Ronan's Report

I think it’s exciting to choose the destination first and then see if I can figure out what I can catch there afterwards. I’ve done this a few times over the years, mainly to accommodate the non-anglers I was traveling with! It’s been a bit hit and miss as one would expect. Mostly miss to be honest. Vietnam was a fail, I never even had a cast in India, Thailand was a fail (apart from a 70lb catfish on spin gear!), Jordan was almost a success, Chicago was okay, Portugal and the Azores were fantastic. The latest, Sardinia, I wish I could say it was great but I can’t.

I did quite a bit of research after Iza and a I chose Sardinia for a family holiday (with 2 fishing days for me). It was hard to find any solid info. Slowly I made contact with some guides and they were helpful. I was hoping to try for black bass on the inland dams but in high summer they go deep and fishing for them would likely be no good. I was directed to Gigi and we locked in a couple of days after seabass. I believe it’s the same species of bass as what we have in Ireland. Once it was booked I left it at that. I didn’t look into it any more apart from getting a bit of advise on flies.

Sardinia is beautiful with stunning coastline. As we drove around parts of the island I could see loads of potential for a shore based angler. Rocky shores, defined drop-offs, sandy areas, lagoons and river mouths – a great mix of featureful coastline with beautiful clear water. One of the highlights was snorkelling around the rocks near the beaches we chose to swim at. With Adaline on my back we explored. She just had goggles on so she’d grab a breath and then look in over my shoulder, pointing at every fish she’d see. It was such a great experience for both of us. There were plenty fish up to about 3lbs in weight. I don’t know the species but there was a variety. I had a feeling that a worm fly fished about 6 to 8 foot under an indicator could do well for these fish but I didn’t have a chance to try.

My designated fishing days arrived! I was up at 4.30am to meet Gigi in Olbia for 6am. I really didn’t know what to expect. The carpark was right at the water – a system of lagoons inside Olbia seaport. The lagoons were walled but with gaps to allow for the tidal movement. It looked fishy. Gigi helped me pick a fly and then we started fishing. Walking while casting around structure. I felt very familiar with this type of fishing. Gigi knew every drop-off, gutter, and weed bed. With his help I kept the fly where it needed to be. Then I hooked one! A small bass but a positive start. From then we continued around the lagoons for the rest of the day. There was one spot where we saw a few. I had one follow there but in general I wasn’t feeling it. I know how fishing can be though, so feeling it or not I wasn’t going to lose heart. Gigi said it was too warm and generally there wasn’t enough wind. No joy on day 1 apart from the little bass at the start. To finish the session we went for beer and a chat.

Day 2. We went to a new lagoon a short drive away. With a new location comes renewed optimism. The mullet (bass food) were rising so that was good to see. We walked the lagoon seeing nothing but covering all likely water – Gigi with spin gear and me with fly. We got to a river mouth which looked very good. I sighted one and he followed a couple of times but no eat. Gigi also saw one which he didn’t get. We decided to go back to the Olbia lagoons to fish the spot that had a few fish. No joy. It was interesting to see some other people foraging in the lagoon for various shellfish including oysters and clams to sell to local restaurants. We didn’t see any other anglers.

With the fishing just not on at all, I thought we’d go to some coastline away from the port for some other species but this is Gigi’s fishery and this is where he guides. We did see a brief bust up on the surface with a large bluefish attacking some mullet on the ocean side of the lagoons. I made a half decent shot but no eat, sadly. It was all so brief. These fish looked amazing and they’d be a great target species..

It was pretty clear that I was there at the wrong time of year for bass. Probably the worst month of the year! It was a shame because the lagoons are so interesting. Very varied water. Gigi said October is best. I would recommend getting in touch with him and organising some fishing when it’s good. A few days with Gigi fishing for seabass in Sardinia? why not..

For bookings this NZ guiding season you can contact me ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website. You can check out my range of flies with Fulling Mill here.

Tight Lines, Ronan..

