Ronan's Report

December and into January… December is a great month to fish. Trout start looking up and responding well to terrestrials. Everyone seems to love dry fly action! There were some nice mayfly hatches too. Usually short and fickle but we made the best of it when it happened. As January arrived many of my local fisheries got too warm for good (or ethical) fishing. With this I venture away to find cooler water. I like to mix it up anyway.

One day I went to a high country river in the hope of some cicada action. We got to the river at 9am and got the piece of water I hoped for. At 11am, perched high on a rock I could see a vehicle (large black ute) pull up 1 kilometre above us. They could see us I’m sure and I’m pretty sure they saw my vehicle earlier too. It’s totally unethical to do this. It takes quite a brass neck to arrive there so late and then just cut someone off. They were just too far up for me to go marching up there for an argument so we pulled out and went downstream only to get jumped again by another clown fishing downstream from an upstream access point. A really infuriating day. We should all treat other anglers as we’d like to be treated. To cut someone off so blatantly is basically stealing someones experience. I’m pretty sure I know who was in the black ute and they should know better. Sadly, I heard that they make a habit of this. Against the odds we managed a couple of good trout! One on my cicada and the other on my unweighted nymph.

All my flies are working well on their relative days. They’re available from Fulling Mill or in-store at Patagonia Queenstown.

More about January in my next blog! Its been a challenging but great month. A few days off now before KC and Mark arrive.. I’m looking forward to seeing these 2 again!

Tight lines.. Ronan..

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..

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..

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..

Over this season I’ve seen 2 trout that I had first seen many years before. Both from high country rivers where trout are known to get pretty old. I contacted my friend, Rasmus Gabrielson, to find out a bit about how old trout get. Rasmus reckons from some surveys done on one of the rivers that it would take a brown trout about 12 years to reach 9lbs. 9lbs is important because both trout were that weight when I caught them first. The first trout I caught back in 2013. He was one of the most spectacularly coloured trout I had ever seen. He had a dark patch on his right gill cover. This would make him easy to identify if I was to ever see him again. Over the years I did see him on occassion. The dark patch easily visible as long as there was no wind riffle. His colour never seemed as striking as when I first caught him but I always assumed it was the same fish. Twice he ate my clients flies but but each time the rod came up empty. It wasn’t until this season that the stars aligned for Robbie to catch him. If it wasn’t for the dark patch on the gill I would never have picked him as being the same trout. For confirmation I compared photos and the spots matched. Some spots seem to have moved a little, some new ones have appeared and some have disappeared but its still easy to see that it’s the same trout. The dark patch has gotten much darker. Whats really amazing is that if that fish was 12 when I caught him first, he’s 20 now and still going strong.

The other fish I first caught in 2015. He was also one of the most beautifully coloured and marked trout I had seen – and still is to this day – both are actually. After I caught this fish I didnt see him for years. I caught him again in 2020 and again in 2021. Still the same weight and still looking good. Assuming this fish was 12 when I first caught him, he’s 18 now and also still going strong. I caught this fish from 2 adjacent pools. The first fish mentioned has been in the same pool for every sighting. This really proves the territorial nature of some trout. It also proves their resilience and ability to be caught and released many times. There’s photos of both trout on their first and last capture at the bottom of the list below. One has certainly changed a lot. Rasmus told me about brown trout from Norwegian high country lakes reaching 30 years of age. I wonder if we have a 30 year old brown trout in NZ? I think we could.

I’ve picked these two examples because they were such memorable fish. It’s also easy to know that they are the same fish. I have other examples too of old trout being caught many times over many years. It seems very normal for them reach a certain size and then maintain that weight. Some older trout stop spawning, making reaching old age more likely. Spawning is very hard on trout and claims many every year.

