Schwing!

Summer is definitely losing it's grip, the mornings are starting off crisper and the latter part of the day quickly losing any warmth that may or may not have come. Afternoons are getting shorter and the evening finds me sitting at the tying bench, mixing a few things up on some experimental tube flies while knocking back a few cold local brews. These flies are tending to be a little larger and brighter than traditional New Zealand streamer flies, more in line with the steelhead flies of the Americas.

Anyway, more about the flies to come later. The upcoming winter has us amping to get out on some of the bigger rivers we have on offer. The two handed switch rods will be out throwing some sick loops through the cold as hell mornings and swinging these big bright flies for some big agro fish and Schwing! These fish hit with an addictive force and will make for some amazing winter fishing.

Here's something to tide you all over until the colder mornings see us fiending on this style of fishing. While our rivers aren't as big and don't hold fish of such proportions, its still some pretty good footage. Gotta love the big chromies!


SKEENA – THE BIGGEST AND MEANEST STEELHEADS IN THE WORLD! from Salmon Junkies on Vimeo.

And just incase you were wondering...

Schwing ; pronounced Shhh-wing
             verb to swing a wet fly across the current and hook up through a violent strike
             adjective replaces the use of words like awesome and phrases like hell yea!

Cheers to Waynes world!
           

Appreciating What We Have

On Saturday I had the pleasure of guiding Parker and Mike from Utah on one of our local small streams. They got onto a few fish and even had some coming up for dries, much to their delight. The weather was great and most importantly, they had a great day. It's always cool seeing people from overseas come and check our not so famous trout waters. Too many people get caught up with heading to the Tongariro and down South and miss out on many other beautiful areas of our country.

Another thing that is always very grounding when we have overseas visitors is that are in awe of the resources we have and how few people use them. Parker and Mike could not believe that being so close to major city, we never saw another soul on the river. Showing people around our backyard for the first time always makes you appreciate just exactly what we have here. It's also great to see that some people are not so much interested in the fish they catch but in the new places they get to see and people they get to meet. I can't stress enough that this is one of the major appeals of fly fishing for me and many others. I think that if you spend a day on a river, catch no fish and end up calling it bad day, you are missing the bigger picture entirely. 

The fishing will really start to hot up soon as the autumn rains come and we get into the late season, so get out, get amongst and really just appreciate our amazing country.

Here are a couple of snaps from Saturday.

The Modern Fly Fishing Film

These guys have nailed it. Montana Wild are a group of dudes who have Fish Porn down to a science. Not only do they fish, they pump out some cool hunting vids as well. Gone are the days of long, people-commentating-as-they-fish videos with music containing plenty of classical strings.

Give the people what they want. And with the new generation of fly fishing junkies, what they want is quick cut clips in full HD, plenty of action and heavy beats more in line with the fast paced side of fly fishing.

Check it out, as well as their other stuff. Some great viewing to be had.



WILD & CLEAR from Montana Wild on Vimeo.

Should be a good week...

Cyclone Lusi has come and gone and although we didn't really get the battering and drenching we were expecting, you can still expect for the fishing to be hot this coming week. What rain we did have will be enough to get fish excited again. The Tongariro is only up a few cumecs but expect an influx of nice freshies early to mid week. What's more, the weather is looking pretty superb so why not call in sick and play around down there for a day. You never know, you may come across a big brown like the 15lber that was taken from the hydro pool a couple of weeks ago. What confuses me is that in the day of digital photography and fibreglass moulds people still feel the need to knock these big majestic creatures on the head. That aside, that is still a horse of a fish and an awesome capture on nymph gear.

If you are bogged down with real life like me at the moment, maybe this awesome film trailer will inspire you to make some questionable life choices!



Breathe. Presented by Imago Fly Fishing. from Imago Fly Fishing on Vimeo.

Thrown a little video together...

Had an epic few hours on the river today. Double figure numbers of stocky, mental fighting little fish and mostly going crazy for big ugly dries. Now is the time of year to make the most of fish trying to fatten up before the winter so get out there. Cyclone Lusi should rear its beautiful head on Saturday and though it will ruin everyone's weekend, we are well overdue for some decent rain. Get out fishing next week and hopefully things should been refreshed a bit.

Also I decided that we have far to much random footage kicking around on the hard drive so I threw some together with a sweet tune and this is what happened. This will be first of hopefully many productions from Fly Guys. Make sure to watch it in HD, I can't afford to pay Vimeo for HD embedding at the moment.



