Post by Zarach Supplies. on May 13, 2009 13:38:43 GMT 8
A taste of Tour & Fly fishing New Zealand - Autumn 2009.
"More than half the intense enjoyment of fly-fishing is derived from the beautiful surroundings, the satisfaction felt from being in the open air, the new lease of life secured thereby, and the many, many pleasant recollections of all one has seen, heard and done."
~ Charles F. Orvis
At time …. You just have to pause for a moment & take a deep breath … grin silently to yourself … “Yes … I am here …”
Soon after reaching Christchurch international airport at late noon, James & Jenn picked us up & went on our way to the nearby Tackle shop to arm all the accessories that I am still lacking of, most importantly a new pair of wading boots.
Tackle shop in Christchurch
Plenty of choices off the racks. All felt soles are banned from NZ to prevent the invasive & ugly Didymo & it is a big thing in the country. In the end, a quick scan & quick choice … to prevent my wife from staring at the price tags for too long …. I grabbed the Simms’ Rivershed Boots with the new - STREAMTREAD™ Sticky rubber sole version & rushes off to the counter, paid the boots + fishing license & have all the tungsten carbide tips screwed in asap …
Phew … save for now … I can fish in NZ now…
With the good arming, we move on to our 1st motel for the evening. New Zealand is indeed a land that have … so much, much more sheeps than humans. With the mountainous backdrop, we drive thru’ farms of sheeps & cattles abundant to graze the grasslands.
A couple of kilometers of drive, we will come by a stream, a river or two. Plenty of pretty scenic places. From Christchurch, we put up in Fairie for the 1st night & move off to the great lakes down south in the next day. Lake Tekapo & Pukaki, but the gusty winds were just too much for any fishing to take place at all. If the trouts stays & feed along side the shore like our peacocks … probably all would have probably, gotten wash ashore.
Wind & waves in lake.
We decided to skip fishing in the lakes & enjoy the wind instead. Nevertheless, the place is still marvelously beautiful.
Lake Tekapo
Lake Pukaki
My 1st taste of fly fishing for Trout started off in Twizel before we move off toward Wanaka. The night before, we discussed & prepared all the rigs before hand …. Fitting & trying up the gears. All the preparations & buying finally comes into good use.
Ah … ha …. Alarm did not fail to wake the boys at 5.30am. By 6am … we were trekking out of our warm comfortable chalets to have a go on the trouts in the nearby Twizel River.
Twizel - 6.15am ... we are heading to Twizel River ...
From the 1st lights we see some small boils across one of the small pool. Small trouts were rising for the dawn hatches. James having already hooked his 1st brown during the last 10 days that he stayed before we came, he offered to let me have a cast at the rises. I chose a universal “blowfly” & probably would work well in the dim lights. Rig up the modified “blowfly”, I shoots the offer off to the rises.
My “modify” Blowfly from a Brown Wulff.
On the 3rd drift, a ripple breaks the stillness of the water surface. I could not see the fly in the darkness but instinctively, the strip strike action came along from the arms & resulted setting firmly into my 1st Brown’s jaw. Smallish but nevertheless am happy on the quick catch. Subsequent, James & I had some more smallish rainbow takes. Good time flies as the sky cleared, time to move on & prepare ourselves for more traveling on the road.
My 1st Brown Trout.
As we drive thru’ the rocky windy highway towards wanaka, no further fishing but one of the river that u will want to stop by is the Clutha River after Tarras. The fast flowing Clutha river is filled with autumn colors. Good for some photos!
Clutha River.
In Wanaka, the rainbow trouts were BIG in the lake too. We can spot easily 6-7 lbs lazing around the Jetty but well no fishing at the jetty but well … lets’ give the wives some slacks & not stick to our fly sticks for the start … we moved for more pictures, tour & pictures.
Mount Cook is the next destination for the next day. Wah … the TV forecasted big rain & indeed the whole day we had drizzles on & off. In fact, we planned to enact the Rohan Riders ridding on the plains but the rain say … fat chance… & off we head down to Ashburton.
At the Visitor centre of Mount Cook, beside the fire place.
In Ashburton river, it was quite a hard river to work on. With one side of the river layered with sunken trees. James managed to hook another rainbow but the fish jumped off the fly on one of the acrobatic stunts. There were quite some big browns spotted but no chance of hooking any. The Tree branches were a curse to the double nymph rigs … often I fouled the rigs on the tree. Wah … as the line snapped “Phankkkk” … bang man … there goes 2 nymphs… By noon, it’s time for more traveling, tour & pictures. Well, certainly the Ashburton River was a good lesson brought along for the rest of my trip.