In 8 years guiding I never had a flat tire. Then I got a good one! The tire disintegrated beyond repair. No big deal, just put on the spare. Luckily I had a second spare but it wasn’t on a rim. The problem was getting it onto the spare rim so that I could continue working as normal. I didn’t want to chance going off the grid without a spare tire. The next day was Sunday so we changed the plan and fished locally with the intention of getting my other spare tire put on the rim the following morning once the mechanics opened. 8am on Monday we arrived at the mechanic to have the job done so that we could head into the backcountry. Turned out it was a feckin’ public holiday so we had to spend another day without going too far from home just in case we got another flat! Thankfully, the fishing was good!! 8am on Tuesday we arrived at the mechanic for the second time. Steve had the spare on the rim in jig time and were on the way after 10 minutes. Of course, normally I’d have been on the road an hour earlier. We got to the river to find the first beat occupied. No problem I thought, I wanted the 2nd beat anyway.. We got there to find we had just been beaten to that one too! Plan C was decent but we had a big fish in mind and it didn’t really cut the mustard. We waited 4 hours and then fished behind the anglers on our favoured beat. We found 2 fish, both of whom almost took the fly… but didn’t. That feckin’ flat tire really changed how our fishing unfolded. Such is life. I got a full new set since!

You can check out many of my flies over on the Fulling Mill website. I have 14 patterns available, all tried and trusted for NZ and they’ve been pretty successful around the world too.

Plenty spots available for next season and bookings are coming in regularly. Feel free to get in touch. You can contact me on ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.

Tight lines – Ronan..

It’s great to be busy guiding again after a couple of hard years. November was a challenging month to guide. Not many nice days! Lots of rain and stormy conditions. The rivers were regularly coloured up as a result. Now and again I had to use lakes and still waters to keep my clients on the fish – but of course I adore this type of fishing so for me it’s not really a plan B, it’s just another option. All up it was a successful month through bad weather. I enjoy the challenge of finding good, clear water to fish through these rain events and I’m yet to cancel a guide day due to weather or water conditions. There’s always water to fish!

Fish were a little leaner than usual earlier on in the season. I put it down to the harsh winter and more specifically a monster flood last July which completely changed many parts of my local rivers. Some of my favourite beats were unrecognisable when I went back to fish them with dad in October. Fish numbers and quality certainly suffered as a result. It was really heartbreaking at times. Walking upstream and not even knowing where I was on the beat. Large corner pools gone – pools that I never thought would move. Long sections of pools and bends bulldozed straight and useless by 460 cumecs. I’ve been using all my spare time trying to get out there to rediscover them and find out where is or is not worth fishing. Thankfully I’m getting a good handle on where is fishing well. Fish are in good condition once again and the rivers are starting to get comfortable with their new courses. Certainly my biggest fear going forward are these huge floods. Hundred year floods they call them… the annual hundred year flood I call them! The flood in July did so much damage around the country. I can’t imaging what 2 or even 3 of these events in a short space of time could do. Utter destruction to rivers and fish populations. I have already been hearing some sad stories from the top of the South Island. Anyway, right now the rivers down here are recovering well and fish numbers are still healthy in most of the rivers. Many rivers were unaffected, thankfully.

My own fishing was pretty limited through November because I was so busy with work. I did get out for a relaxing few hours before a 10 day straight stint. Also one big day through a gorge on my annual pilgramige to catch up with my old friend. Check out the full story here. It’s well worth a read!

The gallery below covers the highlights of a busy month of guiding. I was out most days and now I’m taking a few much needed days off. When I get a chance I’ll put together an account of my time fishing with dad in September and October. We fished 26 days so it certainly warrants its own report!

You can check out my fly patterns, the ones I use on a daily basis over here on the Fulling Mill website. If you’re within NZ I may be able to help you out with a deal. Just let me know. I currently have 7 patterns available in various sizes but I expect to have 7 more patterns available next month.

My season ahead is pretty much full – There may be a gap here or there although I know April still has gaps. Feel free to get in touch about guided fishing this season or next (which is already filling up). Contact me ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.

Tight lines.. Ronan..

Just a quick blog today to clear the decks. I had a busy and successful season finale with some superb trout for clients. One very big fish to report on too. Before I get to that I’d like to share the rest of the seasons highlights. It’s a while since I put up a blog so some of these photos go right back to summer! I’ll also be changing back to the previous blog format after this one. Paul and I made this change back to the old format because it seemed like a good Idea, but the one I’ve been using for the last few years is much better for images. I put a slideshow at the bottom or you can click on the thumbnail images, but you have to go back to click the next one. WordPress can be very user unfriendly at times!!

