Palestine, Ronan..

Back Home – Inagh, Kylemore and Corrib…

August 20th, 2023 No comments

I love the familiarity of arriving into Dublin airport. Arriving home. It had been 4 years and I was looking forward to that familiarity more than I realised. It felt great to be back. The family and I were all out of the airport quickly and onto a bus west. The public bus service in Ireland is fantastic. The bus was comfortable and I enjoyed the 2.5 hour trip across the country to Galway, while catching up on a little sleep. My brother and my mother picked us up from Galway. Iza and the kids travelled with my mother and I travelled with Conor. This gave me a great opportunity to pick up a few beers to make the final leg of the journey to Roundstone even better. Relaxing in the passenger seat chatting to Conor, drinking a couple of nice IPAs, enjoying the lakes and mountains as we continued west and then the familiar sight of Roundstone. As tempting as stopping for a pint in Kings was, we went straight home. It was so good to see everyone. Siblings, parents nieces and nephew. Home for the next 5 weeks. The objective now is to spend time with family, catch up with friends, drink a shcather of pints, and go fishing. I’ll talk about the fishing…

I expected the majority of my fishing would be on the Kylemore and Inagh fisheries so the first thing I did was buy a full season salmon license for e100. I was told that it’s mostly catch and release now. I’m all for C&R of course, but I couldn’t help seeing the hypocrisy of imposing this regulation on the angler while salmon farms continue to operate in the bays spreading disease, sea lice and pollution amongst wild populations. Anglers never impacted stocks to any serious degree, but here we are picking up the tab in a vain attempt at conservation. The ambulance parked at the bottom of the cliff.

I was there when the rain came after a long dry spell. The hottest and driest on record I think. The timing was perfect with the rain coming at the end of June when the first grilse run usually arrives. This should get the fish moving up river. Dad and I spent a few days out on the water after the first rain, but we were a bit early it seemed. We didn’t see many. I was lucky to get a beautiful fresh grilse of about 6lbs on our second day out. We left it a while before going out again, waiting on word of grilse being caught.

The seatrout numbers on Inagh were encouraging. Dad was getting decent numbers for his clients. He had a great day with our mutual friend, Marcus when they got 8 to about 2lbs – a very decent west of Ireland seatrout. Dad had another day out on Inagh on his own where he landed a dozen seatrout and a 6lb grilse. Fishing like the old days. I was told that the some of the local salmon farms were not operating this season which would certainly explain the decent numbers of seatrout. It just goes to show how quickly seatrout could reestablish themselves if they were allowed to. Is there any chance the Irish government could just outlaw open pen salmon farming? Imagine what we’d gain? But alas, we sacrifice our wild fish and fishing to make the Mowi wankers in Norway even richer. Sickening. Anyway, We also fished Kylemore a couple of times. Fish were lower down in the system but we didn’t see any on the lake. Kylemore is a tough lake in general, painfully so at times but it can really turn on now and again. Every day I fish it, it’s in the hope of that magic window which so rarely comes. There’s also a chance of a big brown here which may offer a better chance of good fishing than grilse do – there’s not much know about targeting these big browns though so the only way to go after them would be through trial and error, and probably with a depth sounder.

Towards the end of the trip I had a couple of days on Corrib. One day with John and One with dad. On each day the fishing was good in the morning. We fished small dry sedges (size 14) and these gave us the best results. After the first few drifts each day the fishing went dead – and stayed dead for the rest of the day. I think the poor fishing in the afternoons was easy to explain. The water was warm. It felt like 20c when I put my hand in. I guess in the mornings the fish had some chance to feed in the relatively cooler water. June was incredibly hot and even though the weather was pretty cool in July, the lake temperature hadn’t dropped substantially.