As the ladies wave bye-bye when they dropped us to help ourselves to the river ... proceeding to their own market shopping.
See those silent pools on the right, harbors some good browns.
After 2 days of good stay in Christchurch & Kaikouira. We brushed through some of the tasty parts of steaks, seafood, wines … plus more shopping & pictures for the wives.
The wives were ready to let us go fishing again. We travel up to the Marlborough Region, in Canvastown. A quick check with the Innkeeper & he pointed us to an off track, remote portion of the Pelorus River with some good pools to try our hands on.
After dropping the boys off by the side of the river this round, my wife, Becky ranted … “Wah, u all dress like going for battle, better catch some fish for dinner” …
Me & James.
Ah Ha… finally we are off to do our favorite activity again … stress ah … at least my wife was half expecting us “dress like professional … should catch like professional too… putting some stress for us to perform for the table …
Well as in battling against for fishing in the cold gusty wind … I finally settle with having double layer of Merino thermal long john, 3 layers of socks … serious… Merino ones too before I slip up into the waders & boots. 2 more long sleeve merino shirt, a turtle neck cotton pull over, fishing shirt for the top … finally wrapped up with hat & rain jacket. Anything lesser …. as we wade in waist deep running waters pairing up the gusty winds … it gets very uncomfortably cold to fish for long.
Taking a shield from the wind for my ears…
Casting the deeper edge …
Still the fingers at times suffers some stiffness from the winds too. With all the evening & morning hatches, the rainbows boils like tarpons on your left & your right as they fight over insects within their reach …. Re-rig & tying on a nymph can take me minutes frustratingly.
The Pelorus River nearing the Marlborough Sound…
![]()
photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs031.snc1/3205_1144292894268_1435885735_30391643_1046421_n.jpg[/img]
James’ Brown
Rainbow can run & use their weight with the current. Got to let some moderated slack else the Size 16 hooks gets pulled out easily…
Rainbow Trout.
Here’s another fatty.
As I tried through the flies within my fly box … the final winner nymph pattern that has taken all my fishes in this trip is the Size 16 Tungsten bead head Scruffy paired on a Terrestrial dropper rig. Well, my version is a little different in darker rusty brown color from the original version that James had emailed to me earlier when he bought the pattern from the fly shops . My ties works for this Autumn 2009 at least & I am happy about the success of my variant version. (Kekekee… I will share the pattern & tying another round.)
Every now & then, I need to repair the scruffy nymphs … else no bullets for the coming fishy session…
You wanna have a taste of trouts in New Zealand, you have to catch them from the streams & rivers, as we previously searched through the markets, we cannot buy any rainbow or brown trouts from the market. Facing the gusty winds, freezing fingers, thank God for the provident that we still managed to pluck a few good fish within the bag limit off the South Island’s Pelorus river off for dinner. That will keep the wives happy for a while.
Our next destination to be able to flip our winstons, would be in Tongariro River near Taupo in the north island. Putting up in the Creel Lodge was one a delight. The lodge has a “fish” room for u to clean your catch there too. Rod holders to hold your rigged gears. All finer details of the lodge are in fact catered to the flyers.
Best of all, we had some good pools including “Major Jones” pool, just at the backyard of the lodge! No need for driving… we had fun with the Rainbow Trouts within the pools. Evenings & mornings as usual, the mayfly & caddies would hatch & rainbows boiled like tarpons against the running current. While in the middle of the day, dropper rigs & nymph rigs would score the rainbows in the deeper freestone banks.
Mayfly hatch …
Throughout the travelling from South to North Island, the Winstons BIImx & BIIx served James & myself well respectively...
The Creel lodge.
As we wade off to fish … Ah… blessed by the wives….
Casting to upstream & drift the offer thru the rainbows…
James with his evening rainbow taken on a dry.
Morning Rainbow on dropper rig.
As I cover the waters & fishing upstream.
Time to time, I would just stand in the middle of the pool & marvel the scenic nature, just feeling good to be able to be here in the running, gin clear waters. Once in a while, u can see an occasional nearby rainbow cruising away from the stir created.
In between the stay at Creel lodge, we did venture out to the other pointer spots that the owners of creel lodge & tackle shop tipped us off.
In the remote area of Turangi …
One of the last spot was quite a remote area around Turangi. The river section are with some deep pools but torned up with much fallen logs & sunken trees within. Well, after 20 minutes of staring at the boys whipping the sticks, the light drizzle sent the wives back to the CR-V in no time. Before, we call it a day, James called me over to his side to look at one big brown that he had just spotted, right underneath the branches below us. Seeing the girls having gone back to the car, James decided to wind up & snap some last photos of the fishy shadow. I told him “lets try” … the 1st dap … was in the wrong placement & my terrestrial dropper rig with 2 nymphs was swept off into the current … on the second flip, the rig landed nearer to the edge, as the rig passed the edge, the fish turns & I vaguely see the white of the mouth twitch.
