Left, this is just one of 29 streams that hold large fish within 90 minutes outside the front gate
of Owen River Lodge.
Below, the author with a respectable brown trout that took some coaxing and deft casting.
friends who want to match your skill to fish.
There are 29 streams holding large fish within
90 minutes outside the front gate of Owen
River Lodge. Have Felix organize a helicopter
flight and your number of options become
without limit. You’re here for the experience
of fishing the South Island, but in my case,
Dave needed to see if someone who chases
“those steelheads in Ore-gun” could play.
Guides have several jobs. They are your
local expert, your psychiatrist, your coach,
your host, your fish-finder, your cheerleader,
your food provider, your attitude adjuster,
your expert fly chooser, a meteorologist, an
entomologist, a historian, a river protector,
nature respecter, sunscreen applicator and
your ride back. Most importantly of all —
your eyes.
This is the best sight fishing for brown
trout in the world. The water so gin-clear a
spotted fish seems suspended in the air, an
honest-to-goodness optical illusion. Here in
Middle Earth, you walk upstream to chase
fish. Because of no hatchery stock, fish grow
large and often one or two fish are dominant
in the run commanding other fish to find
their own homes. It’s not big number fishing,
its big fish hunting where four to six brown
trout landed is a solid day for a good angler.
As you get acquainted, three-fish days should
be your expectation, but rest assured here
they employ the 80/20/80 rule: spend 80
percent of your time at 20 percent of the
water that holds 80 percent of the fish.
As soon as your feet get wet you will be
washed over with the realization this might
be the most beautiful place you’ve ever
casted a fly. Traveling anglers are fortunate
knowing fish live in beautiful places, but
the Owen River Valley in full color change of
fall is spectacular. Yellows, bright reds, deep
greens of the grass all available for your eyes
to look up and take a break from the intensity
of precision casting.
A finish carpenter and proud father in
Australia in off-season, Dave Pike and I
became fast friends. About the same age we
were told during one extended happy hour
we had the same smirk and same ability not
to confess every fish that was caught. “These
fish are cunning,” is a phrase he used hourly,
now embedded in my personal lexicon.
Here you walk behind your guide and learn
to completely trust where your blind cast
is targeted. With the water so clear, and us
behind the fish, we needed long leaders so
when the fly lands upstream and begins to be
presented, our fly line would not land in the
fish’s peripheral vision. In fact, nothing can be
in their peripheral vision: leave bright colored
shirts and hats at home.
As Dave started to trust my casting abilities
and I his vision, things started to really come
together. We had one fast action 6-weight rod,
two lunches, four eyeballs and Dave’s pockets
full of fly boxes. Fish started to be touched,
pictures taken, and knowledge gleaned about
these rivers as a ‘knowledge transfer’ learns a
foreign language from a three weeks course
condensed on a CD.
Fishing here is about respect, not about
traveling angler
49