In other news, it’s been a great couple of months of fishing. I’ve been out a lot myself and had some big and beautiful trout. I’ve done some guiding. I didn’t expect to guide a double figure fish this season with so few guide days due to Covid travel restrictions, but Brian from Christchurch proved me wrong. We flew into a wilderness river on day 3 of 3. Fishing was slow – the only way to make it work was to cover kilometres and maximise opportunities. With this plan we found fish. At the end of the day we found a monster! He took the dry but Brian briefly foul hooked him in the tail on the strike. Luckily the trout didn’t seem didn’t seem too bothered and continued feeding. He took my #14 brown nymph a few casts later. This fish faught hard and Brian played him really well. At the very end, almost in the net, he made a dash under a rock. Fully under. We couldn’t see a fin! One chance before the tippet abrades off the rock – go and pull him out! I walked out to the rock and slid my hand under feeling around for the tail – taking a shot of water down my waders as I did. I felt the tail and got a firm grip and pulled him out and put him in my net. What a relief! I was expecting it would be a “one that got away” story! The fish weighed just under 11lbs. To me he looked like an early lake run trout. He was twice as big as any other fish we caught that day.

With the travel bubble open between Australia and NZ, the end of my season is pretty much full but there’s still lots of availability in May. Still plenty availability between now and April 18 for anglers within NZ. Feel free to get in touch. ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.

Tight lines, Ronan..

My main observation over the last month was during a time when a cold southerly came through putting an end to the cicada and shutting the fish down. Fishing got very hard. As anglers some of us need a reason as to why the fishing gets hard but we can only speculate. It seemed as if when the cicadas stopped floating down the rivers that fish didn’t know what to do so they did nothing. Maybe they were waiting for their next source of food to become mainstream? Maybe it was a drop in barometric pressure? A sudden fall in water temperature? Maybe a little of each? All rational, human conclusions. The truth is that (in my opinion) it’s possible, even likely that it was none of these. Something we’ll never know. All I know is that fishing got very hard for over a week. As a guide this is tough. I hate saying “you should have been here last week” so I try not to. Thankfully, most anglers understand that hard fishing is always on the cards and that it’s rarely easy.

Just as interesting was watching it all turn on again. Over a couple of days the fishing went from the toughest all season to some of the easiest! A word that is rarely thrown into fly fishing for trout but feck it, at times it was easy! Fish wanted to eat and they would travel to eat a fly. They weren’t particularly spooky, just eager. This is what anglers dream about. The rare time when trout drop their guard and go on the prowl. It has been great fun watching it happen. A pleasure watching anglers in their element and having a blast. That’s what its all about. Five recent guide days went above 15 fish for the day. During the difficult spell, 1 per day was pretty much the norm. Chalk and cheese!

The story of the progression from bad to great is well told in the photo’s below. They begin when the going was tough!

Here is a link to a short film I made from a nice moment during 2 days in a relentless gorge..

THE PISCATORIAL POT…

St Patricks Weekend coincided with the annual Piscatorial Pot fishing competition. I run it for the Wakatipu Anglers Club on Lake Dunstan. It seems to be growing in popularity in the club circle. I think this is more to do with what comes after the fishing day, which is Iza’s cooking! We also have a few drinks and the craic is always great. We didn’t quite push through til dawn this year but close! A big thank you to Iza, Ivy and Mike for all their help.. If it wasn’t for them it would have been a sausage sizzle!

The fishing for the last 4 years has been hard for the competitors. The winner is the angler with the most fish over 350mm. Usually one or 2 trout wins it. This competition was different. Anglers were catching fish! I think we had about 18 fishing with a total of about 12 trout landed. I got out for an hour to see how things were going and to try to catch a fish (I didn’t). I saw Conor and Jakub (IRE, CZ) catching some fish from the boat. I was delighted to see this. Wesley Snipes (IRE) had 2 fish, Simon (CH) had one.. Some real competition.. Camo-Guy (ENG) disappeared down the west shore for the day. When I met him in the evening he told me about some great fishing. Not big fish but he landed 4 between 360mm and 410mm on a black bugger. To add a bit of competition to the competition, the winning anglers nationality also goes on the cup. So far its two for NZ, two for Ireland and now, thanks to Guy, one for England. Guy is one of my oldest friends here in NZ so it really was a great pleasure to present him with the cup – even on St Patricks Day!! Congratulations Guy! 

