{"id":17158,"date":"2025-06-15T02:15:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T00:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/?p=17158"},"modified":"2025-06-15T09:46:26","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T07:46:26","slug":"meeting-bruce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/15\/meeting-bruce\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeting Bruce."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the world descends into chaos, here’s a chance to step into a positive world where fish are feeding and people are friendly. I’m horrified by what’s going on right now. The continuous lies, genocide, hypocrisy and double standards.. but right now here’s a look back at my NZ summer. This blog takes me up to the end of March. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While fishing well out in the backcountry with Marcus we had an unexpected encounter. We had about 2kms left before the fishing ends on this wilderness stream. Upstream I couldn’t make out whether I was looking at was a camouflaged side by side or a rock! As we got closer it was indeed a side by side (4×4, 2 seater vehicle). “Shite”, I thought. “Probably a fisherman?”. When we got to the vehicle we found no evidence of it being an angler but there were no rifle cases either so the jury was out! We decided to continue and hope for the best. Just as we started to make our way upstream a spritely fella came jogging over the hill wearing a fly vest but without a rod. We went over for a chat. It turned out to be Bruce Masson. He’s about 80 I think. Bruce was the man behind the Trophy Trout videos from about 30 years ago. They’re still highly regarded fishing films today and inspired many anglers including myself. Bruce had fished the water above us so that was the end of the day for us. We didn’t mind, it was so good to meet this man. He was fishing with his wife and they had landed a few fish, she was still upstream waiting for him to come back with the vehicle. Bruce has some incredible access to this backcountry area. We had an enjoyable chat about fishing past and present and spoke of some mutual friends. Over the years I have met and gotten to know many people involved with this production, Robbie Mcphee, Bob Wyatt, Chris Jackson and more. I felt quite honoured to meet Bruce. The man behind it all. It was especially great to meet him randomly in this wilderness while he was doing what he loves. Hopefully we’ll meet again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next season is filling up fast! January and February are full, March almost full, but there’s still lots of room in the other months. To have a look at my flies which were great for me this season you can check out this link<\/a>. You can contact me on ronan@sexyloops.com or visit my website.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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Otago at it beautiful best..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Decent fishing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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There’s nearly always a fish here but he’s
so difficult to get a drag free drift over…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Off to a different wilderness..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Some stunning trout.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A great trout on my indicator dry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Love those glowing spots.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Way off in the relative wilds we met Bruce Mason, the man
behind the Trophy Trout videos. It was great to meet him!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Chuan and Kim for a while – Dream start for Kim.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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9.25lbs on my Highcountry Green Cicada.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A great moment watching this big head slurp down the dry…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Chuan with his reply – almost 8.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Highcountry green again.. visible and deadly.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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southland..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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On the dry. A slow start to a good day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Some goodies..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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One for me..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sad to see this stunning landscape being
reduced to a pine forest. Nothing is sacred!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lovely.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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There were a few seatrout here..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Kim got one of them.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A great moment – I sighted a fish from here, Kim got him!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Great country.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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An enjoyable few days for these fellas!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Paparazzi!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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One of 2 very welcome fish on a da that wasn’t easy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Into the wilds..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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One of the most insane fights of the season! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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And the result.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Happy anglers..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Introducing Daniel to NZ fishing..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A great start! And they kept coming..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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On the flats.. searching.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Murky water today but there were a few trout cruising.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Dan..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Marcus into a little shark..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A very different lake today.. Silver beauties! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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What a fish! Rose up at least 3 feet to eat a buzzer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Quite a day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Stephens first trip to NZ! And what a start..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A brilliant fish at 6.5lbs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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He was sitting in front of this snag.. 10 points for Stephens cast.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A great day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A good start on day 2.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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then it went dead…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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didymo was quite bad..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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..but the destruction on the river was worse.. Those
trees were protecting the cliff from erosion..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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..an already unstable piece of water, removing
the willows will make it worse. We bailed out..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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..a new spot for the last hour..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A small rainbow, then this tank..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A super fish of 6lbs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Chasing rainbows today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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One almost in the bag.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A big run down the chute.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A hard day today but we managed 2.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My 16 claret.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I saw this same fish in the same place 4
years ago. She was 7lbs then, just over 6 now.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The same fish, same place, 4 years prior..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Good fun on the lake for the last day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Plenty of these.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lovely conditions..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The rocks are the best!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the world descends into chaos, here’s a chance to step into a positive world where fish are feeding and people are friendly. I’m horrified by what’s going on right now. The continuous lies, genocide, hypocrisy and double standards.. but right now here’s a look back at my NZ summer. This blog takes me up […]<\/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":[292,1410,783,1401,1199,1411],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17158"}],"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=17158"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17231,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17158\/revisions\/17231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}