Keep 'em dry!

During the summer, it can be quite pleasant to wet wade. Fishing under the burning hot New Zealand sun, it can almost be a relief to get in the water for a bit of splash. By personal favourite would be the full head submerge after a few beers the night before in order to truly wake you up. Instant hangover cure!

Then winter rolls round. Wet wading in small streams in May and June can often be fine as well but as soon as the cooler water jumps up into the nether regions, it's game over for wet wading. This natural indicator for wader use has already happened to me this season and with the water getting rapidly colder, its time to jump into some Gore Tex enjoy dry family jewels for the winter.

Jokes aside, the importance of a good pair of waders cannot be overstated. I believe that neoprene waders still have a place among the modern breathables available these days. I will still use my neoprene waders for night time lake fishing, as it generally requires less effort than layering up and putting boots on, particularly if I want to take them on and off when changing spots.

However, if you are going to spend any length of time on the water and if you are going to be doing any walking, then breathable waders are the way forward. Simms Fishing Products make a variety of different waders in different price ranges. The most cost effective ones are the Freestone wader, made out of Toray fabric and price that rivals neoprene waders. With anything in the fly fishing game, the sky is the limit in terms of price. I (and Josh too) have recently bought myself a pair of Simms G3 Waders. These are made from highly breathable, multi layer Gore Tex fabric and are incredibly comfortable. They are also quite rugged and able to withstand a fair bit of punishment which I certainly need.

Bottom line is, don't let your little fellas suffer the cold this winter, get some decent waders that will last multiple seasons. Preferably do this at Fish City and help pay mine and Josh's wages! Check out the Simms range of waders here.

In order to further distract from the lack of fishing I have been doing, here is a sweet video I managed to dredge up when procrastinating from my Uni assignments.

This video is from the guys at Montana Wild and was their first decent crack at a mini film project, something that Josh and I are currently scheming up. Watch this space...

Plan and Prepare

Nothing beats looking forward to a good trip out on the water. Well, actually being on the water does, but that's beside the point. As we are coming into weather that can be a bit on the wet side of things, nothing is worse than getting to the days before or day of the trip and finding your intended river running too big to fish. I know, it sucks! Luckily there are a few things to help.

Firstly the weather forecast. Obvious I know, but following long range weather patterns can help you better decide on areas to fish. Some weather patterns will break up before reaching your fishing area but the news weatherman will probably just tell you its raining or not. Its pretty much 50/50 for them... Some rivers will be less affected by rain, while others blow out at the sniff of rain. Some fish well before and some after.

Taking a bit of time to figure out which rivers are which can really be the difference between a good trip and an utter shit, sitting on the riverbank doing little to no fishing at all trip. Working out river flows isnt as hard as it may sound. Just jump on the internet, find a website for your local council and most should have an environmental or services section to it. Waikato regional council for example. There is a services section to it that has a link to local river and rainfall levels. Someone else has done the job for you. Brilliant!

Taking note of how the river fished last time and trying to match it up again with as many of the same natural factors as possible goes a long way to having another cracking day on the water. This could, in some peoples minds, require a bit of effort but it will surprise you how much info you will retain if you take note of things.

Lastly, well probably not really lastly, but lastly for now is get your gear in working order. Nothing sucks more than when all the conditions are right and you find your rod is snapped somehow (or by someone) and you need it fixed 2 minutes before hitting the water or finding that big fart you let go in your waders really did blow a hole in them somewhere (not the best thing to do in waders) and you end up wet wading unintentionally...

Enjoy the time leading up to these trips and enjoy the planning and monitoring weather conditions that go with it. Enjoy even more the little trips you just decide to up and go on because the city is driving you batshit crazy and you have to escape. Unfortunately for these guys, work is fun. They get to fish for a living. Oh and travel a lot. Hard life really... (pause) Not! Anyway, here is the Trout Bum crew with the awesome trailer for a project of theirs. You may or may not have seen them before but they are living the dream, chasing fish all over the world and enjoying it the whole way. Great success!



GEOFISH Trailer from GEOFISH on Vimeo.

You should probably buy the DVD too!

Bright is Better!

Josh and I fished the Tongariro on Tuesday and did pretty well. Water was a bit dirty due to rain the night before but it was awesome to see some good sized freshies up in the river. We fished solely switch gear with bright and shiny flies that seem to be the go at the moment and will become more effective as winter rolls on.

I thought I would give a quick run down on a fly I tied up that worked on a nice fat rainbow from the Bridge Pool right after some guy had just dredged the hell out of it with nymphs (he was pissed).

This fly is yet to be named. Some possibilities have included the Tongy Rocket, Troll Slayer (referring to the fish that was caught under the bridge) or what my Dad said when I showed it to him, "What the f*** is that?"

Despite its quirky looks, it appears to be functional pattern for winter run fish in coloured water. The contrast of the pink marabou neck around the wrapped olive zonker strip body stands out well and pulses like crazy in the water. This fly could be fished very slow as a result as it has built in action (the reason woolly buggers kick arse). The stinger hook is effective as it helps stop fish nipping at the tail of a fly and not hooking up and the dumbell eye helps with sinking and keeps the hook upright and not scraping on the bottom.

The sweet thing about tying flies like this is that you can really mess around with a whole lot of different stuff. The hardest part is having the confidence to actually bust it out and fish it over your tried and true patterns. As you can see below, sometimes it pays off.

The result of an experiment gone right. Turangi Chrome!

The biggest fish of the day, taken on a black egg sucking leech from Manic Tackle Project.

So next time you go to tie on an olive woolly bugger (or a hare and copper for that matter), stop and think about the situation you are faced with. If there is a bit of colour in the water then colour up your fly. Even it's running clear a bit of brightness can be enough to induce a strike. Don't be afraid to be a bit different and try something new!

