Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 179 - Summer 2021 i Trout Fisher

I have been curious for a long time about the fact that some rivers and streams regularly yield quite large trout while the fish in others average just one kilogram or, at best, a fraction more. Sometimes the reasons for such a discrepancy can be easily explained. For example, about every seven or eight years, beech trees flower and subsequently produce a super abundance of nuts (seeds). This event is termed a ‘mast year.’ The nuts are devoured by mice and with such a large quantity of food there is soon a super abundance of mice. Many mice inevitably end up swimming across beech-lined rivers and get devoured by grateful trout which fatten rapidly. Similarly, in springtime, the tidal reaches of many of our rivers experience large runs of whitebait…

Although there are many variants of this pattern, I stick to the original. All that is required is tying thread and a couple of natural CDC hackles. There is, however, a little technique to mastering this pattern. A lightweight, fine denier tying thread works best. I recommend Sheer 14/0 which is a lightly waxed, super fine but strong thread that you can spin clockwise so that it attains a round profile, or spin it anti-clockwise for a flat profile. Perfect for making fine flat bodies with little volume. It’s also very reasonably priced and comes in all the most important colours. The body should be fine and slender with a slightly decreasing taper towards the rear of the fly. Less is more! When it comes to the wing, I suggest…

Summer time, the living’s eeeasy… wet wading, bush bashing, sight fishing and ‘heck’, swinging flies. There’s plenty of great swing action to be had in the Summer when the fish are actively feeding and you usually don’t need to be down hard in the water column, making for lighter tips and flies and some relaxed casting. Sneaking a spool set up with a Commando head or slow sinking line into the rucksack on backcountry trips is always worth the precious space. Making my way up river, I can’t help but eye up the more even runs for the walk back. It’s interesting how satisfying a few violent takes can be on top of a great day's fishing and how at times, you pick up quite a number of fish on…

Once again the third Saturday in September arrived and over 200 caravans were in tow, as owners sat in wait for the 8am entry to click over on the clock. The destination is Otematata in the Waitaki Valley and with such numbers of people about, it was not just me who had this camping spot ear-marked for the next eight months! Gaining a position is a bit of a lolly scramble on the day, as the Oamaru District Council prohibits campers from prior reservation of any spot. I have heard that any offenders will be trespassed for the season, so that is a good enough incentive to follow the line. There is a large paddock close to Benmore Dam at Lock Laird, used as an overnight holding area for campers…

It's been typically challenging so far but overall, 2021/2022 looks promising on the lake. Covid blew a planned backcountry opening but, surprisingly, the 'Black Palmer Experiment' worked first time; breaking a looming blank on what seemed a very quiet Opening Morning locally. The next three weeks produced enough inactivity to add a bead into the normal 'tie', cross-check against the standard GB Seal Fur & Turkey Marabou, then finally, check the actual timing of last season's likewise-driven move to lake bed fishing and find I'd not even reached the date yet! At that point I returned to shoreline flyfishing with a single Ratropinna until sun-up and immediately started catching fish regularly – until reaching said date and landing two in an hour on a pheasant-tail-fibre-hackle-upgraded GBS&T and next outing, the…

Another fishing season underway and there are still a few trout around. I say a few because we had an unseasonably wet winter in the South Island with some real doozy floods that wreaked damage upon local waterways and fisheries. Yep, climate change is fully underway, and our local trout fishing club has been out and about assisting local farmers to sort out some of the mess after some epic floods. President of The Nelson Trout Fishing Club (www.nelsontroutfishingclub.com), Don Clementson of Richmond, jokes that we are going to rename the club to the Nelson Trout Fishing & Craft Beer Club because we all might be spending a bit more time at the pub rather that flogging the rivers this season. It’s still too early to know the full extent…

In Otago and Southland, we have a huge variety of waters to fish, big lakes, dams, ponds, back country streams, lowland rivers, big snow-fed rivers and medium sized rives that meander through farmland. Choosing the right water to fish on a given day can be critical if we hope to catch a few fish. Most anglers will have favourite waters that they fish regularly, usually places that they have enjoyed some success in the past as well as been reasonably accessible and not too far from home. But, do we fish them regularly because we catch fish there or do we catch fish because we fish them regularly? The answer is probably a combination of the two. For me the Taieri is the closest river to home; at least the…

Two things have largely influenced my life to date: my art and my passion for Fly-Fishing. Both of these entities are naturally cohesive, as I consider the sport itself to be an art form all the way down to the flies I use to lure these amazing creatures. My position is that fishing doesn’t care about your gender, race, religion, culture, if you're rich or poor, if you’re tall, short, fat or skinny. All fishing demands is your attitude and effort. EARLY DAYS When I was six, I fished with my Dad. Everything was spinning reels or at least that’s what I was introduced to first. I remember one day he was gone, I wanted to fish but had jacked up the two reels we had. The only rod left…

There has been some good fishing in the waterways flowing into Lake Ellesmere - Te Waihora, the shallow brackish coastal waterway which is the largest lake in Canterbury. The big rain event in May that closed off the road access to the Selwyn huts, topped up the ground water aquifers and the Selwyn River - Waikirikiri flowed strongly at State Highway 1 through last Winter, where it is usually dry. Coming into Spring the river continued to flow at around 2 cumecs, and looked a million bucks (here) at Coe’s Ford. With all that extra water underground, all the little streams that have been sucked dry this century to put grass on the paddocks through the Summer, are flowing too. The Hanmer Drain and even the Irwell River are looking…

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