Fly of the month (New Zealand)
What Fly fishing fly works best for this time of year in and around New Zealand
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Labels
- Africa (1)
- Canada (1)
- Classics (1)
- Europe (1)
- International Fly Fishing Guides (1)
- New Zealand (1)
- North America (1)
- South Africa (1)
- South America (1)
- United kingdom (1)
About Me
- Joe "Mad about fly fishing" average
- This page is born out of a passion for fly fishing and for the bugs that we tie at the end of our leaders. If you think about it... ...it doesn't matter what altra light custom made rod with double tapered line and 100% flurocarbon tippet you have, if the fly is wrong they are not going to bite and them biting is what we want :) Tight lines
7 comments:
Tie On a Greenwell's for a Glorious December Down Under
Aside from April, December in New Zealand is a favorite month for Kiwi fly fishing enthusiasts, perhaps due to its unpredictability and the fact that plenty of vacation time makes for plentiful time spent on the river. If you prefer your solitude, December might not be the best time to test New Zealand waters, however, if you don't mind a friend or two (or twenty), hitting the stream can be a rewarding experience indeed. The transition from spring to summer makes weather-watching an essential, with wet flies being preferred on overcast, damp days and warm days producing abundant hatches of stone flies, mayflies, and caddis flies that mark the true beginning of the dry fly season in New Zealand. One dry fly you can't afford to be without, should you venture Down Under in December, is a hybrid of the Scottish-born Greenwell's Glory: the Greenwell's Glory Parachute.
The Glory is one of those storied flies that, ever since its “birth” about 170 years ago, has been re-created again and again, with each angler insisting that his or her personal version is, by far, the best. The original Greenwell's Glory—the fly invented by William Greenwell for use on the River Tweed—was not a dry fly at all, but rather a wet fly designed to imitate some insects Greenwell scooped from the water and took to his friend James Wright, an avid fly tier. The story goes that the water was swamped with March Browns, but the trout were ignoring them in favor of a few common brown mayflies native to Scotland. At this point in time, dry fly fishing had not yet gained popularity, and so, despite the fact that the fish were picking the mayflies off the surface of the river, Greenwell and Wright designed a wet fly to imitate them. Legend holds that Wright was dubious about Greenwell's idea, but tied several flies anyway and sent him off. Greenwell purportedly returned the next day, his 32 lb. creel basket (and pockets!) overflowing with trout landed on the new fly. Wright was more than convinced, and by the next day, a real party had been made of testing out the new fly. Amidst the imbibing (and successful fishing!), Greenwell's new fly acquired its apropos name: Greenwell's Glory.
Nowadays, the only common factor uniting Greenwell's original fly and the Glories of today is the yellow silk body. Again, there are multiple variations of this fly, and many anglers have developed their own versions. The Greenwell's Parachute is one of the more universally known variations, and is often recommended for the start of the dry fly frenzy in New Zealand. The Parachute should be dressed with a dab of floatant and fished two to three hours after dawn, for the greatest chance of success. Fish in relatively still water, and allow the Greenwell to gently drift with the current, adding an occasional “scoot” over a short distance, to add interest to your presentation.
Need an excuse to pour on the punch? Stock your box with a handful of these flies and claim a bit of Greenwell's glory for your very own!
Stocking Your Fly Box for January in New Zealand? Do What Comes “Gnat”urally!
The zenith of summer in New Zealand welcomes the arrival of one of a trout's favorite meals—those tasty terrestrials that bumble, stumble, or otherwise tumble into diamond-clear waters of of the island's streams, rivers, and lakes. If you'd rather spend more time on the water than indoors, picking through your box or tying new flies, then consider using the terrestrial fly that's been a proven time and time again: the Black Gnat.
Sounds too simple to be true, doesn't it? This simplicity may be off-putting to those anglers who fancy themselves “avant garde” or against the grain, but to a hungry trout, a gnat is simply a delicious meal, and has been since the dawn of all trout-dom. Despite its name, the Black Gnat is championed by New Zealand trout guides for, in larger versions, successfully representing the blue blowfly. Fat, substantial, and readily available, blowflies are a major staple of any New Zealand trout's summer diet. Do you need any other reason to tie one on? If you do, consider this: the Black Gnat has been around, quite literally, since the age of knights and castles and is one of the oldest recorded fly patterns! History tells us it was first developed around 1450. I'd say 560 years worth of fish stories can't be wrong!
As was mentioned before, the Black Gnat can be used, in its larger form, to imitate the native New Zealand blowflies trout find so delectable. in its smaller manifestations, it lives up to its name by masquerading as the common black gnat or grass fly. If you're a twilight angler, you'll appreciate the fact that contrary to what your instincts might tell you, black is actually, to a fish, one of the most easily detected colors in low light, and also contrasts sharply against most surfaces. Perhaps one of its biggest appeals lies in the fact that it can go either wet or dry depending on how you tie it. It's also universally useful, and you'll obviously be able to take it wherever your fly fishing endeavors may lead.
To fish the Black Gnat, search the water for those tell-tale hovering, black clouds of gnats most often viewed in the evenings. Clearly, when you have so many small insects hovering over the water, a few will inevitably fall in. Let yours be one of them! You won't want to give your Gnat a crash-landing, rather, place it as gently as possible. Some prefer to use a parachute variation of the Gnat for just this reason. Once your Gnat is in the water, use your common sense—light twitches and flutters, with occasional tugs—to tempt any opportunistic trout.
