Hi everyone i hope you are all safe and well. As you know its been a long road to recovery and getting through the “lock-down” caused by the co-vid epidemic, plus a couple of other “interruptions” to life which i wont bore you with.
Suffice to say i,m back and lets talk fishing, especially fly fishing here in the South Island and especially Southland NZ.
The season so far from pre-Christmas until now has been a bit up and down with un seasonal rainfall and therefore rising the rivers and streams in the area.
January has been reasonably good with the cicadas in the high tussock country in full swing and the resident trout there having a feast.
Interesting to note last weekend when i was observing the trout taking cicada of which there seemed to be 3 different coloured cicadas on the water, light chartreuse, dark green and light tan brown, the trout seemed to prefer the chartreuse coloured cicada.
January is usually the month of the willow grub here in NZ and yet over the last 3-4 weeks, we are now in Feb, i have yet to see the trout “locked” on willow grub, sure i have seen them mooching around under and along the willows sipping in the surface film and yet the trout will willingly take a small fly, including a Loves Lure which landed me a nice 3lb trout who was eating willow grubs and yet is a Traditional Canterbury Fly, other small flies like the dads favorite tied parachute style in #16-18s worked well,maybe the weather hasn’t been quite right for the willow grubs to start falling in vast numbers.
In the afternoon of February 20th 2021, The Gore District Council is hosting an “On the fly” festival on the banks of the Mataura River 100m upstream from the Gore Bridge. Brett McGregor “NZ winner of MasterChef NZ will be there to cook up a few trout dishes as well as NZPFGA Guide and Fly Casting Instructor Chris Dore to share some of his wealth of knowledge and give some demonstrations on casting, as well as fly tying demos from the Gore Anglers Club and other fishing clubs in the area, there will be entertainment, a band and food stalls so come along and enjoy the afternoon and see what this “Fly fishing lark” is all about.
I will be updating my blog on a more regular basis, at least weekly and hope that you will find it interesting and informative as we progress through to the end of the 2020-2021 season.
