May is still a great month to fly fish here in New Zealand. Many people hang up their gear for the winter at the end of April but some of the best conditioned brown trout you will catch all season are on the move and making their way upstream out of our larger Southern lakes into the smaller tributaries.  To many anglers this is the beginning of the prime fishing time as large fish are targeted as they enter the rivers from the lakes. I never target a fish that is actually in the process of spawning, show a little respect for the troutwhile they are busy trying to secure the future population. These fish are already under a lot of stress, they don’t need you hooking them while they are hard at work !
 

f fishing this fly in faster moving water and in the foam line I tie it behind a Hi Viz #12-16 Parachute style fly so as you can see it easier. If fish are in the slower moving -slicker-glassier pools and you don't want to spook fish with the bigger indicator fly I generally fish it on its own with a long fine leader of around 12-15 feet. The fish in the below picture was my last fish for the 2016-17 season taken in super calm - glassy conditions, this fish was cruising around the pool sipping down emergers.

After a pretty ordinary summer we are having a belter of an Autumn thus far ! The past few weeks have been very settled with cooler starts to the day with things warming up nicely by midday. I have spent the past few weeks guiding clients in the Southland region, basing ourselves near Lumsden and fishing the nearby rivers. Fish that clients have been landing have been in superb condition and all the 3-6lb range with the occasional bigger one making it to the net.

Al fished with me several years ago and we did a Multi Day Trip exploring some out of the way rivers and streams in the Central South Island region. We ventured into some of the more remote rivers and streams catching some cracking brown and rainbow trout over the 5 days. HE contacted me earlier this year to say he was coming out again and bringing his new girlfriend Jeanhei and wanted to head into the same area as he had a few scores to settle with a couple of big fish that had smoked him the previous trip ! We made a rough plan as to where would head but left it a little open as the summer weather we were experiencing this year was very up and down to say the least !!

Well summer seems to have skipped us here in New Zealand this year ! We are still experiencing spring like conditions with strong winds, lots of rain and cooler day time temps way off what they should be. Just last week several local rivers throughout the Southland and Otago regions reached record flood levels and are still recovering now. I had to cancel one day (for the first time in 10 season)as there was just no where to go other than the lakes of which my clients were not interested in fishing.

I recently had a 2 day camp out fly fishing / hunting trip away with my son Louie .
 I arrived home from a days guiding and we packed my truck and headed for the back country for some fly fishing and a spot of rabbit shooting ! The first day we hit a small tributary of larger South Island back country stream one that held both Brown trout and rainbow trout in the 3-6lb range.

This is the 4th trip Bassam and his 2 sons Simon and JP have booked with me, and its one I really look forward to each season ! We decided to head away from our usual base in Southland and head further North this time. We based ourselves in the small tourist town of Twizel in the Mckenzie region this trip,  from which we could drive to several world class rivers each day. Again the weather was up and down with plenty of wind , overcast rainy days and good a dusting of snow even one night ! The rivers were all high but clear in the region and holding some great rainbow and brown trout which were all in fantastic condition !

I recently guided father and son team Jim and David for 4 days in the Central Otago region.
 Jim had just recently recovered for major surgery and decided it was now or never for he and his son David to book their bucket list dream trip of fly fishing around New Zealand. I met the guys at a designated meeting spot and we headed off our NZ fly fishing road trip. The weather for the 4 days was a mixed bag of the usual spring time conditions we get here in the South Island of New Zealand in late November with wind and the odd showery day. The guys wanted to fish some smaller streams so we headed into the headwaters of a couple of streams that held both brown and rainbow trout in the 3-6lb mark with the occasional bigger fish some years !

Tom and Mark arrived in New Zealand after have spent the past 2 months filming in Antarctica for an upcoming wildlife doco. They had a stop over here in NZ on the way home to the UK and decided to stay for a 2 week fly fishing road trip around the lower the South Island. We arranged to meet in location "X" and spend a couple of days exploring some local streams and also to get the guys up to speed with our style of fishing here in New Zealand so as they could fish on there own for the rest of their stay.