Fly Guys Mixtape 2013/14 from Fly Guys NZ on Vimeo.

Sunday Saltfly Mish

Stories had been filtering through work about the amount of kingfish getting caught in the harbour on surface lures so we set a day aside to give it a go on the fly with our mate Lucas in his boat Split Shot.
Cam and I packed up the car and left a foggy Hamilton morning behind and headed east towards our destination. Tauranga harbour. The weather there was perfect. Bluebird day, very little winds and the tides were all in our favour. Time to hunt the kings down.
We hit the water searching for the big dark shapes of stingrays cruising in the shallows, which quite often have kingfish following them. We found plenty of rays but no kingfish in the flats so we changed tactics.
We headed for the channel markers in the harbour where the kings hang around in the current and bully smaller fish. A few casts of the popper had a trio of angry kings chasing the lure out from behind the pylons. Flies were deployed and aggressively stripped in but nothing seemed too keen on actually biting.
After a fair bit of toil around the channel markers in the area we headed to our last chance flat before the end of the day but nothing was playing ball for us so we had to call it in for this trip.
Apart from not catching our target species, it was certainly a good day on the water and far beats a kick in the teeth. A few things were learnt for next time, a few new spots scoped out and even saw a pretty big bronzie (estimated 130kg) free jumping along the way. There is most certainly potential for some epic fun to be had! So because we caught no fish, the footage we got has little relevance and can go into the dump folder for a big collaboration video down the line.
Not all bad news though. I have this sweet video from the dude who used to run Fish Porn (but seems to have magically dissapeared) of some night fishing in the company of the city lights over in the states. The title suits as well!


I've Got Work in the Morning But.... from FP Media on Vimeo.

 

Thought Provoking Moviefilm

Went to Rotorua on Thursday and didn't get a whole heap. This warmer weather will be good though as fish will start stacking up at the stream mouths again. Best time is after dark with a slight westerly breeze and using a small black and or lumo fly. Plenty of big browns out there too so get amongst. There is a salty fly mission on the cards for Sunday too, weather is looking good for some flats kingfish action.

This short 10 minute film is right up there with a River Runs Through It. A fishing movie of Holy Grail proportions. Words can't do it justice, just watch it. In HD preferably.



Fly Fishing is a Joke from Henry Harrison on Vimeo.

Wind and Rain? Not enough I say.

What's this weather? Something other than baking heat?

It has got to the point where some of our rivers need a decent flush out to spring things back into life. Unfortunately, the rain we have had today has been nowhere near enough to make any real difference. What's more its just got average and windy. Fish City's resident Trout Guru Master Sensei and all around great bloke Bevan and I plan to give a local creek a bash tomorrow.

If you have any midweek free time, it's worth getting up at ridiculous hours to go to Turangi. Some behemoth browns have been seen and landed there over the past little while and you are always in with a chance there. We headed down last Tuesday and did some fished some switch rods we were kindly given on loan by our buddies at Manic Tackle Project. Their loan system obviously worked as I now find myself the owner of a Scott L2H 11'6" 8wt. Cannot wait to get down there and use it some more, particularly with the winter run just around the corner. Here are a few snaps from the switcharoo day.

Anyway that's all for now. I have found some A-Grade Fish Porn recently too so I will share that shortly.

The other Fly Guy

Well I've been given the hurry up to introduce myself to you all...
Gidday, my name is Josh. 22 years ago I was born in Aussie (don't hold it against me though, Cam gives me enough shit daily) and moved to NZ when I was 10. Since day one here I have been chasing trout in local small streams, which has now branched out to catching anything that will take a sharp hook, usually thrown out with a fly rod. I tie flies, like to have a few beers and enjoy a fairly wide range of sports. I do quite enjoy taking photos while I'm out fishing or in the bush as well. A few of them may also find their way onto these pages, in amongst all the other sweet stuff we will be putting up.

I also work at Fish City in Hamilton, though I am there full time, which kinda makes me Cams boss... So if you need anything fishing related or want to try some of the new stuff we will be doing come and see us.
Anyway, enough about work. Keep an eye out for us out and about, getting in on the action.
As Cam said previously. Its not always about the fish you catch, but the places you see and the people you meet along the way and as corny as that is, its the best way to look at it.
Well that's all from me.

Stay tuned for the next post.