There is nothing nicer for a fishing guide than to have a great day on the water when everything comes together. The fish are biting, the bugs are hatching a plenty and the client is having the time of their lives. Barry Perkins tells us about one of those days.
I had a phone call at about 8pm from Allan, an Australian visitor to New Zealand, who had just arrived in town. He was hoping to get a day's fishing on the river with a local guide. Luckily I had a spare day, the only one in the first 10 days of the New Year. We arranged to meet at 9am the next morning at the motel where he and his wife were staying.
The following day we headed south for about 20 minutes or so, to one of my favourite fishing spots.
The summer had been exceptional here, almost no rain from the end of November until the middle of January. The result being all the local rivers were running low. This river during the first part of January ran at 11 cubic metres per second making it easy to wade across. The water temperatures also rose quite high during the day to around 19 celcius, but fortunately didn’t affect the fishing as most nights were cool.
As Allan and I arrived we could see a large number of birds working over the water. It turned out to be one of the biggest hatches of mayfly that I have seen for several years. There were literally thousands in the air and of course that set off a feeding frenzy with both birds and fish. When browns are taking Duns, a #18 Dad’s Favourite is my first choice of fly, using 6x Stroft tippet on the slow glides or 5x in faster water. Within a few minutes Allan had his first hookup which promptly took off like a rocket, breaking off the fly and taking it with him. Then quickly followed a couple of nice fish that came to the net… a good start to the day.
After an hour or so the hatch stopped abruptly, as though someone had flicked the switch, so we changed to nymphing in a lovely riffle that the birds had been working over. Once again, within minutes, Allan was hooked into a good chunky hard running fish that raced downstream, looking like it was heading out to sea. Fortunately, after getting down into the backing, Allan managed to turn him, working him out to the edge and the net. The next couple of hours we fished blind through some some lovely runs, picking up a fish every 15 minutes or so until it was time for a lunch break.
My go-to nymphs are a Copper beadhead Flash back Pheasant tail and a Hare's Ear or Hare and Copper, all in #16. If the water is high or discoloured then I will often go up one size. A trick that is worth remembering is to add more guard hairs when tying with Hare’s fur. The rougher the nymph looks , the better they seem to work. Most commercial mixes are too light in colour to match the nymphs that are in New Zealand Southern waters, so if you can access a Hare pelt, add some of the darker fur to the mix.
I also often use a #16 copper beadhead tied with a Brown Glister body…The local trout seem to be quite partial to this. My preference is to use copper beads as I have seen the occasional refusal of gold beaded nymphs.
After lunch, we walked across the river into a neighbouring property which has some fantastic riffles and holding pools, walking downstream about half a kilometre with the idea of fishing our way back. On a corner, in an area not much bigger than a standard sized room we spotted a couple of 4 lb + fish feeding vigorously. We managed to sneak downstream, around behind them, getting ourselves into a good casting position and had a hookup almost immediately.
Allan expertly manouvered him downstream without spooking the other fish, got him to the net quickly and back into postion to cast to the next in line. It turned out there were six fish in the small pool, five nicely landed with one in excess of 5 lb unbuttoning himself just as we were about to net it. We then walked across the river again to get to yet another beautiful riffle that just had to hold a few fish. Within a couple of casts Allan was chasing another big brown downstream as he peeled off most of the line. After working through the riffle and catching several more, it was time to head for home. 16 landed with another 7 that managed a bit of long range release. Another great day on the water.
Barry Perkins is a fly fishing guide based in New Zealand's South Island. As well as guiding Barry and his wife Diane offer B&B. For more details visit their Website .
