The trees are about to explode into life right now. Some flowers are already blooming in the garden. In the next few days there’ll be a lot more. It’s an exciting time of year watching the cycle rotate again, I’m imagining the trout in the rivers are piling on condition already. In a month it will be all go again.
I was busy at home all winter with various jobs to improve our house. There was still time for some fishing though. Some days were good but the lakes seemed slow to fire up this year. Usually by August it’s very good locally but this year was a little quiet – at least was for me. September should be great on the lakes though – it always is.
Plenty time to stock up on flies for the coming season. You can check out my patterns over at Fulling Mill. Claret nymphs and hotspot nymphs are hard to beat for early season rivers. No harm to have a few streamers too for the high water days and a few 14 kiwi duns for the October hatches. I’m excited to have 4 great new patterns available in January.
Next season is pretty much full til April – which is a good time to fish here. Feel free to get in touch! ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.
Peace. Ronan..
Good couple of sessions with Shelen on the Clutha..A few fish about.High water filling the braids.A cold, wet day with Graeme..Fishing was pretty good.A nice brown for me from a likely seem.Plenty fish in the net but the highlight of the day was a flask of hot tea!Mackenzie Country with Graeme.fishing was hard but we don’t need many in the net for a great day.A day maker!Great place to be…A couple of books on the dorm table at Buscot station. A great place to stay!Into on straight away on day 2 on a gloomy day.A very good brown.Back he goes..Icy!Graeme covering water with long casts.Beauty in the cold.Working a likely point..Into a solid rainbow..Last cast!4 days on Dunstan with Kevin over a month....this was the only day I took photos!1 for Kevin, 0 for me....very proud of himself!Dunstan has been slow to fire up this winter but on the 4th day we landed 7.A recent day on Lake Wānaka. It was way too high..Nowhere to leave down my stuff to put my jacket on.I rescued these little fellas from the lake. Still rising, the were trapped on a one foot square island. I put them in my hat and waded 500m to bring them to safety.
I had great few days fishing with Graeme down south in early October. The highlight was 2 days on a lake we both wanted to explore. I had a tiny bit of info about it but it was really a blank canvas for both of us. The challenge in exploring a new lake is how to approach it. There were 4 main types of water – stream mouths, shallow reedy bays, native scrub shorelines and beaches. We spent time on each and covered most of the lake over two days. To our surprise, the stream mouths were totally dead. The reedy bays were okay on day 1 but very dead on day 2 – apart from a superb 7lber, the only fish we moved from the reeds that day. The native scrub shorelines were okay but we needed to cover a lot of water to find fish. The beaches were consistently good and really beautiful to fish. Sight fishing would be possible from the beaches although we got them all blind fishing – mostly with my Bruiser pattern from Fulling Mill. The lake was weird though. In a good way. It didn’t feel like fishing for trout for me. I felt like I was chasing black bass in another country! Not a single fish rose in 2 days which compounded my feelings. We had calm conditions at times with chironomid hatching but nothing on top. This made the search more challenging because there were no clues. We had good success all up with 10 fish for the 2 days. We worked for them. We were on the water early each day and fished til almost dark each day. Without fish rising or the sight fishing option we had to continuously cast and cover water each day – mostly from the drifting boat. I grew up with this type of marathon fly fishing and I love it. For many anglers it’s too much, too much like a workout and I get that. It is a work out but sometimes it’s the only way. The lake was too high to wade any of the shorelines apart from the beaches. It would be a very different place in low water. I’m looking forward to another visit.
I’ve included some pics from last winter – Some great days out guiding. Other days with my kids and with friends and sometimes both together. Lochlan and Adaline are both regularly catching a few fish now. Lochlan seems more interested than Adaline at this stage – mainly because we sometimes go for a pint and a game of pool afterwards. Not sure why he’d enjoy the pub?!
January, February and March are full but besides that I have some availability. Feel free to get in touch at ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website . To have a look at my range of flies over at Fulling Mill click here.
Tight lines and Free Palestine, Ronan..
Day 1 – Exploring a new lake.Shallow reedy bays – okay on day 1A nice fish for Graeme..Searching…Fishing beside native scrub.. we moved a few in this type of water.A wild and unique place.Pulled up the boat to walk the beach.Lovely!Another fisherman A great fish from the reeds.Day 2 and back to the beach.Good for the soul, this place..Blind fishing the dark tannin water..One on the bruiser pulled up on a beach of gem stones..Back he goes..I have a name for her.. I’ll paint it on soon.Stream mouth were surprisingly dead..Last fish of the trip..Back he goes..Heading home..Clean, green New Zealand! This access is also a dump.Multiple car wrecks, couches, household appliances etc.. but a good access to this stream!Good fishing!Never too far from the road – we had a super hatch in the afternoon.A great day – Plenty to the net.Adaline catches a fish!Great job!Lochlan nets a fish for Guy.A great day out.The best Clutha day in years!We had a great fishing..Back she goes..Over 6lbs, my best off the river in ages. Graeme swings through a nice seem..A nice fish to finish the day.Brendan into one..Shortest drive in 10 years guiding!!A great day with lots to the net.Off to the high country..Cold but the fishing was good..Lochlan fires one out..A nice little trout..A good day with Robbie and the kids..Lochlan works his magic again – he caught this fishing behind me!Freedom for me and Kevin for a few days!Good to get away with my great friend..Fishing was good..Chunky..Another lake on day 2.Cold..Dangerous wading on Lake Tekapo.. Stay on the hard ground!A nice little rainbow!Robbie into a Dunstan brown..The moment the fly came out! Feck!Great to fish with Paul again!Paul Macandrew. One of the best!Paul tripped on the fuel tank, he fell and knocked me over, I knocked Lochlan over and he went over board and took a dip! My spare fleece top converted into a pair of pants!September midge fishing..A brilliant day..A silver beauty..