Thanks to Manic Tackle Project for sending down a couple of t-shirts and caps to spice up the prizes!

I have about 15 days available in April, and a few this week. Flick me an email if you’d like to get out for a trip.. ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.

Tight Lines,  Ronan..

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August has been superb! Not long after arriving back in NZ from Ireland, I joined Robbie, Tom and Jeremy for a couple of days on Lake Benmore. I went and got the Wakatipu Anglers Club boat to give us some options around the lake. After the couple of days with the lads I held on to the boat since nobody was using it. It has been fantastic! Pretty much all the lakes are fishing well, some very well! Catching up with friends has been as good as the fishing. The weather has been very settled, warm and sunny with very little wind. Ideal fishing conditions, although at times a little more wind would have been an advantage to make the boat drift.

There are a few rivers open in this area, but August around here is best on the lakes. Brown trout are well and truly finished spawning and are back in the lakes trying to regain condition. They also haven’t seen an angler for a while so this combination makes them very keen to eat a fly – any fly! Fish on Lake Dunstan have been happy to eat small streamers even in the flat calm on 3x. A few more weeks and this simply wont work unless the wind is blowing. It’s fun out there. I’ve fished it 3 days from the boat averaging 8 per day. Benmore was a little slower but it will be improving daily as fish continue to drop back to the lake. Hawea didn’t really fish for Guy and I. It certainly did 6 years ago but such is fishing.. I’d been dying to get back there ever since 4 super weekends in a row in August 2012. Everything was the same; lake level, wind, conditions,  just no fish! This is how it was – Hawea 2012

The West Coast has eluded me since Jeff, Nick and myself filmed our episode for the second series of Pure Fly New Zealand. Mark and I went over for a couple of days recently. The main thing I wanted to do was the river mouths. The last week in August is when you have the most amount of whitebait running with the least amount whitebaiters chasing them! Therefor you have the place to yourself. I have hit some excellent fishing during this week in the past, but it was very quiet for us. The tides worked out well. On day 1 we arrived there in the morning an hour before high tide and fished for 2 hours. I got one small fish. The top and bottom of the tide are usually the best so we left the river mouth and fished the lower reaches of a river for a few hours. On the coast many rivers are open year round from the main highway bridge to the sea. This was good! I met 5 and landed one well conditioned, buttery brown. Then back to a different river mouth for low tide. I got 1 and touched a few more. The river mouths are a pretty gruelling fishery. They require dogged persistence and confidence.

Day 2 we took on a lake. It started slow but the fishing just got better and better. Boat and bank. Sight fishing to cruisers and blind stripping buggers on intermediates got the fish. Shitloads of them!

I’m not sure what fishing is on the cards next! September is here and I’ll be making the most of it. The lakes will only get better…

Tight Lines All!!

Ronan..

For bookings and information on guided fly fishing for the coming season, contact me ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website Ronan’s Fly Fishing Missions