So to sum up, the fishing was hard. Ireland is rarely easy and this was no exception. I’m happy with my lot though. I was thrilled to catch that stunning grilse on the Inagh river beats – certainly the highlight. I wish I was out with dad on his bumper day but I was away with the family in Sardinia. It was good to see some seatrout about. Many were very small but there were a few decent stumps about too. This might just have been a case of meeting the main run as it arrived, but let’s hope this will continue to be a good season for them and not just a flash in the pan. Corrib was good in the mornings of the 2 days I fished it so I was happy with that. I hoped to get out with Tom Doc too but for one reason or another we didn’t manage a day together. Next time hopefully! I tried for a pollack (or a bass) off the rocks with my friend Nigel too, but didn’t get a touch. Unfortunately I never made it out on sea in a boat. The weather was pretty wild out there for much of the time I was home. I don’t have a hell of a lot to report from Sardinia but I’ll compile that next.. Currently, back in New Zealand, I’ve been putting all my time into restoring my boat. Just that, no fishing! It’s complete now so I’ll report on that soon too, she’s looking great…

There’s still some space available for this coming season. Get in touch if you’d like to book something in or to ask any questions. Email ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website. You can check out my range of Fulling Mill fly patterns by clicking this link.

Tight Lines, Ronan..

Balance…

December 6th, 2020 No comments

I have to say, I’m enjoying this season. I should be fretting over a lack of business but I’m not. I’m getting an occasional guide day and my wife Iza is working full time. We’re doing okay. We’re lucky, and I’m thankful for that. I’m looking after the kids most days but also managing to get out fishing regularly – especially now that Iza’s recent study has ended, a bit more time for me to fish. It’s a juggling act between kids, Iza’s work and free time, working on the house, family time, friends, guiding and fishing. The balance is good. I’m making the most of this season without tourists. It’s made me rethink what’s important. So much so that I might just reduce my guide days to make more time for family in the future. My goal in life is not to be financially rich – it’s to be rich with the important stuff.

This season has been really great. I have explored some new water and while I want to do more exploring, I realised something. I love going back to the water I know. I need to see the water I know at least once or twice a season. I don’t mind if I don’t catch a fish, I just need to see the water – it’s like catching up with an old friend. I like to see if the river has changed, are the fish in the usual spots, what more can I learn about it. Now that I’ve realised this I’m okay with it. Some days I felt a bit guilty for not exploring when I could have been. Exploring new water is certainly exciting. And while I have made peace with going back to fish familiar water I will always have the drive to find new water. Like life in general, its about balance.

The season to date has had a number of highlights. I’ll let the images tell the story about most of these but I will mention one. A day that I was guiding a half day, I went fishing myself for the second half. I hooked an 8lb trout for my client in the morning. He was about 12. He played it well and we got it into the net. In the afternoon I ventured off myself. I saw only one trout in 4kms which I didn’t get. Then I saw 2 in a pool. I was rigged up with one of my guide rods – a 5wt Airflo Blade with a Lamson Liquid reel. I hooked the first one quickly and landed it downstream. I knew it was big. I was thrilled to see it hit the magical 10lb increment on my weigh net. I went back up to the pool again and the other fish was still there, still active. There was a brutal crosswind and I had to cast way left of the target to compensate for the wind. It took a few attempts which luckily didn’t spook the fish. He sitting quite deep. Finally the dry went down and I lifted into serious weight. I landed this one in the same spot as the first. He hit the scales at 12lbs. This is equal to my biggest trout to date. 3 browns for 30lbs. I’ve never done that before. 2 doubles, thats also a first. First time I’ve witnessed it since my good friend Kristian Bang Foss landed a 10.25 and a 10.75 (and a 9) back in 2013. I’m happy if I can land one over 10 for a season so this day was certainly one of those never to be forgotton. Needless to say I was delighted. Also happy to get a great shot with the 10 second timer – my size 12 Brown Nymph from Fulling Mill visible in his mouth.

If anybody is reading this from within NZ and would like to experience some guided fly fishing, feel free to drop me a line.. ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.

Tight lines! Ronan..