Some exciting stuff coming up – Jeff and I will be doing another episode of Pure Fly NZ with Nick Reygaert. We have some ideas but nothing is set in stone as yet. Also the Piscatorial pot! I probably wont run it this month but I hope to run it in June. We’ll certainly need a good stock of wood for the brazier – which wont be a problem! Also a potential visit to the coast on the cards..

If you’d like to get in touch about guided fly fishing next season please get in touch. The season is already quite full but still some decent gaps for multi-day trips. ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.

Enjoy the pics below and I’ll be back soon with something more!

   Tight Lines, Ronan..

ps, Here is a link to my flies available from Fulling Mill. 

 

It’s been a very full on start to the year. Some guiding which has been great but more importantly I’ve had a lot of time to fish myself – I’m not quite sure how that happened but I’m not complaining! There’s been lots of highlights. One of them, the biggest highlight for sure was a trip to Fjordland with Nick Reygaert. The trouble is, too much other stuff has happened since to do that trip justice in a shared blog. It deserves it’s own report and it will come!! I’m just not sure when yet.

Another highlight I’d like to mention was on a day I went in search of a big fish or 2 on a solo mission. It was a day when I needed to walk a lot of river to find fish. Over the day I walked about 12 kilometres of river and only saw only 5 fish. 3 of those I landed. Number one and two took my Kiwi Dun without much difficulty but the 3rd was a different story. This turned into an hour long cat and mouse tactical battle on the last pool of the day. It started as I approached a long, slow pool and saw some nervous water half way up. Then a rise in the same area. “Brilliant” I thought, “theres a fish in the pool”. I advanced carefully up the pool looking as intently as possible – then I spooked a small fish of about 3lbs. That was not what I was expecting. Surely that was not the fish I saw first? I didn’t think it was a small fish. On the reasonable chance there’s still a big fish cruising the pool, I’ll continue to proceed with caution – that was my thinking. Sure enough, I saw another rise and it looked big. “Game on” I thought. I moved slowly to intercept the rise but could not see the fish. Then he rose under the cut bank at my feet. Knee length grass obscured me from the fishes vision and I could just make out his tail as it pushed him gently upstream and out of sight. The light was not great. This was the point when I decided to take a more careful approach than I might usually take. I decided not to persue the fish by way of following him up the pool because I thought I could easily spook him. Instead I decided to reset altogether. I went right back to the start of the pool and started my approach again. I ended up doing this numerous times. Somtimes I got a half chance, sometimes a brief visual, sometimes nothing. On one occasion I got a great visual and enough time to make a cast. 3 actually. I covered him each time with the dun and he totally ignored it each time. The fish was cruising like a trout looking for a cicadas but there were none on the water – at least none that I could see. I put one on anyway and once again reset. Back to the start. Another careful, slow and stealthy approach. Then, right up at the head of the pool I saw him rise. “Now” I thought.. I ran lightfooted half way to the rise then slowed right down. My thinking was that if he was cruising towards me after that rise he should be close now. From a crouched position I was scoping all round, now staying still. Then I saw him – cruising at 45 degrees away from my bank but in my general direction. I laid out my cast and dropped the cicada about 2 metres in front of him with an intentional plop. He immediatly set his course for it and cruised confidently all the way to it and….. chomp. The lift into such big weight is like a drug and I’m certainly addicted. What a high.

I thought he would make the magic 10lbs. He looked it during the fight but my weigh net said 9.5lbs. Of course it doesn’t matter but there is a certain fixation people have (me included!) about those ellusive double figure fish which is why I like to say the weight. That was the end of a really amazing day in the backcountry. I had the whole upper river to myself and I walked pretty much all of it.