That really prompt me to strike instantly. The 1st run from the angry trout took me into backings within seconds along with the sweeping current into the opposite bank. After surviving her acrobatic thrashings on the opposite bank, she decided to really take a dive, I had no choice but to pace her from preventing going into the backings again. As I paced the fish, James walked & filming the process together, we don’t know how long we actually walked… but it’s definitely a long one, trying to stop the fish from going into the sunken logs, at time deliberately letting the fish swims further to the next better landing ground, just to try to land the fish from the high grounds. Later we realized why the fish fought so hard is due to a foul at the tail with the pointer nymph. Nevertheless, we still had fun & all thanks to James who have helped to land the fish.
All tribute to James who at the same time videoing me, pulled me up & down the cliff as jumped & climbed the edge of the river & manage to hanging on to the fish. James also suffered a fall into the water & stuck into the soft grounds (with all the funny moments all taken in video….) We finally lay our hands on the fat brown trout of this trip.
Tribute to James who had helped to land the brown.
We finally had our last fly fishing session at the Ngongotaha of Rotorua. We had some fun with the small fishes from the river. But the locals & kids are effectively pulling up 2-3 pounder rainbows & browns with foam indicators & “buffet” style flies presentation at times, the rig can consist of nymphs, baitfish streamer & glo bugs…. Crude pounding of the waters with the foam indicators & rigs to the same flow underneath the bridge but effectively deadly. As I ask the locals about catch limit … they say each person 8 pcs per day ….
The locals pounding the stream with buffet style rigs on foam indicators.
Small trouts from the Ngongotaha stream.
Cheating the Seagulls as I fold leaves to imitate “bread” …
![]()
photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v3791/82/16/1255546365/s1255546365_30462060_8196078.jpg[/img]
Although we neither caught any trophy fish nor a lot but definitely the picturesque environment, food, fun, pictures, companionship of James & Jenn were just great. Out of the trip, we did caught the trout bum flu too … highly infectious & definitely we be back again for more … hopefully soon.
Jim.
P/S : I share some videos on my facebook account. Search for "Jimmy Aw" & you can share the moments of the trout actions as video by James.
"More than half the intense enjoyment of fly-fishing is derived from the beautiful surroundings, the satisfaction felt from being in the open air, the new lease of life secured thereby, and the many, many pleasant recollections of all one has seen, heard and done."
~ Charles F. Orvis
At time …. You just have to pause for a moment & take a deep breath … grin silently to yourself … “Yes … I am here …”
Soon after reaching Christchurch international airport at late noon, James & Jenn picked us up & went on our way to the nearby Tackle shop to arm all the accessories that I am still lacking of, most importantly a new pair of wading boots.
Tackle shop in Christchurch
Plenty of choices off the racks. All felt soles are banned from NZ to prevent the invasive & ugly Didymo & it is a big thing in the country. In the end, a quick scan & quick choice … to prevent my wife from staring at the price tags for too long …. I grabbed the Simms’ Rivershed Boots with the new - STREAMTREAD™ Sticky rubber sole version & rushes off to the counter, paid the boots + fishing license & have all the tungsten carbide tips screwed in asap …
Phew … save for now … I can fish in NZ now…
With the good arming, we move on to our 1st motel for the evening. New Zealand is indeed a land that have … so much, much more sheeps than humans. With the mountainous backdrop, we drive thru’ farms of sheeps & cattles abundant to graze the grasslands.
A couple of kilometers of drive, we will come by a stream, a river or two. Plenty of pretty scenic places. From Christchurch, we put up in Fairie for the 1st night & move off to the great lakes down south in the next day. Lake Tekapo & Pukaki, but the gusty winds were just too much for any fishing to take place at all. If the trouts stays & feed along side the shore like our peacocks … probably all would have probably, gotten wash ashore.
Wind & waves in lake.
We decided to skip fishing in the lakes & enjoy the wind instead. Nevertheless, the place is still marvelously beautiful.
Lake Tekapo
Lake Pukaki
My 1st taste of fly fishing for Trout started off in Twizel before we move off toward Wanaka. The night before, we discussed & prepared all the rigs before hand …. Fitting & trying up the gears. All the preparations & buying finally comes into good use.
