Monthly Highlights
Below are photos and a story from the recent month's guided fly fishing trips in New Zealand's Central South Island.
March 2025
It was great catching up with Pat and LeAnn again after a 2 year absence. Along with friend Richard and his wife, the foursome were out visiting NZ but making time to fly fish as often as possible. As luck would have it, conditions were great for their two days fishing with me around Twizel. Not only is Pat an accomplished angler but also a skilful fly tyer to the point of having his own collection of steel back nymphs!
I'm really impressed by these very professional looking flies especially since they are far from easy to make. Richard and Pat put their 'steelbacks' to work eventually wearing one out on some feisty trout. On another day we could have left our boxes of nymphs in the truck since the trout we found would only accept a carefully presented sub-merger.
The exception being the last trout of the day. This guy was living a charmed life having taken 2 of our flies but managing to avoid the hook gape each time! By being patient, we finally won the battle with one of Pat's tiny Adams dry flies presented in a slightly different drift lane doing the trick.
LeAnn was convinced that this stream's trout were going to be too tough for her given the low flow and overhanging vegetation but after some encouragement, and practical advice, she pulled off some great casts to put her fly 'on the money' resulting in a couple of fine brown trout.
Can there be a prettier place on the planet to go trout fishing!
The month featured anglers from Norway, US and of course France where the bulk of my clients originate from. It was nice to welcome Rune back after a long absence due to covid border restrictions. Always cheerful and easy going I sometimes forget that English is not his first language!
From a guiding perspective it's always great to have return clients and has practical advantages such as knowing what they like for lunch! No-one has ever gone hungry over one of Marie's fabulous lunches which include home made sourdough bread and either a healthy fresh salad or perhaps an equally succulent homemade quiche!
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The smile says it all! Richard displays this fine rainbow LeAnn produced a great cast to get this lovely brown trout Can there be a prettier place on the planet to go trout fishing! Lovely spotted brown trout for Pat LeAnn was nearly as surprised as the trout when she landed this fine brownie Another pretty brown trout for LeAnn Now that what I call a real solid rainbow! Pat with this rocket powered trout One of Pat's masterful SBN ties
