{"id":16867,"date":"2024-11-04T00:00:27","date_gmt":"2024-11-03T22:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/?p=16867"},"modified":"2024-11-04T00:15:40","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T22:15:40","slug":"mad-weather-rough-tracks-and-big-trout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/2024\/11\/04\/mad-weather-rough-tracks-and-big-trout\/","title":{"rendered":"Mad Weather, Rough Tracks and Big Trout!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What a month October was. After a dry winter, the rain came with a vengeance in September. By October most rivers were too full and dirty to fish. My policy is to never cancel because there’s always somewhere to fish regardless of past or present weather – and there is! But I can tell you, I was stretched at times in the last month. It became a game of watching online river flows like a hawk. Waiting for gaps between rain events and snowmelt. The latter is so hard to gauge. I’d check the flow late in the evening and it’s looking positive, check again in the morning and it’s jumped 2 cumecs but there’s been no rain.. feckin snowmelt. Sometimes I could successfully get in and fish a section of river before it was blown again the next day – these were the wins!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another challenge was the state of the 4×4 tracks to get to some of the locations I fish when the shit hits the fan. Holes, ruts, washouts, river crossings etc.. “thanks for the four wheel driving extravaganza” one client said. 4x4ing is usually a relatively small a part of this game but in the last month it was almost a daily occurrence. I had to use my rear locker and low range on multiple occasions during October. The vehicle took some abuse but thankfully I was never stuck for too long. I think only one flat tire for the month was pretty good going. Having had a triple locked 80 series Land Cruiser for 9 years I was a bit spoiled with off road capability but so far I’m loving the Hilux. I’d like some more clearance but besides that I’m very happy with it..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the challenges came a few blank days but also some incredible fishing. Most notable was the number of very big trout. I’ve always liked October for big trout and the one just gone has been one of the best I’ve had. Big fish for clients and a few for me too. No doubles though, but there’s plenty time to search out one of those!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do like when the weather doesn’t cooperate if I’m being honest – although, not as much as the month just gone! I like being pushed onto still waters with clients who’d normally prefer rivers. It gives me an opportunity to show them just how good still waters can be. It also adds locations to my repertoire which helps keep it interesting for me and my clients. Most of my regular clients are now more than happy with either river or still-water, whichever makes most sense on the day, regardless of the weather. The lakes really shouldn’t be a back-up plan, for me they’re a legit option on any day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the flood water around for the last month I have barely seen my local rivers, so I’m looking forward to that. Hopefully the flood damage is minimal. With floods increasing in regularity and vigour some local water can become unrecognisable after a big flood. This one seems like a prolonged flood more than a big one so hopefully no damage will be done. Time will tell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the flies that did the damage all month you can check them out here<\/a>.. For bookings or enquiries you can contact me on ronan@sexyloops.com<\/strong><\/em> or visit my website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No end to the list of war crimes and atrocities from Israel. The plight of the Palestinians is never far from my thoughts… but the world just watches a live holocaust unfolding…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tight Lines, Ronan..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Brendan and Will during a very successful
trip to Mackenzie Country last September.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
5lbs for Brendan – The best for the trip!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
The start of a trip with Marcus..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Mixed conditions..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
My first of the season!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Marcus into his first of the season..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Such stunning trout..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Wilderness accommodation..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Traditional steak, spuds and beans!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
A 7lber goes back..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Then this stunner – 9lbs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
One of my favourite still waters.. But we blanked!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
The next day was wild!
This has to be one of my all time favourite trout.. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Big fish kept coming..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
..and another..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
And then a big one for me.. 8 for the day with half of them between 7 and 8lbs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
It was really too high and dirty – but we wanted to see it!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Blind fishing streamers and worms
and sighting the edges when possible..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
The best of 2 for the day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Dunstan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Brad is totally new to fly fishing but he took to it
really well after my 4 step beginners lesson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Hi bro Rick has a day or two more experience with a fly rod..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Brad into a big one..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Second on fly – 8lbs. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Back he goes..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
A brief spell when this section of river was low enough to fish..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Nice but nobody home.. at least they didn’t answer the door!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Brad and Rick..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Untangling..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
And then a flat tire..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Archie – I gave him a lesson in the morning but he wasn’t bad
to begin with! It didn’t take long til we had one in the net.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
The next day it was dirty and unifishable again!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Nice to see a clear river during this wet month..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Archie in again..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
This time a better fish!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Brilliant stuff from Archie and his dad Nick..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
2 days with this great fella from the USA… Things conspired
against us. We tried hard but had 2 blanks. It happens.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
A great wave for the bugger..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Dave works some likely water..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Fishy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
A brutally hard day. Just one chance and thankfully it stuck. 8.25lbs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Another shot of this perfect specimen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Snowmelt playing hell with the rivers..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
but still waters are generally unaffected..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
We had a brilliant one hour window
when the place came alive..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Tough going besides..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Lovely place to fish..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Driving home.. the track was in the worst state I’ve seen it in.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Holes in the track.. this was far far from the worst of it!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
More snow coming..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Heading home..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
I’m looking forward to some good weather!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
The rivers still unfishable so were on the secret dam today..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Rick and Graham had a ball..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Two failed attempts to walk across the
pipe – might as well just wade!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Buzzer fishing. Blind and sighted.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Graham is pretty new to this. He got this one when left to his own devises.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
I thought we’d get on a river for the last
day but snowmelt sent them up again..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Windy as feck.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Shelter from the wind!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Fishing between the trees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Lake Wanaka was so full it was hard
to navigate some shorelines.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
We popped in on Dunstan on the way home and got 3 – 5 total for the day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Graham was very happy with his 2 late trout.. And thats October done and dusted!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Time for a wash.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What a month October was. After a dry winter, the rain came with a vengeance in September. By October most rivers were too full and dirty to fish. My policy is to never cancel because there’s always somewhere to fish regardless of past or present weather – and there is! But I can tell you, […]<\/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":[1398,1343,1188,1397,1400,1392,454,739,1222,397],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16867"}],"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=16867"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16951,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16867\/revisions\/16951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}