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Posts Tagged ‘Sight fishing’

Finally – Some Rain!

February 22nd, 2023 No comments

The lakes and rivers were already too low and warm a month ago when I last wrote. Nothing changed. Just continuing hot weather and warming, shrinking rivers and lakes. It wasn’t the end of the world, but it certainly made me think outside the box for guiding and my own fishing. Lots of rivers and still-waters became unfishable so I travelled to find cooler water. Living in a desert – which this area technically is – means I have to do that at times. I think this has been the longest dry spell I’ve experienced in NZ. It must be about 10 weeks or more since we’ve had any decent rain.

Yesterday afternoon the rain started and continued through the night and only stopped about an hour ago. I think there’s a lot more coming later today. It was cold too, so just what the place needs. The rivers are getting a much needed top-up and cool-down. This might be the beginning of Autumn and I hope it is. It will certainly invigorate the fishing and open many options which haven’t been available for a couple of months.

Fishing has been generally quite hard. Even when searching out cooler water there was still a noticeable shutdown in the afternoons. Some lake flats that usually stay cool were also suffering the effects of the heat. It’s funny that January and February are the most popular months over here with foreign anglers, yet they’re regularly, even usually, the hardest months of the season in many parts of the country.

In spite of the relative hardship in the last couple of months there has also been some magnificent fishing. Large rivers, lower reaches, lakes and mountain streams all provided some super sport.

I’m still playing catch up with my photos – Everything below is from January. It would just be too many to put in the February photos too, but I’ll try to write another blog next week to catch up completely.

I recently got my hands on a Fujifilm XE-3. I’m still learning how to use it well but I think its improved my picture taking. I hope you like the images below. I’m pretty happy with lots of them. It’s a new learning curve which I’m enjoying. The old Lumix point and shoot is now a handy back-up.

Pretty much all the successful flies I’m using at the moment are my own patterns available with Fulling Mill. You can check them out here.

The remainder of the season is full apart from a few gaps in April. Plenty spaces for next season but it’s filling up more quickly than usual. Feel free to get in touch – ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.

Tight Lines – Ronan..

Guiding in Hail, Rain, Gales, Snow and Floods!!

November 14th, 2018 No comments

For the last 3 weeks we’ve had had 4 or 5 serious rain events. For the first few it was still possible to find rivers clear enough to fish. Sight fishing was tough at times but certain rivers are best sight fished on cloudy days. Willow lined rivers for example and there are plenty of those. Any river with steep banks, whether the steepness be cliffs, willows, gorge, beach forrest, cityscape or whatever. The steep bank casts a shadow of sorts across the river to remove the glare which makes sighting difficult. This simple observation influences my choice of river every day I go out and helps me see fish in most conditions. Sometimes though, during times of flood you just have to be happy with fishable water, whether you can sight it or not. I think this separates the trout fishermen from the fair weather fishermen! A true trout fisherman wants to catch trout regardless of conditions. If you can’t see them then blind fish for them, if the rivers are blown then fish lakes, if sighting is impossible on the lakes then blind fish! Not all trout anglers are this dedicated though. Some only fish with dries, some only want to sight fish, some wont fish in the rain. Luckily, all my recent clients were happy to do whatever it takes to catch a trout. These are the anglers I love to guide – the hardcore!

As it turned out the fishing was really great throughout all the floods, snow, rain, gales and a few perfect blue sky days! Sometimes we got a little cold but a hot cup of tea was a great remedy. I had to wear 2 Simms raincoats to stay dry on a number of days (an Irish joke comes to mind). We appreciated the good weather days. Adapting to suit the conditions with good, keen trout anglers meant we came up with the goods.

Here is a short film by Pat! I shot a few clips on my Lumix and he did the rest.. I made the pool a bit more user friendly afterwards.. Thanks, Pat! Click here to see it.

For bookings and info for this season contact me, ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website! Also, if you enjoy what you see and read here then please subscribe!

Tight Lines!

Ronan..

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