Paul and Aspiring FLY Fishing Wanaka NZ

Fat wee hen on the Simi Seal Firecracker leech.

A solid rainbow from the local on the last swing of the morning.

Brownie on the swing.

Top up of some new colors to try out.

Freshie from a favorite run on the Mata-Au
Thanks for the photo Scott Bixby !

Quick hour on the local earlier today.
Temperatures have dropped significantly after last nights snow fall on the surrounding hills!

The first access was dead so I relocated to a section of river I hadn’t fished so far this winter.
The Mata-Au is still pumping so I reached for the Epic 4/11 and fished light sink tips and flies, really focusing on the softer water and inside shallow edges. Again this set up came up trumps with 8 wee feisty browns in the 2-3lb hitting the net over a stretch of water no more than 200m long !

The “tug” is definitely the drug !

My usual set up for swinging flies is a 7wt- 13ft Epic Spey rod with a 420gr Skagit and T7-T10 sink tip depending on the flow. Today I opted to use an Epic 4wt-11ft , 300gr Scandi fly line and Airflo intermediate poly leader to swing small-lightly weighted streamers over the shallow gravel bars and into the soft edges. The Skagit set up is great for the faster, deeper runs but not so in the slower,shallower stuff where many fish are now holding due to the higher flows on the Clutha.The 4wt rod and Scandi fly line set up allowed me too work the softer water and cover sections of the river that I’d normally avoid as my heavier flies foul up on the bottom.

The Clutha is currently flowing around 420 cumecs making acess tough at many of my usual winter spots. This big old brute was sitting in a deep gutter, tight up against a bank and didn’t hesitate to nail my streamer.
Two other touches but unfortunately they didn’t stick. Temps are dropping considerably so time to head home to warm up by the fire !