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bjbailey

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Posts posted by bjbailey

    New Zealand Last Year

    in Photo Posts

    Posted

    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

    • Like 6

    New Zealand Last Year

    in Photo Posts

    Posted

    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

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    • Like 3

    Go Pros For All You Film Buffs

    in General Chat - Fishing Related

    Posted

    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!

    • Like 1

    New Vise

    in Fly Tying Bench

    Posted

    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.

    A Consultants Story - None Xmas

    in General Chat - Not Fishing Related (NFR)

    Posted

    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.

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