In the Merry Month of May…
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
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- Perfect. This on a damsel nymph (no marabou!).
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- Flowers. Breandan? About 10mm across.
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- Such condition! 6.5lbs
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- A sockeye salmon. Not the target species but quite aggressive towards my streamer.
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- Wesley, early on a bitterly cold april day.
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- The cold brought on a great hatch and we had some superb dryfly action. 17 to the net.
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- Wesley working a big pool.
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- First of the day..
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- ..they kept coming..
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- ..and got bigger as the hatch intensified!
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- Best fish of the day. Almost 6lbs.. Did I say it was cold?? Feckin freezing!!
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- The cut banks were great fun!
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- The daylight diminished quickly..
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- It was a great day to be out and about!
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- Home time!
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- Some recent filming with Nick Reygaert and Jeff. The Land Cruiser saved the day..
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- ..twice!! 😀
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- Lots of tactics utilised.
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- Out in the Stabi Craft..
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- Searching!
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- Stunning place!
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- I think we got some great stuff!! I won’t elaborate, you’ll see the show next season!! Pure Fly NZ – Season 2
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- A recent trip to my secret dam!
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- We found fish!
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- This late season beauty was my best. Wesley had one about 6 as well as the one photographed.
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- Great colours..
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- 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!
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- Tom, Robbie and I fished together for a few days late season..
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- We hit the canals one day.. Tom and I had a big salmon!
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- 10lbs for me, 11.5lbs for Tom.
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- The first of 4 for a day in a gorge..
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- Robbie.. there were a few fish here.
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- Still a few of these fellas about!!
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- One of our favourite pools but no fish there!
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- Lunch!
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- In the gorge..
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- Tom into a good one which ran round a rock and got off! These fish fight dirty..
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- Robbies gap!
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- This fish was hell bent on eating my possum / marabou streamer!
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- Last day of the brown trout season, Mike Bonn into a good one..
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- One for me from a rising colouring river..
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- My spun possum and marabou streamer is doing the business. It has a great profile and movement in the water..
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- Streamer fishing for rainbows at this time year can be exhilarating!! This was May 1st..
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- A healthy hen, no doubt full of eggs.
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- A quick grip and grin before she swims home..