Young People and Fly Fishing

Had a great day yesterday guiding James and Chris, two 21 year old students from Virginia in the US. These guys were really surprised when I told them I was in the minority when it came to my age and fly fishing. In the US particularly 'out West' (Montana, Wyoming, Colorado etc) it is now pretty fashionable and cool for young people to get into fly fishing. This is partly due to the 'trout bum' culture that has emerged, a culture that Josh and myself can relate to very well and one that we have tried to adopt here, although I am yet to meet a girl who is really impressed by the fact I can fly fish. One day perhaps...

For a long time I have maintained that New Zealand has traditionally adopted the English approach to fly fishing. This is a very technical, fish number hungry, sometimes elitist perspective of the 'sport'. The North American trout bum approach is becoming more popular here and has many aspects that we can learn from. The main thing would have to be the minimalist approach to the whole idea. This includes sleeping in the car, having fun with mates and just generally caring more about having a good time than catching fish. Ironically, this then can improve your catch rate as you are more relaxed when fishing and this is when you can have some of your better days. Trying too hard when casting or putting too much pressure on yourself can also result in poor fishing performance. So chill out and try to see the bigger picture when out fishing. Sit down under a tree for fifteen minutes and have a beer or a coffee and just take a bit of time out. I can almost guarantee you will fish more effectively after this.

Here are a few snaps from James' and Chris' day out.

The fishing out there is getting real good after the rain over Easter. Plenty of fat fish are feeding up in our small streams as we got onto a few guiding and I had a good afternoon today on a local stream. Water levels are about standard and the clarity good, so get out this weekend if you can, or even earlier as there is some rain forecast. Get amongst it.

Winter is coming!

Winter is definitely on it's way now. Although the mornings haven't hit the single digits yet, the days have lost a great deal of their warmth along with the hour we lost after daylight savings ended. I miss not having enough bloody time to go fishing after work!

Anyway, with the change in temperatures, a few different methods of catching our trout in particular will start coming to the fore. Dry flies will generally spend their days locked up next to the rest of their kind, wishing it was warm again like a lot of us. Their strike indicating prowess will be replaced with synthetic indicators which will be able to stay afloat with more weight dragging them down. This point leads to the nymphs.
Heavier nymphs will appear once more as the depths of larger rivers are plumbed with a myriad of bright heads in often coloured water.

Another fantastic technique is targeting them with streamer flies. Cam and I were on the Tongariro river yesterday swinging some wet flies with fairly good results! You can generally cover a lot more water and fish it more thoroughly. Best success was on darker olive woolly buggers fished on relatively long leders on the end of fast sinking poly leaders. Seemed to work for us but there are certainly no rules to catching fish!

So best of luck for the coming cold months. Air out the warm gears and man up (or woman up) and brave the cold wet days for the shot at some brilliant fishing!

Just to leave you on a totally unrelated subject (still have to put the footage together from yesterday) here is a great little clip to get you thinking. It is based in the States but we can certainly relate this to ourselves here in New Zealand. Our waterways are precious and you just don't mess with nature man!


 
DamNation | Trailer from FELT SOUL MEDIA on Vimeo.

So give it a watch, and even some of their other cool stuff as well, and let us know what you think. Cheers Felt Soul Media!

Sky Water

Holy smokes, it appears to be raining. Coincidentally I was also guiding today and the rain we have had has really kicked the trout into gear. Dry fly fishing in the rain is a pretty special experience, let alone when someone has never caught a fish on a dry fly at all before!

Embrace the rain. Dance for it, make sure we get enough to put our rivers in a decent flood and enjoy the spectacular fishing afterwards. Also, rain ensures that New Zealand's economy doesn't get ruined through drought and keeps you in a job, so that's a bonus. Rain also let's you flush the toilet, tease your dog by squirting the hose at it's face so it tries to bite the water as well as getting rid of the annoying 'water alert level' ads on the radio.

To make it seem like this post isn't just the incoherent ramblings of someone who has been walking all day and had far to little water and pretty much just ready for bed, here is a sick video I have come across. These guys make me want to convince some mates to quit life for a bit and go on a trout bender.



Save a Horse, Ride an Angler from DeltaTroutForce on Vimeo.

Salt Slingin'

A few good quality days on the sea of late have been great to get it out of the system until the next summer comes along and we can try and hit those big brutal kings on the flats. Although no kingies were willing to take our delicious looking flies (I thought) this time, there will be many more opportunities to come.The good news is that more than a few good sizes kahawai were more than willing to devour our flies as each strip strike saw another one tear off in the distance.

These fish are so underrated as a sport fish on light tackle that its not funny. To prove that they were little demons when it came to fly, young Nick from work came and gave it a go. He was yet to land anything on fly and had no idea how much fun he was in for. Geared up with an 8wt rod and a fairly fast sinking intermediate line, fly tied on and the hunting grounds ahead it was time to do battle. First cast saw good sized kahawai climbing over each other to smash his fleeing brown and white clouser pattern. Fish on and line rapidly depleting! After a couple of visits to the backing the prized first catch was landed. Several more such battles occurred over the course of the day with the odd snapper and jack mackerel joining in the fun.

The diversity of fish life in the ocean really does make for some exciting prospects as to what you may bring in. There are several species of fish in New Zealands inshore waters that offer great sport and aren't shy about taking a fly. So when the opportunity arises, grab it with both hands and have a go if you haven't already.

Unfortunately we dont get these little silver bullets in our waters but targeting them makes for a good excuse to go on holiday somewhere new! These guys certainly know how to have a good time wherever they go too. You may recognise them from the Backyard to Nowhere film (which is awesome!)




Peter & Rolf on Aitutaki from Kokkaffe Media on Vimeo.