A warm welcome from Spring in the South Island of New Zealand, and some exciting news about the upcoming season …
Again its been a super busy winter tying flies for anglers both here in New Zealand and all over the world. This is a growing business and I spend at least 35 hours tying each week between May and September. I’m also focusing on the creative development of new patterns that I still find very satisfying and rewarding. My motto is “if we take no chances we make no advances” it’s not always needed as many of you know regular patterns can work 80% of the time, but its the other 20% that is so vital for me particularly in guiding context when really wanting to get you the best result possible is the aim. A huge thanks to the ever-growing number of supporters this means a lot to me and your purchases are really appreciated.
In some exciting news, the upcoming 2019-2020 season looks very promising indeed, as its been a mild-ish winter in Canterbury, punctuated with good snowfalls and foothill rains that have maintained very good flows in all rivers that are looking the best I have seen them for years, even as I have been fishing in the past few weeks mayflies are starting to hatch and the trout are very active. A super exciting aspect ahead is the strong possibility of it being a MOUSE YEAR! These often occur on a 7-10 year cycle that is linked to the native beech trees that come into mast and produce a food abundance causing the mice population to explode then somehow they find their way into the water and the trout turn predator at night avidly feeding upon them gaining this large protein supply can get trout massive very fast. It is important to note that we sight fish to these trout during the day with regular Dry fly and Nymph methods and these mouse years are very rare often occurring very regionally.
Guiding through 4 mouse years in the past years has been a real privilege and all the accumulated knowledge will be a huge asset for the season ahead and I look forward to sharing this with you! Again in this situation, unique and highly developed trout flies will come to the fore. As with many things in nature, it will be interesting to see what unfolds and even if not a mouse year we still get many better than average trout in this area.
https://www.doc.govt.nz/news/media-releases/2019/mega-mast-confirmed-for-new-zealand-forests/