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Shane and I decided we had time to walk in to the Black Lake and be back in time for dinner. The walk was usually 2 hours but Shane thought he might have a quicker way in if a certain bog road on google earth was firm enough to drive on. Thankfully it was and we had no issues getting to the end of the road. We tackled up and set off walking across the mountain with high expectations. Shane had visited the lake few times with plenty fish to the net each time. We got there after an easy 40 minutes, the sun was occasionally poking its rays through the grey clouds and there was a firm breeze blowing. I took the west shore and Shane took the east.. I was expecting quick action but it didn’t come. I could see Shane wasn’t catching either. We persisted down our shores and met at the bottom. I picked up one wee trout. Tiny, but still approximately 3 years old. Wild trout will grow as large as their environment permits and these acidic mountain lakes generally do not contain an abundance of food for trout, and so, they don’t grow very big. They are good to eat if you catch a few but today the catch was returned unharmed! We both agreed that there was no point fishing any more so we started the march back to the van. We wondered why the fish were simply not on? They had to be in there. Who knows! We could only speculate. We passed an old roofless stone building on the way – a very small one at about 7′ x 5′ inside. We went in for a look. I noticed a few old pots in the wall, also some kindling and a couple of sods of turf. Shane got down there for a closer look and could see a bottle with a cork in it. He tried to get it out but could barely reach, it was way in under the wall. Stubbornness got the better of him, he eventually he got it out with the aid of a stick. There was something in there.. a note we guessed. We could see paper wrapped in plastic. I popped out the cork. It took me a while to jimmy out the note but it came out eventually. Sure enough it was a message in a bottle which read: 26/6/05..  Hello to whoever found this note in years to come. My name is Jordan Keane 12 years of age. Me and my dad camped here this night. I caught a really big fish here about 12 inch long and caught 32 fish from 4.30am to 12.30am. Good bye We put the note back in the bottle, and the bottle back under the wall for the next person to find. We continued back to Shane’s van with a good story to tell and made it home in time for dinner. Iza, Irene, Shane’s brother, Tom and his girlfriend were there too. All friends from our early teens, its important to do this! Eat, drink, fish and be merry!!

I also did the rounds fishing some of my home waters. James and I had an enjoyable day out on Corrib. I’m no longer in the know on the lake so I chose a long drift which brought us passed many familiar points, bays and islands. Early in the day a beautiful bar of gold made a side swipe at my dry mayfly and stuck! A beautifully marked native Irish brown. There is a certain reverence towards an wild Corrib brown that I don’t feel anywhere else! James and I had a few more chances but we finished the day with one. A pint or 2 in the evening rounded off the day nicely!

John and I also had a day on Corrib. A very unusual day it was in that we put up a heap of trout but got nothing to the net. We must have risen 25 trout for the day on dries and wets. We altered our retrieve, fly size, fly patterns etc but nothing changed. That evening the pints were necessary after a frustrating day!

I had a great session after Irish Pollack off Roundstone. A Di7 with a short leader and a white marabou and possum sculpin head did the trick. Iza was with me putting her new camera through it’s paces and got some great shots! Lumpy seas, a spectacular seascape, willing pollack and great company made for the perfect afternoon. Dinner for the family compliments of the Atlantic Ocean that night!!

The way things worked out, Dad and I only managed 2 days fishing together. We fished 2 lakes we both love and have both guided on many many times, Lough Inagh and Kylemore Lough. The fishing was pretty slow on both lakes but we managed a few good quality seatrout in the 1 to 2 lb class in both locations. With our day on Kylemore we decided to try something different after a slow morning, so we went after large cannibal trout. We heard some reports that they were in the lake whch is no surprise, they are quite common in Inagh just a few miles away. We had a tip as to their whereabouts; the shallow near the bottom bridge, so we worked this area. The plan was to fish over the drop-offs with fast sinking lines. This is not easy from a drifting boat in black, peat stained water because its impossible to tell the depth your in by looking at the water. My thinking is that the most likely water would be along the sloping shelf from the shallow to the deep. Regularly poking the rod down to find the bottom kept us on the right depth – no depth finder! Every time we could not hit the bottom with the rod tip we’d go back on the drift in an attempt to drift along the sloping drop-off. We worked it hard for hours. I had one follow to the surface from a fish between 3 and 4lbs and so did dad. When we almost had enough of it I connected with one – a big one! It immediately broke the surface, certainly 6lb+, and then the fly came out. I couldn’t swear that it wasn’t a salmon but my instinct (or maybe blind optimism) tells me it was a large brown. A monster for a Connemara lake! For the last hour we worked the the top of the lake near the river mouth in the hope of a salmon. Dad got a solid seatrout not long before we called it a day but we’ll have to wait til next year for a salmon. Special thanks to Nancy for giving Dad and I a boat for the day. It’s always a pleasure to listen to her stories about the old days and the new. Did she ever tell you about the day she caught 7 big salmon out in front of the house? It’s a good one! Thanks also to my good friend, Macca!!