And there you have it—the Black Gnat. Natural, simple, deadly, and proven effective for over 500 years. It's trophy time!
This February in New Zealand, Give Those Fish the Royal Treatment
While those of us stateside huddle closer to the fire and while away the hours dreaming tight lines and warm mornings, the dog days of summer get underway in New Zealand, offering up fat trout in search of fat bugs to gorge on. Late summer offers a smorgasboard of munchies that fly, squirm, hop, and swim. Why not offer those fish a fly that covers all the bases? Tie on a Royal Wulff.
The Royal Wulff's story has been plagued by something of a misnomer. The fly was not, as so many believe, developed by the “father” of fly fishing, Lee Wulff. The Royal Wulff's story actually goes back a bit further than Lee Wulff's heyday (the 1920s and 30s) and begins around 1876 with a New York fly dresser named John Hailey. Hailey added a red silk band and a gaudy tail of wood duck feathers to the British-born Coachman fly, and none other than Mr. L.C. Orvis himself named it the Royal Coachmen for its fine appearance. The Royal Coachmen offered and still offers a worthy imitating of the large flying insects trout love to take—hornets, wasps, bees, and horseflies.
So where does Lee Wulff enter the picture? He doesn't. Not really. An unfortunate soul by the name of Q.L. Quackenbush was the first to create the fly now known as the Royal Wulff. He did so by taking the Royal Wulff design and gussying it up with what he considered to be a more substantial tail piece: impala hair. This new design caught on quickly in New York and was dubbed the Quack Coachman by members of the Beaverkill Trout Club. Unfortunately, local celebrity Lee Wulff had recently designed two flies, the Gray and White Wulffs, that very closely resembled the Quack Coachman. As a result, people began to assume that Wulff had also designed the Quack, and over time, people began calling Quackenbush's riff on the Coachman the “Royal Wulff.”
When Wulff, who seemed to have no qualms about this naming debacle, was asked what the Royal Wulff (or, if you want to be ethical, the Quack Coachman) was designed to imitate, he replied, “Strawberry shortcake, something great big and juicy floating down to a large trout.” If we can take Wulff at his word, then the Royal Wulff is the perfect choice for a late summer potluck on the river. To fish the Wulff, dab on some floatant and let it drift on the surface with the current. Occasionally accelerate or twitch the fly to imitate a struggling insect, then let it float some more.
No matter how gorged the trout may be after a long day of enjoying the summer's bounty, you can bet they'll have left enough room for a dessert that's fit for a king!
March in New Zealand: Far from a Buzz Kill!
It's the hottest part of the day and you are getting sleepy; very sleepy. The constant drone vibrating the still tussock grass is making your eyelids droop. Perhaps you'll just lie down beneath this willow tree a nap for a bit...
Wake up! It's cicada season and there's a river full of trout out there just waiting for one of those poorly-coordinated buzzers to crash land in the water. March is an ideal time to wet your line in New Zealand waters. The vacation crowds will have thinned considerably, and the trout are not only fat from a summer of heavy feeding, they're also in prime condition as spawning time draws nearer and nearer. True, they may be a little “gun shy” if there's been a lot of fishing activity in the preceding months, but that's nothing a well-presented meal like a cicada won't remedy! As far as trout preferences go, cicadas are akin to a holiday feast: a rare and delicious excuse to indulge.
There are a number of cicada designs to choose from, with New Zealand guides recommending them in drab shades of brown, grey, and black, with a bit of white thrown in, though if the fish are really turned on to the cicadas, any natural color will be taken, including yellow and green. A trick of the locals is to make your own shabby cicada by simply wrapping a hook of your choosing 'round and 'round with deer hair, then trimming it to a beetle-like shape. Your finished product should be around ½ to ¾ of an inch long. It'll be the biggest fish who are ambitious enough to tackle a cicada, so don't be afraid to present a convincingly big fly—somewhere between a 6 and a 12 ought to do the trick.
Knowing when to break out the cicadas is simply a matter of using your ears. As soon as you hear that tell-tale buzzing, find yourself a clump of stream side tussock grass and prepare to do battle! As was mentioned before, if the trout are hungry for cicadas, you'll be hard pressed to convince them otherwise. However, a good presentation can mean the difference between a totally convinced trout and a hesitant, skittish trout. Since the real cicadas will most likely be hanging out along the banks, in the tussock grass, your best bet will be to cast along the bank and imitate a cicada who has just slipped from his perch. Because a drowning cicada will naturally be rather agitated, wiggle and flick your fly with gusto. Your next trophy trout may respond with equal enthusiasm!
On your marks..get set...go!
So the most important day of the year has arrived... yes it's the start of fishing season.
The only question is what you are going to catch your first trout on. We can never know for sure but i'm guessing a size #14 Hare's Ear bead-head nymph, suspended under a Royal Wullf might just do the trick. This is a very popular combination with the Royal Wullf being rated as one of New Zealand's best dry flies to use. And of cause this time of year is always popular with a good sized nymph. I fish this combination as i would a dry fly with the odd twitch every now and again if on still water. Important! your dry fly is acting as a indicator so if you see that little guy bob or twitch you most properly have a trout biting your nymph. So strike away! I'm not going to go into great detail about the set up but i usually attach the dropper line with a blood knot. I found some good reading on setting up your line here. Tight lines guys and gals, hope you catch some of those hungry trout that have been waiting for you for five months now :)
Check out www.whoppa.net for great spots in New Zealand
Post a Comment