New Zealand Fly fishing
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This is the summary of my eighth trip to New Zealand for trout flyfishing. I was there from Feb 1 through Mar. 6 - a little less than five weeks, of which 29 days were fishable. I caught total of 125 fish above 1 lb (or 105 above 2lb). In a separate file (http://www.oocities.org/suzakico/2005result.html ), I posted a table, which shows the result of fish caught by size, fly used, number of fish spotted, spooked, landed, etc. This table is based on the result of collecting the information at the river for the entire period of Feb 2 – Mar 5.
Here are some highlights:
- Total of 153 fish (above 1lb) were caught; of which 125 fish were landed, 18 fish were LDR’ed (Long distance release). The average catch for the 29 fishable days is 4.3 fish per day.
- The number breakdown of landed fish by weight is: between 1-2lb: 20, 2-4lb: 78, 4-6lb: 19, 6-8lb: 6, and above 8 pounds: 2)
- 41% (62 fish) were hooked (caught) by such dry flies as Royal Wulff, Blue bottle, and Humpy, size 14-12. 52% (80 fish) were caught by nymphs such as hare and copper, pheasant tail, and 7% (11fish) by streamers such as Ms. Simpson.
- I spotted 104 fish, of which 38% were landed, 33% did not take flies (showed no interest), 29% were spooked.
- 86 fish were landed while blind fishing (69%) this contrast to 39 fish landed for those spotted (31%).
- 34 fish were spooked before or while I was getting ready to cast, 18 fish were not caught due to the timing of strike (12), casting mistake (1), etc. (Total error of 52 fish)
- 20 fish were spooked as I and fish noticed each other about the same time. This is contrasted to about 5 fish spooked due to my inattention, i.e., stalking error - that I noticed.
- I landed a 8+ lb fish at Hr stream (spotted during the evening rise; Yellow Hampy #12) and another one at D Cr. (spotted in a deep pool; H&C #14) – two days in a row. Just a few days later, I had a 10+lb (?!) fish braking my 6lb line off (perhaps due to the way I tied the tungsten to the fly) during its 4th wild jump at Ah river. Last two fish took the heavily weighted nymph at the depth of 4 and 5 feet - the first one at the eye of the deep pool and the other toward the tail of the long pool/glide.
- On one occasion, I had an opportunity to fish with a very experienced local guide for a day, each taking the opposite bank and switching the bank in the middle of the day. In this very hazy/cloudy day, I landed 10 fish compared to his 5. (spotting was very hard)
After going through eight seasons, I now sense where the fish are and that I know ways to catch them. With my nymph-ing skill, # of fish caught by using the blind cast is higher than before. I still make mistakes to time the strike with dry fly – perhaps more emphasis on nymph fishing. There is a lot of room to improve my skill for stalking/spotting and accuracy of casting, etc.
Things to do:
- Work with Les (and Tony, perhaps) on spotting skill. I may ask him so that I can walk first (him walking right next to me) for say 15 min, perhaps few times in a day’s fishing.
- Book station wagon (Sentra @$35 a day) Check Cashel (or Rent a dent) for price as well.
- Big butan bin and one cv270 may be enough for 7 weeks (depending on how long I stay at friends’ house, hut, Backpacker’s inn, etc.) I left extra bins at Les and Tony’s.
- Buy net with weight gauge(?)
- Purchase Kent’s book in NZ
- Visit Aaron
Things to bring:
- Heavy weather gear. Perhaps, even my sailing gear (yellow).
- Flies – Blue bottle, Royal wulff, (Red humpy) also tungsten weight
- Sheets (sleeping bag), towel.
* Back to my home page: www.suzaki.has.it