{"id":15047,"date":"2022-12-06T23:36:08","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T21:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/?p=15047"},"modified":"2022-12-06T23:52:16","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T21:52:16","slug":"back-to-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/2022\/12\/06\/back-to-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to Work!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s great to be busy guiding again after a couple of hard years. November was a challenging month to guide. Not many nice days! Lots of rain and stormy conditions. The rivers were regularly coloured up as a result. Now and again I had to use lakes and still waters to keep my clients on the fish – but of course I adore this type of fishing so for me it’s not really a plan B, it’s just another option. All up it was a successful month through bad weather. I enjoy the challenge of finding good, clear water to fish through these rain events and I’m yet to cancel a guide day due to weather or water conditions. There’s always water to fish! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fish were a little leaner than usual earlier on in the season. I put it down to the harsh winter and more specifically a monster flood last July which completely changed many parts of my local rivers. Some of my favourite beats were unrecognisable when I went back to fish them with dad in October. Fish numbers and quality certainly suffered as a result. It was really heartbreaking at times. Walking upstream and not even knowing where I was on the beat. Large corner pools gone – pools that I never thought would move. Long sections of pools and bends bulldozed straight and useless by 460 cumecs. I’ve been using all my spare time trying to get out there to rediscover them and find out where is or is not worth fishing. Thankfully I’m getting a good handle on where is fishing well. Fish are in good condition once again and the rivers are starting to get comfortable with their new courses. Certainly my biggest fear going forward are these huge floods. Hundred year floods they call them… the annual hundred year flood I call them! The flood in July did so much damage around the country. I can’t imaging what 2 or even 3 of these events in a short space of time could do. Utter destruction to rivers and fish populations. I have already been hearing some sad stories from the top of the South Island. Anyway, right now the rivers down here are recovering well and fish numbers are still healthy in most of the rivers. Many rivers were unaffected, thankfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My own fishing was pretty limited through November because I was so busy with work. I did get out for a relaxing few hours before a 10 day straight stint. Also one big day through a gorge on my annual pilgramige to catch up with my old friend. Check out the full story here<\/a>. It’s well worth a read! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gallery below covers the highlights of a busy month of guiding. I was out most days and now I’m taking a few much needed days off. When I get a chance I’ll put together an account of my time fishing with dad in September and October. We fished 26 days so it certainly warrants its own report!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can check out my fly patterns, the ones I use on a daily basis over here on the Fulling Mill website<\/a>. If you’re within NZ I may be able to help you out with a deal. Just let me know. I currently have 7 patterns available in various sizes but I expect to have 7 more patterns available next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My season ahead is pretty much full – There may be a gap here or there although I know April still has gaps. Feel free to get in touch about guided fishing this season or next (which is already filling up). Contact me ronan@sexyloops.com<\/em><\/strong> or visit my website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tight lines.. Ronan..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lake Dunstsn. A great option when the rivers get dirty.
Even the lake was too dirty to fish by the end of the day!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A stunning trout on my sunken green beetle – a new killer pattern!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Working “O Malleys bank” carefully..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Brendan makes a mean coffee! Also
smoked trout and cream cheese on crackers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Clear water when everything else was blown!
Aside from getting jumped twice we managed 2 good trout.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A tough day on a Maniototo still water.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Benndan saved the day with one great fish from the river.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A very welcome trout.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Rivers clear enough to fish by now.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Some good fishing!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Clearing nicely.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Healthy brown trout.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Fishing to a difficult brown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A few great days with Bill. This superb 7.25lb trout on day one.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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More rain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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But the fishing was very good.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Walking back..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A 4 and a 6 SLHT – a great combo for Southland rivers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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After a bad start we had a super day!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My 16 clarets deadly as always..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Best rods for NZ. I now own a 7wt too – a powerful weapon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The trout cottage. Luxury accommodation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Bruiser doing its thing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A great couple of days with Brendo. Plenty fish!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Full but fishable.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A lovely early season stream. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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One for me before 10 days straight guiding.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Will – new to fly fishing – landed 3 great fish after a casting lesson!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Hotspot. A very useful fly.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A healthy rainbow.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Eamonn first NZ trout.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Fish of the trip! Over 6lbs on the hotspot..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Back he goes – A delighted angler!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Another one goes back.
A fellow Irishman, we had great craic over 2 days.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Another super bow..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We had a wicked hatch here for a hour. Not easy but we did okay!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Working the water..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Out with Gordon – River high and coloured after overnight rain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Into one on the Bruiser.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A great fish on a hard day..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The first proper sunny day in ages!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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And the fishing was great.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Graham did really well.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A spectacular day.. Felt great to be out in it after some cold, wet days.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lovely!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Friends of ours, Diana and Shirdoo during a casing lesson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A fun day out but fish were not really playing ball!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Shirdoo fires a streamer into a likely spot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My annual pilgrimage..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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..to see this old fella..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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..the only fish in the river, he’s now 10.5lbs. My 4th time catching him.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A great day with Greg Ford and his son Chris from Ireland.
Great see them over here. I knew Greg when I lived
in Ireland from a few meetings on the lakes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A super 6lber for Greg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Chris into a good brown as the rain hammered down.
By the end of the day the river was rising a getting dirty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s great to be busy guiding again after a couple of hard years. November was a challenging month to guide. Not many nice days! Lots of rain and stormy conditions. The rivers were regularly coloured up as a result. Now and again I had to use lakes and still waters to keep my clients on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1188,1290,9,1199,601,118,454,1224,145,1209,1208,1207,1122],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15047"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15047"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15113,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15047\/revisions\/15113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}