One other thing of note happened while in Ireland. I asked Iza to marry me and she said yes! I don’t want to go into the entire proposal story but it involved casting the ring to her on an 8wt on the wild west coast of Roundstone!

The NZ season is well under way. I’ve had very successful guide days so far! More on that very soon. If you’re thinking about some guided fly fishing in NZ this year why not drop me a line! ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website http://www.ronansflyfishingmissions.com

Tight Lines everyone!

Ronan..

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About a year ago I noticed some good looking water on Lake Wanaka from the top of Rocky Mountain. The weekend before last I went to check it out. The day was perfect, little or no wind with bright sunshine. I spotted the edges and saw very few cruisers. The few I cast to were extremely spooky and just fecked off from even the most delicate presentation. I was there for about 2 hours without catching before I started putting it together. I noticed some fish rising well out, some in range, all sporadic. I saw a few chironomid on the top. I thought it would be worth putting on a team of two buzzers on a long 4lb tippet and fishing it blind. After about an hour I got one. Once I found a reasonable concentration of fish I got a few more. It went to plan! I found a few fish and figured out what they were at and got some. When fish are difficult to catch it makes it all the more rewarding when you do catch! It’s worth mentioning that as I get older I’m getting more disciplined in this type of fishing. In the past I needed to be doing more. Stripping I guess! Now I can stay focussed while just staying in touch with my flies for as long as it takes. Like my father! Alhough it will be many more years before I come close to his skill level with a team of buzzers.

The following day I went to Dunstan, my home water. It never fails! I know it well at this stage. After my buzzer fishing on Lake Wanaka the day before it seemed like the right choice for Dunstan too. I battled the silt and blind fished the water in front of me as I steadily walked to keep covering new water. Critical when blind fishing. The more water you cover the more fish you cover, it’s as simple as that. I had about 10 fighting fit browns and a rainbow, mostly on the buzzer. In the afternoon I tried out some new water on the lower Kawarau. I had a couple on the woolly bugger. Another great day, Its always a bonus to successfully try out some new water.. Great to catch up with Mike Wilkinson, Kevin and Alan Mc Intire on the lake too!

The weekend just passed was a mission to the coast. The forecast was for sun and light winds. Ideal conditions. It turned out we had very strong wind for most of Saturday. That coupled with big surf made the going difficult. I heaved out the flies all day long to no avail. I might have had one touch but probably not. Iza, on the other hand, did well. Her soft plastic fish imitation fooled 2 trout and a Kahawai. One of her trout was the fattest seatrout I’ve seen on the coast. Stuffed to the gills with something, whitebait or toheroa most likely. One of the Wakitipu Anglers Club members had a  trout stuffed with toheroa! On Sunday the winds were light and there were very few people around, not even whitebaiters. With the place to ourselves we still couldn’t get a fish. Not even on Iza’s spin gear. I hooked and lost a good trout in the morning which was the highlight of my fishing for the weekend. The Wakitipu Anglers club, with which I’m a member, also had a gathering there at the weekend. I haven’t heard many results but I don’t think many were caught from the river mouths. This is usually a great time of year over there so I don ‘t know why the fishing was so bad. The whitebaiters are saying that the bait has not turned up yet so maybe its all about to happen…

I’m taking bookings for the season ahead, so if you’d like me to guide you on your NZ trout adventure contact me here! You know you’ll be in good hands.. October is only a week away! (ronan@sexyloops.com)

Tight lines, another weekend is almost upon us!

Ronan..

ps..      If your in this area the Wakitipu Anglers Club is a great club to be a part of!

Buzzer fishing in the flat calm accounted for 4 good trout...

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The following day, Lake Dunstan. My home water!

Another healthy brown goes back..

