Back from New Zealand and finally got some time to go through the images, pick a few and scribble a few words for the blog. The trip started with the usual NZ weather – sunny day on my day of arrival and then pouring rain for a few days in a row, leaving rivers I intended to fish blown out and running dirty. The initial plan had to change. Needed to rearrange and focus on lowland streams, spring creeks and lakes instead if I really wanted to catch a trout or two. Or just hit the pub. Oh well I did both actually, but also succeeded in both which doesn’t happen that often. Landing my PB brown trout on crystal clear spring creek feeding on the late afternoon mayfly duns hatch was a real highlight for the first part of the trip. Fishing was pretty tough in general but I still got lucky and managed to land a few decent specimens. You really needed to put in the miles and present the fish a fly that they’re in the mood for, as this time of the year as they can be super selective. Also changing a fishing method dependant on the location or where the fish is holding seemed to be the key. I had days where I would fish the stream using a nymph rig then move onto a lake in the afternoon and use woolly buggers and then be casting dry fly for the surface feeders the next day in totally different area. That’s NZ for you.
