We are over the hump of winter, and our trout populations have had a an excellent spawning run ... the best for many years. The prospects for the new fishing season are looking good.
New Season Fishing Schools
I am pleased to advise the Spring - Summer Schedule of fun classes and fishing field trips for the upcoming 2024-25 trout fishing season.
The focus of these Learning Opportunities is on new and better ways of approaching real-life fly fishing situations, to help you achieve greater self-reliance. The bonus is, you will also have plenty of opportunities to enjoy catching trout along the way.
If you want to give fly fishing a go, or feel the need to improve your existing skills ... give me a call.
email: tony@flyfishingwithtony.com Phone: 027 473 2483
“Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land.
It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple
the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn.”
- Chuck Clark
Sunday, 1st September
There is only the one First Steps - The Basics of Fly Fishing introductory course, scheduled for this season. This is a class-room based course, held at the Nelson-Marlborough Fish and Game Rooms, 66-74 Champion Rd, Richmond.
Sunday, 1st September ... 9.00 am - 3.30 pm.
Limited to ten participants ... cost $140.00 per person.
Structured in three sessions over the day:
Session 1 - Equipment and how to rig it.
Session 2 - Introduction to Fly-Casting.
Session 3 - Fly Fishing Strategy.
This is a great opportunity to learn the basics of fly fishing and establish an excellent platform for your future personal fly fishing development.
For more information contact me: tony@flyfishingwithtony.com
Winter Fishing Starts to Improve
Winter is generally a slow time for South Island anglers, with most of our fisheries closed to fishing. This is done so that trout populations can spawn unmolested by anglers trampling through and fishing over spawning redds.
Big numbers of well-conditioned trout were reported moving on many Nelson-Marlborough rivers during this winter's spawning run, helped on their journey by stable winter flows, and a couple of timely freshes following good rains in mid-June and early July. If the region can now avoid any significant floods in late October and early November, trout numbers should continue the improvement seen throughout our northern fisheries over the next few seasons.
Now that spawning is over, adult trout will be starting to repopulate the lower stretches of most rivers again. As days lengthen and water temperature warm slowly, there will be improved fishing opportunities over the coming two months, on waters open for Winter Fishing.
For those keen anglers looking for some pre-season action, the key window of opportunity will be between 1-3pm most days. Trout recovering from the rigours of spawning will feed in quieter water than what we tend to search out as the season progresses. Watch for trout rising in the laminar flow in the tailouts of long glides. Prospect the lighter flows of edgewater runs and back channels, and keep an eye out for backwaters, which are havens for early season trout.
Anglers can expect the fishing to gradually improve from now on, throughout August and September, so dust of the fishing gear and take advantage of the late winter fishing opportunities.
TAKE TIME TO HOOK MORE TROUT
Moving too quickly is a common fault of many anglers. This is often compounded further when the angler finally finds a feeding trout and rushes in to make a cast, without taking the time 'to stop and smell the roses' and think things through.
Treat each sighted trout as the only one you might catch for the day and take the time to adjust your rig to maximize your chances of hooking up. This could mean removing a weighted nymph, and casting a dry fly instead to a fish in shallow water. If the fish consistently rejects your initial offering, try 'down-sizing' the fly and tippet to find the successful combination.
When casting to sighted trout, it's a good idea to think about the angle of the sun in relation to the fish in the water. Where possible, cast your line to the side that will not project a line-shadow over the fish, thereby reducing the risk of spooking it or putting it down.
Optimize your fishing time, by limiting false casts to a maximum of three or four, before presenting your fly to the fish. Focus on getting the first presentation cast into the zone as the chances of a successful hook-up tend to decrease significantly with each subsequent presentation, especially with brown trout.
When nymph fishing, take the time to adapt the size and colour of strike-indicators to suit the prevailing conditions. Use large, easily seen indicators in dull light, high water conditions or with heavily weighted flies, but when fish are spooky, adjust to very small indicators (or even none at all, if you can watch the trout's movements clearly). It may seem counter-intuitive, but black indicators are easily seen when there is a lot of silvery glare on the water.
Sharp hooks definitely catch more trout. Getting bumped across the rocky bottom of our rivers dulls the hook-point on weighted nymphs, and even chemically sharpened hooks can be touched up with a small hook hone to make sure they are 'sticky-sharp'.
Regularly check your tippet, testing it for wind knots or abrasion and change it frequently between landing fish, so that when 'Mr Big' does eventually come along, he’ll be in big trouble!
Good things take time, and so does consistently hooking more trout. Slow down and think things through, before making that first cast.