Ah … ha …. Alarm did not fail to wake the boys at 5.30am. By 6am … we were trekking out of our warm comfortable chalets to have a go on the trouts in the nearby Twizel River.
Twizel - 6.15am ... we are heading to Twizel River ...
From the 1st lights we see some small boils across one of the small pool. Small trouts were rising for the dawn hatches. James having already hooked his 1st brown during the last 10 days that he stayed before we came, he offered to let me have a cast at the rises. I chose a universal “blowfly” & probably would work well in the dim lights. Rig up the modified “blowfly”, I shoots the offer off to the rises.
My “modify” Blowfly from a Brown Wulff.
On the 3rd drift, a ripple breaks the stillness of the water surface. I could not see the fly in the darkness but instinctively, the strip strike action came along from the arms & resulted setting firmly into my 1st Brown’s jaw. Smallish but nevertheless am happy on the quick catch. Subsequent, James & I had some more smallish rainbow takes. Good time flies as the sky cleared, time to move on & prepare ourselves for more traveling on the road.
My 1st Brown Trout.
As we drive thru’ the rocky windy highway towards wanaka, no further fishing but one of the river that u will want to stop by is the Clutha River after Tarras. The fast flowing Clutha river is filled with autumn colors. Good for some photos!
Clutha River.
In Wanaka, the rainbow trouts were BIG in the lake too. We can spot easily 6-7 lbs lazing around the Jetty but well no fishing at the jetty but well … lets’ give the wives some slacks & not stick to our fly sticks for the start … we moved for more pictures, tour & pictures.
Mount Cook is the next destination for the next day. Wah … the TV forecasted big rain & indeed the whole day we had drizzles on & off. In fact, we planned to enact the Rohan Riders ridding on the plains but the rain say … fat chance… & off we head down to Ashburton.
At the Visitor centre of Mount Cook, beside the fire place.
In Ashburton river, it was quite a hard river to work on. With one side of the river layered with sunken trees. James managed to hook another rainbow but the fish jumped off the fly on one of the acrobatic stunts. There were quite some big browns spotted but no chance of hooking any. The Tree branches were a curse to the double nymph rigs … often I fouled the rigs on the tree. Wah … as the line snapped “Phankkkk” … bang man … there goes 2 nymphs… By noon, it’s time for more traveling, tour & pictures. Well, certainly the Ashburton River was a good lesson brought along for the rest of my trip.
As the ladies wave bye-bye when they dropped us to help ourselves to the river ... proceeding to their own market shopping.
See those silent pools on the right, harbors some good browns.
After 2 days of good stay in Christchurch & Kaikouira. We brushed through some of the tasty parts of steaks, seafood, wines … plus more shopping & pictures for the wives.
The wives were ready to let us go fishing again. We travel up to the Marlborough Region, in Canvastown. A quick check with the Innkeeper & he pointed us to an off track, remote portion of the Pelorus River with some good pools to try our hands on.
After dropping the boys off by the side of the river this round, my wife, Becky ranted … “Wah, u all dress like going for battle, better catch some fish for dinner” …
Me & James.
Ah Ha… finally we are off to do our favorite activity again … stress ah … at least my wife was half expecting us “dress like professional … should catch like professional too… putting some stress for us to perform for the table …
Well as in battling against for fishing in the cold gusty wind … I finally settle with having double layer of Merino thermal long john, 3 layers of socks … serious… Merino ones too before I slip up into the waders & boots. 2 more long sleeve merino shirt, a turtle neck cotton pull over, fishing shirt for the top … finally wrapped up with hat & rain jacket. Anything lesser …. as we wade in waist deep running waters pairing up the gusty winds … it gets very uncomfortably cold to fish for long.
Taking a shield from the wind for my ears…
Casting the deeper edge …
Still the fingers at times suffers some stiffness from the winds too. With all the evening & morning hatches, the rainbows boils like tarpons on your left & your right as they fight over insects within their reach …. Re-rig & tying on a nymph can take me minutes frustratingly.
The Pelorus River nearing the Marlborough Sound…
James’ Brown
Rainbow can run & use their weight with the current. Got to let some moderated slack else the Size 16 hooks gets pulled out easily…
Rainbow Trout.
Here’s another fatty.
As I tried through the flies within my fly box … the final winner nymph pattern that has taken all my fishes in this trip is the Size 16 Tungsten bead head Scruffy paired on a Terrestrial dropper rig. Well, my version is a little different in darker rusty brown color from the original version that James had emailed to me earlier when he bought the pattern from the fly shops . My ties works for this Autumn 2009 at least & I am happy about the success of my variant version. (Kekekee… I will share the pattern & tying another round.)