The buzzer cleaned up on Dunstan. I had about a dozen. Same little black buzzer from the last blog.

I decided to try out some new water on Lake Wanaka..

The best fish of the day..

A feisty rainbow!

I also had some decent sport on the lower Kawarau on the same day.

A hedgehog..

All curled up in his spiky sleeping bag!

Back to the West Coast!

The fishing was extremely slow for me on the fly but Iza did well with soft plastics..

Then this! The fattest seatrout I've seen on the coast..

A west coast river..

Whitebaiters!

In the thick of it!

This is all I landed for the weekend.

Allister and Iza.. Allister is also in the Wakitipu Anglers Club. We all had a west coast meet last weekend.

This is like a scene from Lord of the Rings, I asked Iza to move forward a little!

A coastal beach..

There was thumping surf all weekend..

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The evening was stunning so we fished into darkness....

The sunset reminded me of a Salvadore Dali painting..

Iza's first Kahawai! Thanks for the jacket, Irene!!!

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You can pick up the over grills from a Waste Busters for sweet feck all.. They have revolutionised my bush tucker!

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Campfire cooking.. No need for a gas stove!

Back he goes, like a rocket!

My whitebait fly tied with white possum. Iza likened it to a character from Ice Age..

Loads of Toheroa (I think.. Breandan??) They were washed up, damaged and broken. The gulls were feasting on them. I assume its a natural occurrence, but it seemed odd to me.

The white patches are the washed up shellfish. I've never seen them like this before on the coast. One of the club members, Daniel Holik, Got a trout stuffed with them!

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The back country grill..

Bacon and left over spuds for lunch.. and a couple of eggs which I put on afterwards!

Iza and I decided to hit the Coast the weekend before the whitebaiting season opened. We took the Friday off work and went over on Thursday afternoon to make the most of it. Forecast was for blue skies and light winds, Iza got a nice seatrout on arrival, the tides were just right. It seemed we were in for a great weekend.

Friday was magic. The magic hour turned out to be about 3! Trout were smashing bait on the surface. As the tide rose the fish moved in the estuary farther but they were easy to follow. In my experience over there its unusual to see trout on the top for long periods so I rarely use a floating line. I had the di5 on which was not ideal. I did not want to change to a floater for fear that by the time I went to the truck, rigged another rod and came back it might all be over. In most instances it would have been but today it continued. I put a small surface popper on the tail which held up the flies for a bit longer. A decent compromise I think! Iza had 7 on the soft plastic and I had 7 on the fly. I’m sure I’d have had more if I had a floater on. Such a fun day.. That night we ate a sea-trout, some smoky bacon and noodles. A roaring fire to keep to chill away.

On the way south on Saturday the front right wheel started to lock up, tugging at the steering and growling at me. We were near a garage so we left it there while the mechanic was away. We fished the Haast river below the bridge for a couple of hours, It was a short walk from the garage. I spotted a good fish on the edge as soon as I got to the river. First cast with a nymph the 4.5 to 5lb fish ate. I hooked him but quickly lost him. Not the reprieve I thought it was going to be..

Back to the Garage, “cant be fixed til next Tuesday” he said. We grabbed a few essentials from the truck and set off hitching before the road closed for the day. The Diana falls slip is a serious inconvenience to all my coast missions. We got home in darkness.

The following weekend we went back to get the truck with its new front right bearing. We picked up from where we left off the previous weekend. This time though there were whitebaiters everywhere and the tides were not ideal but the weather was still perfect. Its hard not to feel that your in the way when trying to fish a beach where whitebaiters are fishing. They move along the shore with their big nets at a slow pace, equally spaced apart. When they get to the end of the beach, they empty their nets into a bucket and get back into the line-up. I approached a group of them and asked if I could join the line-up. No problem at all they said, so I did. I moved along with them, they each had a net; I had a rod. The pace they move at is about the same as I do so it worked perfectly. It’s important to chat with them though, and not just bulldoze in. Etiquette applies here too and their season is short. I got one decent Kahawai from the line-up.

