Monthly Highlights
Below are photos and a story from the recent month's guided fly fishing trips in New Zealand's Central South Island.
January 2016
They tell us we had 60mm of rain around Twizel in January but you would never guess judging by the stream flows which have continued to drop day after day. The parched land absorbed all the moisture leaving very little, if any, run off into the waterways. On the credit side, the strong westerly winds present earlier in the season have retreated for the moment making for some excellent spotting conditions.
Rune is this month's star. Hailing from Norway, this gentleman was great fun to guide. About my age and full of enthusiasm, I had to suppress some of his exhuberance by making him approach the water very s-l-o-w-l-y in order not to spook the fish.
One of the first fish Rune connected with duly proceeded to wrap him around a willow and in the process remove his entire leader. Normally that shouldn't happen but it was a knot that Rune had tied back home and he admitted that it may have been a little suspect?? A quick streamside repair and he was back in action.
Incidently I only use 2 knots:
The Pitzen for attaching the fly to the tippet and the J Knot for the tippet to leader join.
The Pitzen I have used for over 20 years and has never let me down. The J knot, I believe, is the very best tippet knot although slightly awkward to tie.
Everything went smoothly after that little hiccup and no further leader incidents to report and, even better, no more lost fish!
A few days later, the weather was much better for Rune but with the sunny calm conditions delicate stalking was essential.
Glassy glides are never easy to fish but not impossible with the right approach. We were able to fool browns and rainbows which, needless to say, required accurate casting. I take my hat off to Rune because you need a lot of patience for this technique - slow is good!
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| Another fine brownie for Rune from Norway | Sunny conditions helped make the day a success. | |
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| Rune does it again after a precision cast! | ||
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| Terry's first ever trout on the fly. | January on the Tekapo River with your flyfishing guide Alan. |
