Ronan's Report

The season is hurtling along! Here we are in January already. This can certainly be the hardest month of the regular trout season. Rivers get low and warm. Trout can get extra spooky and sometimes stop feeding in the afternoons. It’s very important to know which rivers to avoid so as to prevent undue stress on trout. Catching a trout in a warm river can easily kill it. With the farmers draining all but the last drop out of the local river it’s basically unfishable due to warming. It’s likely to stay that way for at least a few more weeks, maybe months. I have to turn my attention to cooler rivers and lakes. We need rain to top up and cool down the rivers but there’s none in the forecast. I have a very busy time coming up with some regular clients and I have formulated a good plan – I hope!

On a positive note, the fishing has been very good so far this season. Happy clients and I’ve managed to get out myself a few times. I had a day out on a dam recently with a morning of fishing to rival just about any dry fly fishing I’ve had. Green beetles on the water and trout feeding on them. Not sight fishing, fishing to rises – even better! Spending so much time guiding on the rivers has made me love the lakes even more. That’s what I want on my days off right now and this day really delivered. Engrossing fishing – moving quickly to intercept fish with fast, accurate casts. At least, that was the objective! Putting a fly in front of a tracking trout is so exhilarating – will he take it?? These’s nothing else going through my mind as that fish is hopefully continuing to track towards my fly. I can’t see him. The cast is based on where he’s most likely to be heading based on the previous rise or rises. To see that head come out of the dark water and confidently take my dry… just magic. 5 out of 6 fish that morning took me well into my backing. I play fish hard and I generally only see my backing once or maybe twice a season so this was just unreal. A breeze got up in the afternoon and the rises almost stopped. I wanted to go and check out a bay I like in the wind. I tried to drive there but ended up getting bogged. It was quite an ordeal to get it unstuck but thanks to Don from Wanaka we got it out. Probably took 5 hours all up! Still a great day. I went back for a day since and parts of the lake were very warm. Guy and I found decent fishing in cooler bays but the number of rising trout compared to the number of flies on the surface told me that most fish were already retreating to the deep. It’s too dam hot!

I’ve got another 7 patterns available with Fulling Mill. This makes the range of flies a pretty comprehensive one for NZ. They’ll cover you for just about anything you’re likely to encounter. With willow grubs in full swing on southern rivers and cicadas winding up, there’s a couple of reasons to check out the new patterns. You can see them all here.

The photos below are from December so I’ll have to get another blog out soon to catch up on the more recent stuff. I’m trying not to overload my blog with pictures!!

Still some gaps in April and plenty next season. You can contact me ronan@exyloops.com or visit my website.

Tight lines.. Ronan..

What is it that excites me so much about the month of May? I’ve had to think about this! There are a few reasons. One of them is that its relatively new to me. In my ten years (pre 2011) when I came to NZ from Ireland every season, I was always home by the end of April, so May was unknown to me. In October 2011 I moved out here full time taking up a job as a joiner. In May, just like every other month I only had the weekends to fish. I enjoyed the month of May then of course, but it’s only now that I have lots of time on my hands that I can really explore, search and learn; just like I did during my early years exploring NZ. So thats part of it! It’s new, exciting and fun. It’s more than that though. Fishing for migrating fish in May is challenging. To do well you need to be able to cast heavy flies on long leaders or heavily weighted fly-lines (around here at least!). You need to be able to see your fly in you minds eye and know what it’s doing and where it is. Sometimes it’s sight fishing, sometimes it’s blind and it’s frequently into deep water. Migrating fish move around a lot on their lies. Sometimes to take a fly but often jostling for position or to chase out another fish. They do feed, but as the month progresses they gear more towards spawning. However, with accurate casting; putting the fly in just the right place and making it swim / drift correctly you can still induce a take. So, it’s the challenge? Yes, but possibly even more than the challenge and the realisation that it’s still new to me, is that it’s so much about the big, beautiful migrating fish. When these fish run they are in their absolute prime! Full of condition and energy for the months ahead. Who wouldn’t want to catch fish like this?! On certain rivers in May there is a real chance of a big fish. Sometimes well into double figures and these fish only appear in May. I predominantly target browns all season long but in May I turn my attention to rainbows. Last May I realised just what a great species they are. Hooking into a big rainbow and listening to that tail slap before the first run is simply exhilarating! One more thing.. This is my down time after my guiding season. I’m relaxed, I have nothing to do only fish, I’m in holiday mode! So I think I know now. It’s new and exciting, its challenging, it’s about enjoying big, powerful, beautiful rainbows and some browns, I’m on holiday! Why wouldn’t I love it.. Sorry if I just bored the feck out you with that but I wanted to know for myself.

May has been a great month to catch up with friends. I made lots of use of my drift boat taking Fraser, Wesley (see you next season!), Guy, Tom and Jeff out in it.  It’s been such a new lease of life and a great way to explore rivers and lakes. The pics below tell the story as they do!! Tassie Sean will be up for a visit soon too. That should be fun whatever we get up to. I’m hoping for new waves of fish migrating up some of the rivers which are still open through winter. When they’re fresh in they take really well, still piling on the pounds. bring on the next wave because the first run are now stale and not really taking the fly anymore…

Finally, to finish off what was probably the most enjoyable month of the season for me, we returned to The Bay of Pigs. Just like before the fishing was slow, Tom and Jeff saw one fish from the boat. I managed to drag out one brute of 15lbs from the shore. A long leader and a weighted streamer fished about 3 feet down did the trick. The take was a gentle one before I came up tight!

