Ronan's Report

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..

One of the highlights of this season for me was mid summer dry fly action. Even in summer it’s hard for me not to fish a nymph. This summer though, I had so many days where the single dry rig was the only one to step up for the shots. I’m happy to catch fish on any fly or tactic but there’s no denying how great it is to watch a trout, preferably a big trout, coming up to take a dry. My cicadas were really great and accounted for some very big trout over the summer. No doubles this season (yet!?!) but we saw a few nines in the net and lots of other really top end trout. The photos below take me up to early February so there’s more summer stuff coming later. I’m always a couple of months behind but what harm!!

Myself and Robbie caught up for a few days fishing after a long time of not catching up at all! Life gets away on us sometimes. Robbie caught all the big ones – no surprise there! We had some full on fishing, mostly on dries. One funny day where every time we decided to call it a day, another fish would rise. We were on the river til late that eve. We explored some new water from an excellent new access for me.

We’re now into the last month of the regular season over here. The fishing has been pretty tough locally. Some great days but more tough days than I’d expect for this time of year. The hatches have been pretty minimal so far but there’s a few weeks left. April has the most dependable hatches of the season so I really hope it winds up for the next few weeks.

I have the next few days to fish myself. No plan as yet. I’ll decide in the morning!

For a look at my patterns available over at Fulling Mill you can check out this link. They’re also available in store at Patagonia Queenstown.

Next season is filling up fast. Feel free to get in touch with any enquiries or to make a booking. You can find me on my website or email – ronan@sexyloops.com

Tight Lines, Ronan..

The week with Chris, Steve and Joe was a great one. Not just for the superb mix of rivers and fishing but also for the chance to catch up with my good friend Chris Dore. One of the biggest cons about being a guide is that it’s so feckin hard to hang out with my fishing friends. We’re lucky to fish together once a year – usually in winter – so spending the week roughing it in Southland with Chris was great. We made time for a few beers in the evenings which always went down well. Chat, banter, fishing talk, the usual. The steak night in the caravan when Shellen joined us was a blast. She tied up a few flies and the craic was good. It was really good to meet her and I wish her the best with her future as a guide.

Chris and I go hard with our guiding and work at about the same intensity. We don’t look for easy options and we’ll do whatever it takes to give our clients what they hope for, and usually a lot more. This made us a good team to look after Steve and Joe. According to Steve and Joe, we guide in a different way but we compliment each other and both of the fellas enjoyed alternating between Chris and I each day. This is something we may do more of in the future. Chris and I enjoyed it too. It’s a great way for 2 anglers to really get the most from a trip to NZ. No sharing shots and you can hang out with your friend and compare stories each evening.

The week was very varied. It started with two completely different Heli days out of Wanaka. Both produced great results but they didn’t always come easy. Heli fishing doesn’t guarantee anything other than a remote and beautiful location so it’s always a relief when the fishing is good. It usually is good, but like I say, no guarantees. Then to Southland for another 5 days where we mixed it up with some of our favourite rivers. We had some really great days and some tough ones but we always came up trumps. Joe and Steve are both great anglers which really helps!

This takes me up to the end of January so I’m still way behind but that’s okay! There’s been some great highlights since, including 10lb brown with an epic story. The fishing gods really looked after us! More on that later..

Check out my flies featured below and a few more at Fulling Mill. They’ve all been great for me and quite a few others this season.

Next season is filling up quickly. Feel free to get in touch to make a booking or talk about options.

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..