In other news, I’m delighted to have another 4 fly patterns in the 2022 Fulling Mill catalog. I could not be happier with how well the team at Fulling Mill replicated these flies. 3 of them are streamers and one is a dry. One of the streamers is the tried and trusted Bruiser. Immortalised in the Lake Pukaki episode of Pure Fly NZ. This fly caught all the fish for both Jeff and myself on day 2 – before it had a name! The 2nd one is the Killer Smelt. A newer pattern designed to immitate cockabullies and smelt. I’ve had great success on this fly. It works well in clear water when darker streamers will get follows but not takes. This is also great in the salt. And last but not least is the Green Machine. Lighter in colour than the Bruiser and darker than the smelt, this fly completes the little family of streamers. In my humble opinion, what sets these flies apart is their simplicity. Just 2 main componants of possum and marabou which seemlessly gel together in the water. Their profile is very lifelike with natural, fluid movement. Another advantage of these flies is that they don’t wrap around. They’re tied on the Fulling Mill Competition Heavyweight hook which is incredibly strong. Just as good as the Kamasan B175 which I always used in the past, now I just use the FM version. The dry fly is actually one of my fathers creations which he’d been tying for NZ for about 10 years, so it’s very much tried and trusted. It’s a favourite of many of my clients as well as one of my own. The only thing I added to this fly was the sighter post to make it more visable. In a 14 its a great mayfly immitation and the 12 is superb for larger mayflies or as a general dry. I’m excited to see how these flies do around the world! I know dad has had a lot of success on his dry on Lough Corrib in the West of Ireland during olive and sedge hatches. A good friend is using them in Tasmania right now. There’s a batch of 60 streamers headed to Malaysia to help Paul fill up 6 boxes of flies for the guides involved in the Sungai Tiang project. I’m really looking forward to seeing them in action over there! I know my good friend John O Malley is going to give them a swim on Corrib for early season brownies. I’m confident they’ll work well. All my Fulling Mill patterns are available here.

Feel free to get in touch about guided fly fishing on the lower South Island for the remainder of the season if you’re within NZ. For those of you abroad, it looks like visitors will be allowed in this October – although a dates has not yet been set. Feel free to get in touch to arrange a booking starting in November to be on the safe side. ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website

Tight lines! Ronan..

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It feels like the season has only started and it’s January already. This is why I try to get the most out of winter fishing – once the regular season opens, it’s over in no time, it accelerates. I guess thats why we have to make the best of everything. Life is short and we don’t know whats coming. On that note, I’m certainly trying to make the best of these challenging times. Yes, my business is in ruins and I worry about and miss my family in Ireland but all other aspects of life are better. Family time, my own fishing time, time in the workshop and restoring our old house and garden. In a normal guiding season I don’t see the inside of my workshop and maintaining the house is limited to mowing the lawns now and again. I know I’ll miss this when things go back to normal. In fact, it’s made me rethink what’s actually important so much so that I’m considering reducing my number of guide days per year to keep more of this work / life balance that I’m enjoying so much. I think when all this is over many people will realise the good points of this strange time – and there are many, at least there are here in NZ. I want to enjoy the good bits right now and forget about the negative as much as I can. I’m not going to look back and think I missed out or could have done things differently. I’m thankful to be in NZ where our freedom has not been affected like peoples in other parts of the world.

I’ve been on the water 3 out of the first 4 days of this year. Good results from various conditions. I have a very exciting exploratory backcountry mission coming up so this year is kicking off in style. More on all that in my next blog.

I’m attempting to improve my photography a little. David Lambroughton has been giving me a few valuable pointers. I’ve taken my wifes 10 year old Lumix GF2 out of the closet and got a polarising filter for it. I love the results. Polarising was always something I wanted from my picture taking but waterproof cameras are limited in this regard. Putting my sunnies in front of the lens wears thin! Don’t worry, you wont see “Photography” after my name or watermarks on any images! The photo’s below tell the story of a great finale to 2021.

I have 4 new patterns coming out this year with Fulling Mill. 3 streamers and a dry. I’m excited about that. More on those soon. My nymphs are currently available here.

Feel free to get in touch about guided fly fishing whether your in NZ or abroad. ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.

Tight lines and I sincerely wish you all a great 2022. Ronan..

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Between 2002 and 2011 I fished the majority of every NZ season. Total freedom. I’d work in Ireland during the NZ winter and save as much as I could for the next trip to NZ. After moving to NZ full time in 2011, much of the freedom continued – I just had to fit the fishing around work. As a single man I’d fish every weekend, public holiday and day off throughout all seasons. Things are different now. My wife and 2 kids are now my priority. It’s amazing how quickly time passes and I’m enjoying every minute with them. Recently I got a window to go away and fish myself for 3 days. I really don’t remember when I had this last! Guiding is different, I’m talking personal personal fishing time. Mark was on board to join me right away as we were trying to put a trip together anyway. Next I thought I’d ask a few of the other lads. 4 of us ended up hitting the road for 3 days… I forgot how great the freedom of being on the road fishing feels. That was the drug for 9 years of NZ seasons before I decided to live here. Of course I still fish a lot, a few days a week I’ll get out for a fish. Even if it’s just a few hours. But it’s so hard now to get away over night with my 2 little beauties to look after.

