I can’t go fishing soooo…..

The Fishing Season Ends.

Geeez its that time already… The 30th of April is the end of the fishing season here which means all but a couple of kilometers of river are closed now until the 1st of October which is like half a lifetime away.

One day and already I am looking forward to opening day

The only place I have locally now is the lower section of the Shag River which is quite tidal and has an area of estuary, I have never really fished much in this part of the river but this year I am thinking that I might spend some time exploring this area.

There are a few locals that do seem to catch the odd fish or two down there, might be an opportunity to try some salt water fly fishing around the river mouth.

Old Fishing Books.

Post now moved to Old Fishing Books page.

Old Fishing Books

My Shocking New Flyrod

Recently my beloved flyrod gave up the ghost for the second time, it had broken once before and been repaired but it became evident that the second repair altered the rod’s performance a little.

It was a rather sad time as I have owned and used that rod since my early teens and have had several great times with that rod over the years.

So I was given a shiny new flyrod for a wedding anniversary present… My old friend was forgotten and it was with much excitement that I ventured out with my nice new rod.

It was while fishing a favourite spot on the Shag River that I made a terrible mistake, I leaned my new rod against a fence like I had done several times with my old rod. When I grabbed the rod to move on I got such a belt off the fence that my hand tingled for half an hour afterwards… My old rod was hollow glass and the new one is graphite and as I now know from experience it conducts electricity very well.

The stupid thing is that I knew it would probably conduct electricity, I knew the fence was an electric one and more so than that I knew it was for cattle not a little weak sheep fence.

I never caught a fish on that trip out either

The Upper Waitaki

One of the most enjoyable places I go fishing is in the MacKenzie Country.

I have a holiday home in the town of Twizel which is a town that was built to house the workers on the Upper Waitaki Hydro Scheme (at the peak the population was around 5000)  and upon completion of the project the houses were sold off.

Why do I love it so much?

Well Twizel sits smack in the middle of arguably the best trout fishing in the South Island if not the whole of New Zealand, there are lakes, hydro canals and wonderful rivers and all of these are within easy driving distance, many within 20-30 minutes of my home in fact a couple of my goto spots are within 10 minutes drive.

Because there are so many options available you can usually find somewhere to fish no matter what the weather is throwing at you and being located so near to the Southern Alps it does get its share of changeable weather.

The fishing is usually good but at times can be a little tricky and mostly the fish are in good to excellent condition.

Predominately Brown and Rainbow Trout are caught but occasionally Sockeye Salmon are caught in some areas.

If you fish in the Hydro Canals just adjacent or downstream from the salmon farms it is possible to catch some incredibly large trout (usually rainbows) these fish scavenge food from around the salmon farms and grow to enormous size occasionally in the region of 20-30lbs.

Generally these trout are referred to as pigs by the locals and not really that highly regarded as a catch which is a shame as it does take some perseverance to catch one and they are really good eating and enormous fun to try and land.

Upper Waitaki

Why Fishing?

Great question and one I don’t really have an answer for but I do know that life really does seem a lot better when you are in your favourite fishing spot sneaking up on a large trout.

Maybe its the challenge, maybe its simply getting away from the dreary aspects of life for a while… All I know is that I just feel better.

I am by no means an expert although I do have some measure of success and like any good addiction everytime you get a hit you just want some more.

My preference is definately for fly fishing but I am not against spin fishing if the conditions are good and sometimes I have had some good results floating an un-weighted worm through runs in our local river.