Wednesday 18 April 2012

Sage One Fly rod, Fly Fishing The Mataura, NZ fly Fishing schools, NZ Casting Lessons, Mayfly nymphs, Stu's Superior Deadly Minnows, NZ Smelt

THE DREAM TEAM HAS RETURNED- WHERE IS GEORGE!!

Even when it`s quite there is always work to get done- where is George!
Just when things got quite in the shop and this April i´m down to 1 or 0 customers a day in the shop, the awesome dream team had to leave. Yes George my dad who you all got to meet in the shop the last few months has gone back to bonnie Scotland and the funny thing is has also taken mum the shop and house cleaner with him- the bugger! 
It was again awesome having their help and without them providing some great slave labour, i´m actually not too sure how i would manage to keep the shop doors open. Because the guiding and teaching is what still supports the shop. 
Two members- Mum & Dad of the dream team praying for customers for the Easter sale -from the universe!! 
Having my parents staying with me for over 10 weeks some would say would be crazy. Having them help, meet and understand all of the crazy fishing women and men and what makes all you guys tick and what drives me.
It is just an awesome thing, special thing to share with ones parents, lets hope i can budget to get some of the dream team back next year.
I hope you all had fun with them and no doubt you all did as people keeping coming in and looking at me and saying where is George!! - that does make me smile.


JUST IN IS THE NEW DVD-HATCH -CHECK IT OUT- you might even see my flies and ugly mug on it!


SAGE ONE FLY RODS- 4wgt 8,6 just in stock

RIO HI - VIZ  ORANGE Tournament fly lines- 120ft now back in stock.

SALTWATER FLIES- Check out some of the Best Baitfish flies you will ever use!! 

APRIL - FLY FISHING IN SOUTHLAND!- mid - upper MATAURA starting to fish well.

I have just finished doing quite a few full day fly fishing schools for beginners and some advanced fishers, where i was teaching casting in the morning in the casting area at the shop, then in the afternoon we would go to the Mataura river where we would put into practice our casting and some stream craft skills. Once everybody has roughly (in a day) got the hang of things we go chasing those things with fins!

We have been fishing mainly using the easy to see Deadly Cicada flies with a 1/2 foot of rio fluro 3.5lb tippet, tied off the bend of the cicada hook and a small size 16 nz realistic mayfly nymph tied on.

April trout are normally fat and in top condition.
Nearly every afternoon we have caught fish on the cicada and the nymph about 50-50. There as usual at this time of year seems to be quite a few fish in the riffles especially down in the Nokomai gorge walk in area down to cattle flat.
We all love dry fly April mayfly Madness!
Around 3pm there have been mayflies hatching with some fish starting to watch there clocks and start to rise for these small brown mayflies, but still not in a feeding frenzy- which we all want!

The upper Mataura has a few larger fish holding in pods in some holding pools but still not numbers moving up yet. One thing i personally want to do is to fish up from cattle flat up through the Mataura gorge area - that´s on my bucket list! One day!

There has hardly been any fishermen around so it´s been quite easy guiding at the moment and finding water and fish.
A client of mine stayed down in the gorge area until dark and just on dark he had a big hatch of mayflies and caught and missed a few fish- staying that bit later sometimes works!
Tie on a deadly cicada size 10 and nz nymph and search the foam lines and the shallow riffles, the fish will be hard to see but you shall have fun!!
I would think from now on the lower Mataura should start to fire up with some hatches, just yesterday i noticed mayfly spinners on my car.



I still have right up to the end of April some availability for anyone wanting to  perfect or learn how to fly cast or fly fish. A few dates are also still available for some hopefully dry fly mayfly action.


THE RIVERS-
All the rivers are low and clear and the sun´s been out most afternoons so spotting trout has been quite easy in some areas.


RAINBOW TROUT HEADING UP STREAM - BIG BROWNS- DEADLY MINNOW WHITE SMELT ACTION

Plenty rainbows are heading up the rivers near Te Anau, a couple of friends fished down stream and across due to strong winds blowing down stream the day they arrived, using my deadly minnows in the barred smelt white color and nailed plenty, mind you these guys can fish well.

Smelt flies- whitebait flies! These are the ones you need in NZ
Only avaliable from Stu´s Fly Shop!! Check out the different colors - these are barred tan.
Although they said it was not too hard fishing but was great fun as some times the water was erupting as the rainbows chased and nailed the deadly minnows as they swung round in the current and they stripped them in as fast as they could.

Another guide friend bought some deadly minnows and was working at the mouth of the Lochy river near Queenstown and 1/2 km up stream was also nailing plenty fish using the minnow in the same color- this guide was casting upstream and letting the minnow drift back near the fish and then stripping it. 

The fish would instantly turn and hammer down onto the fly, as the water was so clear he got some great visuals. Around the mouths of most of the rivers he has had clients stripping them on from the boat or bank as many fish are gathering ready to head up stream as well as he has been seeing plenty large shoals of smelt with trout smashing into them.

He mainly was catching rainbows, though he did say not far up the river there was a few big browns starting to show! Sometimes you do not need to go far for some action, especially if you have a boat!

ORDER NOW BEFORE YOU FORGET!

Best if you want to stock up for your winter saltwater holiday or winter trout fishing to make your orders soon before i close at the start of may for the winter. I look forward to receiving your orders and support.

I hope you enjoyed this blog- just as much as my flies! Please keep the great photos and feed back coming in :)
Cheers
Stu




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