We had 3 brilliant days of fishing. We broke up in different groups each day and covered small streams, stillwaters and rivers. It was a nice mix of tried and trusted and totally new water. One of the exploration days yielded a superb find. A piece of water that I cant wait to get back to with better conditions. Also an excellent guiding option. The highlight of the 3 days for me was a stillwater that I used to fish a lot many years ago. Kevin (Shotgun) first took me there in about 2004. I have so many great memories of the place since then. I had magic fishing on it with my dad – some of our best memories of fishing together over here actually. I also fished it with Chris Dore, Bob Wyatt, Tonio, Fraser and now Wesley. Early season access has always been hard to get with lambing but we were just lucky on our day that they had moved the ewes into the next field and the farmer was happy to let us through. About the fishing – Wesley went left and I went right. Numbers were less than in the past but still plenty to keep us focused. We each landed a few of the most beautiful trout an angler can can catch. Sight fishing with a dry dropper accounted for most. When we were almost finished on it, I changed to a double nymph rig to fish some deep water blind. I moved 3 before landing another stunner.. That was the icing on the cake. I have to say, I’m delighted and relieved to have my HT6 again. It’s been cursed that rod! It keeps getting broken – not manufacture error I should say – just stupit shit keeps happening to it! I feel like the curse is now over and I’ll be able to enjoy this fabulous rod again. If not, I have a back up. Ha! Take that, curse!

Part of the craic on a trip like this is getting into the pub at the end of the day for feed and a schather of pints. I rarely look past the steak option and the beer was good. The pub was quiet but 4 like-minded fellas will always have a good time!

3 days, good friends, lots of craic and plenty trout. Now I need another fix!

In other news, I’ve had a few days guiding – delighted to get them under the circumstances. All very successful days with lots to the net each day. The best result had to be from Angela, who after a casting lesson landed three 5lb browns. That was her first day with a fly rod! Pretty amazing result. Great to see Brian again after his 11lber last season. Also lovely to get out with Sam and Fred again. Last time we fished together Sam broke in 4 big trout. On our recent day she made no mistakes! They both landed some magnificent trout. I know Chuan will be jealous..

Pure Fly NZ has moved off mainstream tv and onto youtube. This makes it very easy to access where ever you are in the world! Myself and Jeff had some super fishing in our episode and Nick was right there to capture it all. You can watch it, and all the other episodes from series 4 for free on youtube. Here’s a link to our episode.

If you’re in NZ and interested in some guided fly fishing, feel free to drop me a line to book a trip before you can’t travel at all!! Visit my website or email ronan@sexyloops.com

My nymphs have been accounting for nearly all the river fish and some of the lake fish in the gallery below. If you’re thinking about stocking up for the NZ season, these are my tried and trusted range of weighted nymphs. You can check them out here.

Tight lines, Ronan..

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From about mid July, trout start repopulating the lakes in large numbers. Spawning for most browns and many rainbows has finished. This is a great time to fish the lakes. The trout are keen to pile on condition, so the fishing can be superb. You’ll pick up some skinny fish but it’s quite amazing just how good the condition is on the vast majority of these winter fish. I’ve been out quite a bit making the most of it. When conditions permit, I’ve had some great sight fishing along the edges. When the wind has been up, my possum & marabou buggers have been doing really well. I’ve been fishing another method too. Something new for me.

