Singapore’s Finest!
I thought when I was writing my last blog that the weather would change for the better before too long. It didn’t. In fact, it got worse. I have never seen a spring like this and neither have any of my fishing buddies. It’s been thunderstorm after thunderstorm. Many rivers have not had to chance to drop in the last month. Guiding has been hard because of this. The difficulty has not been on the water – that has been surprisingly good and even great! The difficulty has been in the decision making. Watching river flows and looking for windows where a river might drop enough to be fishable before the next rain knocks it out again. Many times I simply avoided the rivers and fished the lakes. Rising rivers, even if they’re clear, often produce poor results as fish “go to ground”. As reliable as the lakes are, some of them have suffered a bit too. With such huge volumes of muddy water entering some lakes even they have become unfishable, at least in parts. However, no matter what mother nature throws at us there will always be clear water to fish. I just have to find the best, most interesting and enjoyable bits! So far it’s worked out pretty well.
It’s funny how fate takes over some times. I drove out of Omarama and took a left towards the Upper Ahuriri. That’s where we intended to fish. Chuan and Kim were following in their car. Wei Chong was with me. Chuan called me on the phone because he was unsure where we were headed. Wei Chong told him we’d slow right down so he could catch up. I had told him where we were going and he’d been there before so I wasn’t too worried about him loosing his way but something must have gotten lost in translation. We got to the turn off, parked up and got out. We stood by the road and waited – only for about a minute. As they approached we waved our arms in the air to be seen. Neither Kim or Chuan saw us as they passed at a good speed trying to catch us. We got back in the truck and followed. There was no point trying to catch up with them as I expected they’d pull over when they realised they’d gone too far. That they did but not till Tarras about 50ks from the turn of to the river! No phone coverage til that point didn’t help matters. At that stage we’d all been driving for 40 minutes putting us in a different region altogether with different fishing options. I had a quick check of the forecast and it suited a local high country river. Plan A was abandoned and we hit for the the hills!
The river was high with a little colour as I expected it would be. The sighting conditions were good but pool after pool went by without showing us a fish. Finally I spotted one in a very reliable pool. We had 4 rods, each with a different rig. The first shot went to the person with the correct rod in hand. Chuan was up! I adjusted the rig slightly to suit this opportunity exactly. There could be no mistake here. I had a feeling this might be the only chance of the day. I got into position with just my eyes popping over a mound of gold tailings to keep the fish in view. Chuan got into position but could not see the fish from river level. I relayed directions as clearly as I could. After a couple of casts Chuan knew where his fly needed to land. One cast almost spooked the fish but he returned to station, the next was on target and down went the dry. A little chaos ensued with quite a large jumping fish, then it tore off down river. We were on the outside of a long bend with nowhere to land the fish. Before we got too far down the bank into deep water I suggested we jump in the river and cross. “yes, yes lets do it” said Chuan. In we went. My waders took on a little water as we bounced on tippy toes across the river. I almost floated off but we made it across and then easily landed the fish. For me, that was the best fishing moment of all the days we fished. Chuan and I pushed to the limits but we came out on top. We saw no more fish that day which makes a fish like that all the more important. Not often do we come off a river with a 100% success rate! Who knows how the day would have gone if plan A had worked out. Sometimes we just go with the flow…
I wrote this 5 days ago. Since writing there has been an improvement in the weather and many rivers have had a chance to drop, some right back to normal but others will be high and unfishable for ages yet!
The highlights from the past month are in the photos below. Quite a lot of big browns in there!
If you’d like to talk to me about guided fly fishing in the lower South Island you can visit my website or email me ronan@sexyloops.com. I still have availability from mid March to late April.
Tight Lines and Happy Christmas if I don’t get a blog out before then!
Ronan..
- Singapores finest! Chuan, Kim and Wei Chong. Great fellas to go on the road with!
- Bryan and I fished 2 days! Hers the first of 8. Just caught the river at a good height between floods.
