The Dobson fly (Archichauliodes diversus )or Toebiter nymph has become a very important fly pattern in my fly box early come early season. This large predatory native insect is found through out New Zealand's more hard bottomed , stony rivers and streams and can be found in their larger bouldery sections. Dobson fly larvae are typically 25-38mm mm long and have a black, flattened thorax and head. The head has a large set of serrated mandibles that it uses to catch other aquatic invertebrates which may include most species of mayfly, caddis and each other ! It has 8 tentacle like gills on each side of it's abdomen and 2 hook like legs near it's tail which it uses to attach itself to rocks etc.

After a scrumptious breakfast of bacon and eggs cooked by my two wonderful children I headed off for a lake edge fish and the kids and their mum went up to Cardrona ski field for the day to ski a win win !

Early season sees many of our Central Otago rivers and streams running high and carrying some snow melt. Water temps are still low and many fish will be still recovering from the long winter, so go big with your first choice of nymph, give them a reason to move and eat your fly! Large Dobson fly patterns and big rubber legged nymphs will grab the attention of fish.

This chocolate brown coloured nymph which is also know as the "spiny gill" mayfly nymph is an easy one to tie and one that should be in every fly fisherman's fly box if visiting New Zealand fly fishing. It is commonly found through out NZ in stable well oxygenated rivers and streams among the sections of river with larger stones and boulders. Its quite distinguishable from other nymphs due to its feathery gill structure along its body which it uses to extract oxygen from the fast flowing water in which it lives.

The section at the South Eastern end where the Moeraki (Blue) river flows in offers a small amount of lake edge stalking over weed beds that I have done very well on the 2 previous visits to Lake Moeraki. The delta area where the Moeraki river flows into the lake offers some great flats stalking over a shingle bottom and we both sight fished to cruising brownies that drifted in from the deeper weed beds in search of bullies along the stony edges. The fish were eager to chase our flies and looked like the winter has been treating them as they are in superb condition!

With the Clutha river at the lowest that I've ever seen it for this time of year, lots of new water is available to fish. A very pleasant few hours swinging flies today on new sections of water usually not accessible at this time of year. I was able to sneak up the side of a deep back water that is usually to deep to get around and get access to a fast run that had some slow softer water just off to it's side.

I had a spare half day to myself with no commitments other than doing a few jobs down town such as renewing car rego's and posting some mail so I decided to head out to swing some flies on my double handed rod. The day was cool...actually it was bloody freezing ! The mercury was sitting on -1 on our weather station at home so wrapping up was going to be the name of game today.

I rigged up my rod with an Airflo 40 + Di5 and Louie's with a Di1.5, our tippet consisted of a level piece of 10lb Airflo Sight Free fluro carbon with a well hackled Woolly Bugger that Louie had tied up the previous day attached to it with a smaller Stu's Deadly Damsel fly trailing behind.

I recently purchased the new improved Simms Taco Bag through Manic Tackle Project here in New Zealand and absolutely love it !   Its perfect for transporting your waders and boots, it also fits a rod tube nicely and has a zippered pocket for your reel and other small bits and pieces.

There are both brown and rainbow trout in the lake along with a good population of land-locked Quinnat Salmon (which by the way are excellent eating and are caught in good numbers around Xmas time). There is reasonable road access to parts of Lake Hawea for fly anglers along state highway 6 however, most access to the lake along here is quite steep and covered in dense vegetation in places .

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.