This method is simple. I have fished it before but never quite like my current approach to it. It’s a dry / dropper rig fished blind – okay, so nothing new there – but for me there is. Normally when the wind gets up and I can’t sight the edges I turn to a bugger or small streamer. I love this method so it was hard for me to change. I always thought that nymphs fished blind under a dry in the wind would work. In fact, I knew it would work, but would it be better than buggers or streamers? Probably not – but maybe. Recently – finally – I put it to the test, both shore based and drifting. Like any blind fishing, it’s not just chuck and chance. I’m always looking for structure, contrast, weed beds, sand patches etc. The trick is to cover as much likely water as possible, as efficiently as possible. so, while drifting for example, I fish a relatively short line. Long enough so that fish near the fly won’t see the boat. Keeping it short gives me the great advantage of being able to pick it up and lay it down with just one false cast. Speed can be key here. 3 or 4 false casts and you might drift past a good weed patch, or spook fish by carrying too much line for too long. I don’t leave the fly sitting for long. About 10 to 20 seconds, then pick it up an place it somewhere else. I’m always aware of the speed of the drift versus the water I want to cover. A drogue is on the cards. It’s a very involved way to fish. It requires focus because you must have your fly in likely water all the time to stack the odds in your favour. Thats what blind fishing is come to think of it. I’ve mainly been fishing 2 to 4 feet of water with this method. At this depth I know I can get my fly to “likely trout cruising depth” quickly. I’ve been using my size 14 dark nymphs with a 2mm bead to suit this depth, but there’s loads of scope to take it further. Bigger, more buoyant dries holding heavier mymphs on longer droppers for deeper water. maybe more than one nymph? This method really suits boat fishing because you can find large expances of ideal water and work it. Thats not generally as easy from the bank but it’s a good tactic on the shore too. The advantage of the dry fly indicator over direct nymphing is the static or sinking presentation and the indication to strike. Typical to most methods, I’ve had days where everything sticks and days where I lost a lot of fish.

To weigh it up against bugger fishing – you’ll cover more fish with buggers but they won’t all eat. You’ll cover fewer fish with this dry / dropper method but more will eat (in my opinion!) I think the only way to test it is to fish against Jeff Forsee on buggers while I use the dry dropper. That said it, the dry / dropper method suits both anglers fishing it because bugger fishing is quite dispuptive even to the water outside the anglers focus. There would have to be some rules to give both methods equal footing. I’m sure Jeff will be keen! (We would have been out there doing it yesterday only for this feckin lockdown – which I fully agree with!)

Guiding through winter has been quiet which is pretty normal. However, my now regular client, Bill was down a few times. We had good fishing, mixing it up with sight and blind fishing on a number of lakes and working on casting. While up in Mackenzie country we had an encounter with an absolute monster. Sighted on a lake edge. I’d say 12lbs plus. I don’t think canal fish can get in to this lake, so that was a genuine monster. He was hovering with his dorsal just poking out. One good cast from Bill and the trout violently spooked, shifting a lot of water. I’m itching to get back! That was certainly a fish of a lifetime and I want to catch it.

In other news, I’ve been using my green boat a bit lately. She still has no name! I totally misjudged it as a boat. I thought it was too heavy for fishing shallows and only good for cruising with the family. To my delight, It’s great to fish from and drifts like a dream. Ideal for one but fine for two too. Wesley was out with me recently and he found it really easy and comfortable to fish from the hatch opening. It works like a lean bar whichever way we drift, so I don’t need to mount a casting deck on the bow – though I might anyway! It’s a very versatile boat. Easy to tow and launch, very economical with a 15hp 4 stroke Evinrude – clips along nicely with that, drifts well and easy to cast from with nothing for flyline to wrap around (well, almost nothing). The other big advantage is the cabin. It will keep any amount of gear dry and out of the weather and there room for me to sleep in it. I’m really looking forward to the future with this boat. Some of you may remember Daltona. She’s still in the workshop and the renovation is moving forward very slowly. I will get there!

I wrote a piece for Fulling Mill lately about my top 10 trout for the 20 – 21 season. Here is a link to it. Some great trout in there and a brief recap on each one.

If you’d like to get in touch about guided fishing this season or next please do. Strange times but it costs nothing to have a chat! Email me at ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.

Tight Lines, Ronan..