- Another for Bryan..
- ..a most perfect 7lber.
- Same fish! Just beautiful..
- A 6lber for me..
- A small stream. New for both of us! Fish in almost every decent pool.. and there were lots of pools!!
- Watching the farmers and dogs at work..
- Plenty fish like this one. 9 total I think. Mostly on streamers as the river was a little coloured.
- There was one here!
- The heavy rain starting to rise the river..
- We went hard to explore as much water as possible.
- 5.5ks up river from the bridge were deep in the rainforest.
- One more pic before we bail out. The rising river switched the fish off!
- The spring from hell!
- When will this end??
- He may be 86 but that will not stop this man learning to fly fish – in any weather!
- 2 for dinner for GK!
- First cast on a club trip! The going was tough but Mike and I managed 6 in about 4ks of shoreline.
- Big wind, waves and some surfing browns!
- Lunch!
- The crew back at camp..
- More snow..
- ..but a lovely day followed! Helena shoots the bow and arrow..
- ..and the trap is set..
- ..successfully!
- We got the lake as it was clearing after a major flood made it filthy! The fishing was the best I’ve seen on it..
- 19 trout for the day. This was the best one!
- Chuan. “if only I had a net”
- Quality fishing on dries, nymphs and buggers.
- We got a window between floods to fish a river!
- It was super!
- A 6lber for me (yes, I was guiding! great clients.. I’m not one to turn down a “go on, you have a go”
- A big fish for Wei Chong..
- Chuan and Wei Chong..
- Chuan is in..
- Another big brown..
- What a fish!!
- Plenty action over 3 days.
- A 7lber..
- At #4 is Wei Chong. This fish went 8lbs. He lost a much bigger through strip striking too hard on a very short line. “The curry fish head” as he called it! Wei Chong landed a 7.5 just 10 minutes after landing this one..
- A really stunning fish this was.. Well done Wei Chong.
- 20 minuts later this hen almost as big..
- Back she goes..
- Chuan in..
- Not bad..
- Floods have knocked out some roads removing some accesses.
- Chuan in again..
- Then Wei Chong..
- Yet another big brown. They landed 12 over 3 days with most between 6 and 8lbs. Thats seriously good fishing in my book!
- Stunning place and the blue skies were most welcome!
- Heaven..
- More floods during our day off so its back to the lakes!
- These fellas will fish wherever trout swim! Kim joined the team today!
- Not a bad spot for a few friends to hang out and fish!
- The next day! While setting up I spotted this cruiser. Chuan “threw me a bone” and gave me the shot. 7lbs. He thought it was small!!
- The sun came out for mostly great sighting conditions.
- The lads got a dozen of these.
- Trout flats! I love ’em. Some of NZ’s best fishing in my opinion.
- Wei Chong playing a trout as the other look on!
- Kim fishing amongst the flowers..
- Through very unlikely circumstances we ended up here!!
- The river was very full but sighting conditions were good.. We spotted one for the day and got it! (Note Chuan’s serious face – don’t see that too often!)
- The next moment we jumped into the river to land the fish on the other bank.. we nearly floated off!
- Got the fish! Just a smidgeon under 7lbs! The moment of the trip for me!!
- Tough day! Landed 2..
- Thanks Chuan, Kim and Wei Chong! Here’s a flower for you.
- Some buzzers for a still water I’m going fishing on..
- ..I had a great day to bring the balance back!
- They weren’t on buzzers!
- I landed 12 up to 7.75lbs. All on dad’s unweighted hares ear nymph.
- I love the flat calm! Most of the fishing was casting to rises.
- Speed and accuracy was key.
- The last 2 hours in the float tube! Only got one.
- The worst grass on earth! looks nice but its razor sharp and incredibly uneven to walk on.
- Always leaves me with a few of these!
- I ran out of beads so I’ve been tying my streamers with lead. I prefer them! Possum and marabou.