Fly Fish New Zealand Opening Day 2016
/Opening day of the fishing season fell on a Saturday this year which meant an early start so as to avoid the crowds of anglers !
I chose a local Wanaka stream this year rather than the river a couple hours drive away that I have fished on opening day for the past 6 years in a row , mainly due to the fact I was restricted by a mates 40th birthday party that night and had strict instructions not to be late getting to it ! A 6.30am alarm setting meant I was on the water by 7.30am and ready to go !
The river was clear when I arrived but as the day passed it coloured up slightly due to the melting snow in the surrounding mountains which is not uncommon on this wee stream. Fish were mainly holding in the pools and were a bit sluggish and not really feeding , I managed to fool a couple early on then it was pretty slow from then on in until I came across a good brown trout in a deep pool that was hanging off to the side in some slower water which didn't hesitate to eat my nymph on the first drift.
I covered another 2 or 3 pools without touching another fish only to have another 2 anglers walk down on top of me , which kinda killed the day for me as the pools further upstream would have been disturbed with their wading through them on the way down stream ! . A quick chat to these guys (who were both Wanaka locals and should have known better !! ) and I decided to call it a day and head for home. All up a fun few hours on a small local stream that looks like it will fish well for the next few months whilst the water flows are good.
