North 40 Fly Shop eMagazine December 2016 | Page 5

Less casting more spotting
Having grown up fly fishing on the upper South
Island has helped me tremendously, with my ability
to spot trout in their natural lies. For those of you
who have not done much sight fishing or for those
who seem to be blind casting, it’s time to slow
down and have a look. There’s no such thing as a
river in New Zealand that is too hard to spot fish on
(in the right conditions).
We have a funny saying in NZ which is, “10% of
fisherman catch 90% of NZ trout!” I don’t personally
think that, that is entirely true. However, I do believe
it’s not entirely wrong either. Of those 10%, I bet
every single one of them takes their time spotting
as many fish as they can before letting a single cast
hit the water. Why? If you can spot a trout in NZ
before it spots you, your chances of catching that
fish will increase greatly. Once you are able to see if
the fish is feeding or not and see how deep the fish
is in the water, you can adjust your tippet length
and cast accordingly.
Still, the best bit of advice I can give to anyone fly
fishing in NZ, is to make your first cast the best cast.
If you do that, more often than not, you will catch
trout regardless of your fly choice. If the first cast
isn’t the best, then your choice of fly becomes the
next most important factor as to whether or not
the fish will eat the fly or spook away. So, it pays to
have a look under a few rocks and see what nymph
life is about before you make the cast.

Getting NZ trout to look up!
During the first few months of the new season, it is
unlikely to get many fish to look up and take your
dry fly. This happens especially on the North Island,
but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pack your dry
fly away in a box until January.
I’ve found that in the right water (less than a meter
deep), a big dry fly is simply the best fly for the job.
And, let’s be honest, we would much rather see a
trout come up and inappropriately expose itself
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