Finding Clear water over the past week or so has been tough at times , we found fish stacked up along the edges where small spring fed tributaries entered into the main river today , many of the spring creeks also had good numbers of fish sheltering in them after a few weeks of big water in the main river.

We progressed up stream slowly , carefully fishing all the likely water paying special attention to the drop offs and seams. Matt dropped a big fish a couple of pools up , he had too much slack in his line,when the fish ate his nymph and his indicator shot down he had to much line to pick up before he could get a good hook set in the trouts jaw. After some ribbing and banter from Pudge we moved on and came to a big pool with a shallow tail out , there was a good fish swinging in the current , a quick fly change to a dry- dropper set up was made so as to not spook the fish with a bulky indicator and double nymph rig. Manics guide chute has become my number one dry-dropper fly as it will suspend a small or well weighted nymph under neath and is very visible as and indicator in faster water. Matt got into position and cast ahead of the fish by a meter or so , the fish moved across slightly and took his small suspended nymph ...game on ! After a 5 min tug of war we had a beautiful 6.5lb brown trout in the net.

I may have created a monster but as a friend has just remarked to me "the world needs more of these types of monsters" ha ha ha so true. Louie said twice today how much more fun it was to be out fishing with me than sitting playing Ipad games or watching TV so a win all round !

Despite some recent rain and a little snow which had fallen recently the river was in pretty good shape , high but clear. Some usually deep holes that held fish were filled in so we had to walk a little until we found some fish. We eventually came to a deep pool that held a good fish and with a little help from Dad, Louie managed to cast his fly well up ahead of a nice Rainbow Trout that was swinging in the current which didn't hesitate to lift slightly and eat his nymph.

A good mate and I recently visited a favourite Central Otago stream well known for its well conditioned colourful brown trout. The Manuherika river is a main tributary of the Clutha river and an important spawning river in the region.

The river was clear when I arrived but as the day passed it coloured up slightly due to the melting snow in the surrounding mountains which is not uncommon on this wee stream. Fish were mainly holding in the pools and were a bit sluggish and not really feeding , I managed to fool a couple early on then it was pretty slow from then on in until I came across a good brown trout in a deep pool that was hanging off to the side in some slower water which didn't hesitate to eat my nymph on the first drift.

Pools are the deep water areas of a river and usually form where a river or stream's gradient levels out and slows down the water flow resulting in a slower-deeper body of water forming that then widens out into a pool. Reading the water is a matter of recognizing the different types of water in a river or stream and where trout will generally be in each type of water. A trout will always seek out it's basic requirements of safety from predators , shelter from strong currents-flows and food, all of which are provided in a deep pool. Pools can be broken down into 3 sections , these are the head of the pool , the belly of the pool and finally the tail of the pool .

It’s a mid-price point fly rod that delivers all the bells and whistles for under the $1000 mark. The FLEX incorporates many of the new innovative  design and technology aspects that are found in the award winning Scott Radian and Meridan rods. Each rod is hand made from start to finish in their shop in Montrose Colorado so no short cuts have been taken in the making of this quality new rod series.

Brown trout are native to Europe and were first introduced into New Zealand in the late 1860s from British stock that was first established in Tasmania Australia. The colour pattern of brown trout varies with their habitat. Sea-run and lake fish tend to be silvery with brown and olive spots of varying intensity, whereas river-dwelling fish are darker in colouration with brown and red spots, the latter being surrounded by paler halos. These red spots are particularly prominent on small river fish. .Brown trout are primarily a freshwater species, but can spend time in the sea.Brown trout occur virtually everywhere in New Zealand south of Auckland.

When conditions turn nasty and spotting trout becomes impossible, either due to surface disturbance from the wind and or high cloud that's blocking out the sun light , hunt out an elevated rocky out crop or bank from which to sit and scan the surrounding lake edges. The elevation will help cut out the glare caused through low light and will also help with the lake surface chop, a stretch of water that was seemingly impossible to see into and spot fish 5 minutes earlier has now come to life with cruising trout!