The next thing on my agenda is to practice my shots for my upcoming trip to Malaysia. I need to get good at that before I leave, or as Paul says, I’ll spend the first week not catching any fish.

I’m available to guide until mid July. Contact me ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website www.ronansflyfishingmissions.com

Tight Lines All!!!

Ronan..

PERSONAL FISHING GALLERY

P1140435

P1140494

P1140748

P1140762

P1140504

P1140531

P1140735

P1140754

P1140444

P1140448

P1140475

P1140738

P1140450

P1140436

P1140525

P1140495

P1140482

P1140442

P1140767

P1140518

P1140731

P1140760

P1140459

P1140480

P1140523

P1140756

I wanted to chat briefly about the Damselfly nymph and how most anglers standard pattern makes no sense to me. I had some great photo’s of a damsel nymph which was still alive inside a trout I took from Lake Dunstan recently, but I deleted them by mistake!! I put the green nymph in a jar of water with a sprig of rosemary (haha) where he lived happily for a week or so. I watched how it moved, how it swam (or wobbles!) etc. The one thing that struck me was how similar it was to mayfly nymph. I thought this before, but I though I was missing something that everyone else seemed to know because most damselfly nymph patterns have a long marabou tail. Why? A mayfly nymph representation generally has no marabou. I see some merit in a short marabou tail matching the length of the 3 strands in the real nymph. I’m not one for perfect representations of what fish are eating, far from it actually. However in my opinion, a damsel nymph with a long marabou tail is a woolly bugger, not a damsel! I use a long shank #12 PT or similar as a damsel nymph.

Guiding has been happily chaotic! I’m out most days at the moment but I did manage a few days for myself recently. Iza and I fished together for a day and a half too. Next season I’ll do things a little differently. I’m going to put blocks of time aside for me to fish each month. I need it!! I get a lot of what I get from a days fishing during a day guiding but not everything. Fly-fishing is my life and I must make this work. I know some guides who don’t fish at all during “silly season”. I must not let this happen!! This is only my second season so I guess I’m still finding my way a bit. Guiding continues to teach me a lot and I believe the most important thing it has taught me is how much I don’t know!! A great lesson. Therefor time must be put aside to explore new water and simply get better and better at this.

Recently I explored some new water to the north and the east. Some of it was re-familiarising myself with old haunts and some was totally new. Fishing new water is such a thrill! Absorbing everything the river has to offer, the excitement of seeing whats around the next bend, piecing it all together. Putting on wet socks in the morning means you’re in the thick of it!

Guiding has been lots of fun! I recently took Tim Kempton out for a few days. Great craic with him and his mate Fergus. Tim has fished with Paul in Malaysia which makes him the second (I think) to have been guided by both Paul and I in our respective countries (the other being Chuan Tay!). I hope more anglers do this! On the topic of Malaysia, I’m going there this July to fish with Paul for 2 weeks. I’ve been practicing a little from Paul’s instructional video on youtube so when the time comes I hope I’m on form. Speed is very important with trout fishing too so if I can make one second shots for snakehead, I’ll do it for here for trout too!!! Back to guiding, what else.. Some great heli stuff lately with Nick Mills and a fantastic West Coast mission with local regulars Bryan and Tim. That was a real adventure! One thing about heli-fishing.. The chopper takes a lot of the hard work out of it but the best results come if you’re willing to go hard while your in there. That we did! I think we had 14 trout in total for 3 days with the best fish of the trip going to Tim just before the chopper came to take us home. Many thanks to Greenstone Helicopters! Also a new personal best for Bryan, Bob and his birthday fish, the list goes on.. The pics tell a better story anyway!!

Time to prepare! I have an afternoon mission in an hour..

Tight lines!

Ronan..      ronan@sexyloops.com

For bookings and information see my website www.ronansflyfishingmissions.com

For Pure Fly NZ dvd’s go to http://www.flyshop.co.nz/product/DVDPFNZ.html

For stu’s cicada’s go to http://stusflyshop.com/browse-by-fly/dry-flies/cicada/MY GALLERY

P1120379

P1120383

P1120393

P1120433

P1120426

P1120423

P1120417

P1120416

P1120411

P1120403

P1120437

P1120448

P1120457

P1120462

P1120469

P1120473

P1120481

P1120492

P1120504

P1120509

P1120513

P1120516

P1120517

P1120523

P1120587

P1120582

P1120573

P1120548

P1120532

P1120531

P1120526

P1120602

P1120611

P1120617

P1120622

P1120630

P1120641

P1120645

P1120649

P1120661

P1120677

P1120685

P1120687

P1120693

P1120702

P1120705

P1120708

P1120723

P1120727

P1120737

P1120741

P1120918

P1120925