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I never worry when the regular season ends because we have good winter fishing locally. That said, last winter was hard work, so I hoped for better fishing this winter. The winter season usually kicks off with a bang as some big rainbows move up river in May. This year saw very few fish move in May. Also, feck all in June and now were well into July and still no great action. Every day out I find some fish, but not the big thumpers I need to scratch this itch. I want a big silver bar – fresh out of the lake, or just a plain big bow. For the 5 or so winters before last winter I always got them. Plenty of them. But not this year or last. Last year I had the excuse that I was busy with 2 very young kids, but this year I have fished it a lot. I have guided it and fished it hard. Lots of days, but I simply have not had that great day. I think the fish are there in very low numbers. Maybe the run is still to come! I certainly hope so. Lately I’ve actually gotten fed up going out to fish it. At the end of each fishing day, I return saying “right, thats it, not going back”… but the next time I have a window, I’m back out there, frustrating myself once again – sometimes not enjoying it. I move quickly to cover multiple spots which have always held fish. I also look in new water, blind fish, sight fish. Really work it hard but nothing decent to report apart from some dark 2 to 4lb bows or 1lb maidens but thats simply not what I want. I’m not greedy either – If I could catch one fresh run 6lb plus rainbow I’d be happy. That would make my winter. One day out – one of the few days with decent action – I hooked 8 only landing 2 rat bows. One fish I lost that day was one of those special fish, but I only caught a glimpse.

I had to get well away from the local in search of some good fishing. I went to fish some lakes I like to fish in winter. It felt like I hadn’t caught a decent trout for ages and I couldn’t take it anymore! The day on the lake saved my sanity. I worked a rocky shore hard all day with dries, nymphs and streamers – sight and blind and landed 7 trout to 7lbs. Lots of reel screaming runs from super trout.. I feel like an angler again.

Feel free to get in touch about guided fly fishing over winter or next season. Check out my website or email me @ ronan@sexyloops.com.

Links to some of the flies mentioned in the pics.. Complex twist bugger , Claret nymph , Indicator Klink.

Tight Lines, Ronan..

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As soon as the trans-Tasman travel restrictions were lifted I had some of my regulars booking trips. I didn’t think it was going to happen but finally, it did. It felt great to be busy again and things are looking good for May too. I had 8 consecutive guide days to finish off the regular season and managed a day myself on the 30th to polish it off. It wasn’t always easy and hatches were average to poor apart from one day where it really fired. Generally, April is the best month for mayfly hatches down here, so when it doesn’t happen it’s a little disappointing. Some days when the hatch was happening, we were almost running up river to find rising trout before it switched off again. Because it can switch off so suddenly! On one of the days, fly was pouring off for a while in the late afternoon. We got a couple during the hatch, then it stopped. Then 30 minutes later fly was pouring off again but the fish didn’t respond. 2 variables, fish and fly – and they both need to be “on” for it to work! All up, the guiding days went very well. I really enjoyed the time with my regular clients who are also friends at this stage and great to meet Vipin and Dave for the first time. About that day, Vipin was having a run of bad luck. Hooking fish but loosing them, getting the eat but not the hook-up and loosing a very big fish at the net. He landed a small one just big enough to count. At the end of the day I decided to look in one more pool to see if he could have another chance at a decent fish. There he was – under a tree. Vipin is a novice caster and this was a very tough shot for any angler. I coached and encouraged him and tried not to get frustrated. Then he made the side-cast land close to the target, the fish turned and swam downstream to see what made the disturbance and ate the fly. We got the fish and that absolutely made the day.

One thing I started looking at recently is the step counter on my phone. According to it, I walked 103kms in 8 guide days. The biggest day was nearly 19kms and the smallest was over 8. An average of 13kms per day. That all sounds about right to me. Walking is an integral part of fishing in NZ. Its not all on the river of course. Many of the 103 kilometres were walking to a river or river beat where vehicle access is not permitted, or climbing in and out of gorges. Ultimately, the harder you can go the more fish you’ll catch – or, at the very least you’ll see some great country!

The story of the 8 guide days is told in the photos below. I included the fish count so you can get a clear picture of just how varied that can be. Out of the 8 days, 2 were very hard where we could easily have blanked but managed 1 and 3 respectively. All the other days were good to very good. It goes without saying that angler ability has a huge role to play. The great thing about taking Marcus out, for example, is that I don’t have to plan much around wind because he can cast into it with relative ease. So where am I going with this? I’m not sure really, but casting skill and fitness are clearly of key importance to a successful trip here. One thing I think I need to advise my clients on at the time of booking is to get out and practice casting as much as possible. Also to get out walking a bit just to raise the fitness a little if needs be. It needs to be said though, you don’t need to be a marathon runner to have a great time fishing in NZ. There are plenty great options to suit anglers not keen on, or not able for big walks.

Still spaces available in May and it can be a super month! Feel free to get in touch. ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.

Tight lines, Ronan..

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