Every now & then, I need to repair the scruffy nymphs … else no bullets for the coming fishy session…
You wanna have a taste of trouts in New Zealand, you have to catch them from the streams & rivers, as we previously searched through the markets, we cannot buy any rainbow or brown trouts from the market. Facing the gusty winds, freezing fingers, thank God for the provident that we still managed to pluck a few good fish within the bag limit off the South Island’s Pelorus river off for dinner. That will keep the wives happy for a while.
Our next destination to be able to flip our winstons, would be in Tongariro River near Taupo in the north island. Putting up in the Creel Lodge was one a delight. The lodge has a “fish” room for u to clean your catch there too. Rod holders to hold your rigged gears. All finer details of the lodge are in fact catered to the flyers.
Best of all, we had some good pools including “Major Jones” pool, just at the backyard of the lodge! No need for driving… we had fun with the Rainbow Trouts within the pools. Evenings & mornings as usual, the mayfly & caddies would hatch & rainbows boiled like tarpons against the running current. While in the middle of the day, dropper rigs & nymph rigs would score the rainbows in the deeper freestone banks.
Mayfly hatch …
Throughout the travelling from South to North Island, the Winstons BIImx & BIIx served James & myself well respectively...
The Creel lodge.
As we wade off to fish … Ah… blessed by the wives….
Casting to upstream & drift the offer thru the rainbows…
James with his evening rainbow taken on a dry.
Morning Rainbow on dropper rig.
As I cover the waters & fishing upstream.
Time to time, I would just stand in the middle of the pool & marvel the scenic nature, just feeling good to be able to be here in the running, gin clear waters. Once in a while, u can see an occasional nearby rainbow cruising away from the stir created.
In between the stay at Creel lodge, we did venture out to the other pointer spots that the owners of creel lodge & tackle shop tipped us off.
In the remote area of Turangi …
One of the last spot was quite a remote area around Turangi. The river section are with some deep pools but torned up with much fallen logs & sunken trees within. Well, after 20 minutes of staring at the boys whipping the sticks, the light drizzle sent the wives back to the CR-V in no time. Before, we call it a day, James called me over to his side to look at one big brown that he had just spotted, right underneath the branches below us. Seeing the girls having gone back to the car, James decided to wind up & snap some last photos of the fishy shadow. I told him “lets try” … the 1st dap … was in the wrong placement & my terrestrial dropper rig with 2 nymphs was swept off into the current … on the second flip, the rig landed nearer to the edge, as the rig passed the edge, the fish turns & I vaguely see the white of the mouth twitch.
That really prompt me to strike instantly. The 1st run from the angry trout took me into backings within seconds along with the sweeping current into the opposite bank. After surviving her acrobatic thrashings on the opposite bank, she decided to really take a dive, I had no choice but to pace her from preventing going into the backings again. As I paced the fish, James walked & filming the process together, we don’t know how long we actually walked… but it’s definitely a long one, trying to stop the fish from going into the sunken logs, at time deliberately letting the fish swims further to the next better landing ground, just to try to land the fish from the high grounds. Later we realized why the fish fought so hard is due to a foul at the tail with the pointer nymph. Nevertheless, we still had fun & all thanks to James who have helped to land the fish.
All tribute to James who at the same time videoing me, pulled me up & down the cliff as jumped & climbed the edge of the river & manage to hanging on to the fish. James also suffered a fall into the water & stuck into the soft grounds (with all the funny moments all taken in video….) We finally lay our hands on the fat brown trout of this trip.
Tribute to James who had helped to land the brown.
We finally had our last fly fishing session at the Ngongotaha of Rotorua. We had some fun with the small fishes from the river. But the locals & kids are effectively pulling up 2-3 pounder rainbows & browns with foam indicators & “buffet” style flies presentation at times, the rig can consist of nymphs, baitfish streamer & glo bugs…. Crude pounding of the waters with the foam indicators & rigs to the same flow underneath the bridge but effectively deadly. As I ask the locals about catch limit … they say each person 8 pcs per day ….
The locals pounding the stream with buffet style rigs on foam indicators.
Small trouts from the Ngongotaha stream.
Cheating the Seagulls as I fold leaves to imitate “bread” …
Although we neither caught any trophy fish nor a lot but definitely the picturesque environment, food, fun, pictures, companionship of James & Jenn were just great. Out of the trip, we did caught the trout bum flu too … highly infectious & definitely we be back again for more … hopefully soon.
Jim.
P/S : I share some videos on my facebook account. Search for "Jimmy Aw" & you can share the moments of the trout actions as video by James.
