Fishing Diary

Went out scoping some new winter water today with Charlie and Earl from Spot X. Earl is a local helicoptor pilot and has done a lot of bird shooting but not a huge amount of fly fishing so today was also a bit of a tutoring session for him. Charlie landed a couple of good ones and missed a couple (didn’t realize I had reversed one of his flies around for a laugh) and Earl go one good one and a couple of small ones. In all the spot wasn’t actually to bad and I would expect it to probably be quite good in summer with quite a bit of riffly water around some decent sized boulders. I got four geese with four shots which is pretty good for me - my shotgunning needs some work.

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Fishing Diary

Went out briefly this morning to a test out a new fly reel I have been given and was quite impressed. The reel by Busse und Pelican from Germany seems to be well designed and constructed and having had a few friends with reel maintainance back-grounds have a look at the inside works they all seem impressed and comment that it seems to be quite high quality. The reels drag coped well with this nice river 3 rainbow trout of around 4 pounds which will normally test most equipment to breaking point. If anyone reading this is interested the reel will be hitting the market at around US$200 which seems pretty good for a reel of this quality. Time will tell how well the reel lasts as I have a bad habit of breaking things and wearing them out unfortunately. If the reel lasts through next summer with me then it will last most people their lifetime.

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River Conditions: Low and clear

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Fishing Diary

Had a great day today with Peter and Sharon today from Australia - unfortunately the best photos are on their camera including the one of Sharnons 6 and 1/4 pound brown trout which kicked the day off nicely. Shortly after Peter landed a nice brown and the team then proceeded to land a further 4 out of 10 good sized fish hooked including several in the 4 - 5 pound bracket. Sharon also managed to see a deer as we walked down the secret track to the secret fishing spot in the secret river.

Both Sharon and Peter fished very well and seemed to have “gotten the drift” of fishing our bubbly, pocket waters.

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Fishing Diary

Guided Peter and Sharon today on their first of two days fly fishing guiding with me while staying at spot X, Was a little worried last night with all the rain and a few rivers were out but we mangaed to find some water clear enough to nymph.

The fishing was a little slower than nomal but Peter and Sharon still managed to hook 10 reasonable fish between them and landed the two smallest ones of around a pound and a half. There were several in the 3 to 4 pound range the escaped. A few smaller ones were landed and got off also. It was noticable that a fair few of the fish foul hooked - an unusually high percentage. Could have been to do with the discoloured water or maybe just not into those flies.

In all a pretty acceptable day given the conditions. Things are looking a bit better for tomorrow provided the Mt Ruapehu doesn’t errupt - there is quite a bit of activity there at the moment and a level 3 warning in place.

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River Conditions: Low and clear

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Fishing Diary

Guided Wei Li from Auckland and his father-in-law from USA on Friday and due to duck shooting all weekend this is the first chance I have had to update my blog. The guys were due to fish with me last Wednesday but because of bad weather on Tuesday, I advised them not to come. The guys were keen and able to come later in the week and the weather played ball so here is the report.

The guys took advantage of my catch insurance scheme due to the higher water levels and lack of fly fishing experience which means an extra 10% premium but guarantees hooked and played legal size trout or your money back. Fortunately for me and for them, they each hooked and played several trout with Wei-Li landing this superb 5.25lb rainbow trout as well as a 4.5lb brown trout. Al managed a nice brown of 4lb and was bust-off by a bigger unstoppable rainbow. Wei-Li was bust-off once after a long fight and then dropped another out of the same pool before landing his first brown. Wei-Li briefly hooked two more before landing the good rainbow.

The end score was 3 landed over 4 pounds out of 7 hooked + 2 further definite brief hookups and a couple of other likely strikes.

My duck shooting was a little less successful but was great fun all the same. I stayed out at Spot X Lodge and shot with Charlie, their 10 year old son Jack and Nelly. We had a great time and had plenty of opportunities. We managed 3 ducks, a heap of turkeys and Jack also managed a few geese. Personally I managed to acclimatize the ducks to the harmless sound of loud bangs!

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Barometer: Low

Cloud/Wind: Very light southerly wind, overcast and drizzly rain at the moment after raining steadily all night

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Dirty and coloured

Recommended Flies: Black gold bead wooley buggers

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Fishing Diary

A good day out back-country fishing despite some patchy weather for the Johns from USA. The guys managed to land around half of the 14 decent sized trout caught. The guys I think were both shocked by the power of our trout that had the bust off on 6 and 8 pound flourocarbon on several occassions. There were several over 4 pounds and this is the biggest caught by John Stahl of 5 and a half pounds.

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Fishing Diary

Went fly fishing myself yesterday again and had a great day though the fishing was a little slow. It actually took me until the end of the day before my timing was starting to feel smooth again with my casting. Hooked 12 and landed most of them although one rainbow trout did me in a big one nearly busting my knuckle with the spinning reel handle has took off dowstream down the rapids and at a blistering pace never to be seen again.

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Fishing Diary

Have a couple of days before my next guiding job so finally getting a chance to catch up on a bit of fly tying and a bit of fly fishing. Went out back country and managed around 15 - 20 hookups in about 4 or 5 hours and caught some great fish - 3 or 4 over 6 pounds and would estimate one brown at 7 or 8 pounds. Within the first 100 meters hooked 3 and then saw a group of 5 in one lye. Hooked every single one of them and landed 4 including this big brownie.

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River Conditions: Low and clear

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Fishing Diary

It was a pleasure to guide Dan Ennis from Salt Lake City again yesterday. This time he was joined by his friend Ross McConnon from Taupo and the pair had a great time - probably even bettering Dan’s last day fishing with me last year. Dan managed this superb rainbow of 7 and a half pounds. The guys also managed to sight fish 3 browns and hooked over 20 fish between them of which around a dozen or more would have been over 3 pounds.

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Barometer: Rising

Cloud/Wind: Very little

Water Temperature:

River Conditions: Clearing

Recommended Flies: Black bead hare and copper and Sawyers Pheasant Tail

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Fishing Diary

Went fishing briefly this afternoon with my mate Blair and landed one small trout, lost one a missed a couple of others - Blair finished much similar. The weather has been bad so I have just being sitting at home for the past few days tying flies ready for the year ahead.

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River Conditions: Low and clear

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