There is usually water that whitebaiters can’t fish that we can. Rough water, big swells, strong currents etc. Not always ideal for a flyrod, but I’ve usually been able to find something when the beach gets a bit crowded.

Day 2 and a different river mouth. Early morning during the last hour of the flowing tide came the magic hour. There were no whitebaiters working because the current was too strong but I found some swirling water off a sandy point. Amongst the swirls was some good holding water so I worked it with my di5, 12lb maxima, 8wt TCX and 2 streamer rig. I got one of around 2 lbs and then hooked a good fish which took off out into the fast flowing tidal current.. ran and ran.. way into backing.. I had to run after him. In doing so I tripped over a log and flattened myself onto the beach, line went around the rod. I picked myself up, untangled the backing from around the rod tip and the fish was still on. I was sure it was a Kahawai, had to be with a run like this.. Then it came up and rolled on the top about 60 yards away.. A trout I thought.. pretty sure. Not huge but big.. I followed him while reeling in and beached him eventually. 5.5lbs. Finally! A good one.. That was it, When the tide turned to go out it went dead and stayed dead.

The end of 2 eventful weekends on the West Coast!

This from a few weeks ago with Mark Adamson..

Pigeon and Pig island on lake Wakatipu were a good plan B after Mark and I were unable to launch the boat into a very low Diamond Lake. Over the course of the day we sight fished from the boat around the islands with some success. We also blind nymphed it and buggered it with some good results. The Greenstone mouth came to the rescue after the islands went quiet. To our surprise there were a decent number of rainbows rising to chironomid where the river meets the lake. We got 2 on dries. We also had good sight fishing in a backwater near the river.. It’s a day I’m looking forward to repeating. Lots of potential, particularly the shallow water between the islands..

Ronan..

ps, lots of extra photos in the slideshow at the bottom this week..

Mark Adamson and I fished around Pigeon and Pig islands and the Greenstone mouth a few weeks back. We had 6. A stunning day with little or no wind!!

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This 4lber was the best of the day. He was cruising the edge of Pigeon Island..

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Targeting a sighted fish in a backwater on the lake edge...

Possum streamers v's buggers, these I tied for Wakitipu..

The West Coast after the sun went down. The orange is not enhanced.

Take one. West Coast. One for Iza on arrival!!

Coast with Iza, Matai door.. August 2014 059_1024x768

Always a little different than the time before.. Where the river meets the sea.

Birds for me! This tern went back unharmed. He dived for my fly!

Day 2.. Iza is catching lots!

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Sundown on day 2..

We kept a small seatrout for dinner..

Smoky bacon with trout cooked in the bacon fat with noodles..

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Coast with Iza, Matai door.. August 2014 242_1024x768

The camp fire.. The following morning, with 2 fishing days left, the truck blew a bearing. We had to hitch home!

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Fire for heat, light and cooking..

Time to call it a day..

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A nice eye formimg inside the main current.

A Kahawai for me. This was the total catch for the first day of the second trip! We did not fish the evening we arrived.

Plenty birds working hard out in the surf..

Home for the weekend!

This is worth quite a few dollars!

This is what all the fuss is about! Whitebait!

We kept 3. Two trout and a Kahawai.

In 5 days the big sea-trout will be gravad-lax. I only take fish from places where there are plenty. The west coast is one. In the 2 weekends I killed 3 trout out of about 20 and both the Kahawai.

5.5lbs of powerhouse. 12lb Maxima. No fuckin around.

Into a big one. The first run took me way into my backing. I was sure I had a Kahawai. It was a big trout!

Strong, solid little fish..

Morning of day 2. Almost full tide and we hit the magic hour. I have a nice 2lber on here.

Just like virtually every fly-fishing location, the water can be read.

Getting in the line-up.. I move along the beach at the same pace as the white-baiters. No problem!!

The coast.. Take 2!! We collected the truck and picked up where we left off..

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