bjbailey

That's pretty sweet looking!

Amazing photos, thanks for sharing

Great looking chironies guys!

Thanks all. These are helpful perspectives .

Hey Guys, Great questions. Personally, I did a lot of research. I read several books (multiple times!) and lots of google earth searching. That being said, I think the biggest contributor to success was that I used a guide for two days early in the trip, treated him and the rivers we fished with great respect, and he was very supportive with providing a few more pointers to rivers I might try. I believe that NZ is a sensitive environment with very few fish/km in some rivers and hitting them day in and day out could have a definite impact. I only fished two rivers more than once, and I didn't fish them back to back. On both this rivers I saw exactly the same fish, in exactly the same spots, both times. You can imagine that if you just fished the same stretch for a week you'd put a lot of pressure on the same fish. The biggest fish up there was 27" and around 7lbs and I hooked it on a dry the first week but it broke me off. I landed it the next week on a dropper when I returned to that river for my final day of the trip. Every river I fished produced fish, though some more than others. I'm not sure if that is due to the research and guide tips or if that suggests most rivers there have fish (which I suspect to be the case). I didn't find the fish particularly spooky (though I fish central ab brown trout streams a lot) but I did find them very selective. Perhaps not selective on the fly itself, but certainly on the drift. The drift had to be damn near perfect, but I often got ~10 shots per fish if I respected it's feeding lane and didn't slam a fly or leader on its head. The quality of sighting was something I've never experienced before. The fish would sit in skinny water at times and be painfully obvious. Other times, they'd be in slightly deeper or choppy water and be slightly harder to see. I don't think I caught any fish the whole trip that I didn't sight prior to casting to, but I didn't prospect too much either. If you're interested in chasing big browns, go to NZ! As I said before, I fish central ab a lot and I've seen fish this size there before, but maybe three or four per season. With lots of hiking I routinely saw ~10 fish per day around 24-26" and got shots at most of them. In my mind, that's almost a season's worth of experience in AB in one day in NZ. It certainly pushed me to be a better fisherman by getting chances to learn from so many big fish like that. I didn't plan on going back this year, but I just can't stay away. PS. Dave and Amelia's videos (Sightfishing Trout Rivers and Stripped Down) are very good primers for fishing in NZ. It's a very accurate representation of what you can encounter there with a bit of determination and a few miles on the wading boots. Hope that helps! Brandon

A couple more...

Hi All, I was lucky enough to spend two weeks in New Zealand last year chasing brown trout. I'm going again next Friday, but this time for three weeks. In the excitement leading up to the trip, I was cruising old photos and thought I'd share some. Excuse the overload of hero shots, they're just the only ones that were already scaled enough to meet the maximum file size for the post. NZ is a spectacularly beautiful country and deserves as many scenic shots as fish! Cheers, Brandon

I highly recommend Dave and Amelia Jensen's video Stripped Down. It does have a "how-to" component but it's exceptionally well integrated with amazing videography. Here's the trailer:

Hey all - I've got a question for those of you that use go pros on the river. Do you prefer a chest mount or head mount (or other?) for ease of she and quality of filming. I fished solo in New Zealand last year and bought a go pro so I could capture some of it on film but found that with my chest mount I saw a lot of hands and arms!

I bought a nor-vise last year and I love it. I tie a lot faster than I used to based on the rotation and the automatic bobbin. The only negative feedback so far would be that the very tip of the grips chipped and now I have to hold hooks further back which is annoying.

It is a great looking pattern. Thanks for sharing the step by step!

Looks great so far. Thanks for sharing.

Now that I'm not looking from my phone I can actually see that! Nice ties, all of them.

Great ties Gary. What's the body material in the top photo?

Hi BCube - I've used Abalon to repair cracks, install sump systems, etc. I think they're great. Plus, their work comes with a 10 year warranty that sticks with the house. I'd highly recommend them.

Congrats! You have many long years of tying ahead by the sounds of it!

This helps indeed, thanks for sharing!

Realistically, the young man would have included an additional 200-page powerpoint document (free of charge of course ) alongside his 150-page report that detailed out exactly how he could build the farmer the fanciest, most custom spreadsheet he'd ever seen to plan the necessary growth of his herd, forecast the price of every conceivable food source, and overtake all of his neighbours (in case a farming war ever broke out). All for a princely sum, of course. Any consultant knows that you spend more energy on the follow-up proposal than you do on the actual deliverable.

That was amazing. Thanks for sharing.

Definitely jealous. There were some beautiful browns in there...

Hi All, I'm looking for two different contractors at the moment: 1) Roofing/eaves/soffiting 2) a quality carpenter to build a deck. (The deck is not a simple, rectangular deck with easy 90 degree angles. Something a bit more challenging) Let me know if you've had good experiences with either of the above... Thanks, Brandon

Awesome tarpon...

Thanks Don and GGP. That's helpful info.

I see the cutthroat in the fish for sure... Definitely some anyways...

Don - do you have a recipe for those red micros? Size? Are there lead wraps under the body? Do you prefer that bright red to maroon? Maroon has always seemed more natural to me...