bjbailey Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 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 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjbailey Posted December 2, 2014 Author Share Posted December 2, 2014 A couple more... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buck Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 Great looking fish! Did you have to do much research to find snouts over there? Or was it pretty straightforward.....pick a creek/river and fish the hell out of it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bigdirty Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 sweet!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muffin Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 Good question Buck I was wondering the same thing. I am sort of toying with the idea of running over their lately and figure this may be the year. Also Bailey that looks unbelievable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monger Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 Can't believe you would want to leave ice and cold to go do THAT. Great fish, hope you get some more monsters! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noud Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 What I know of New Zealand from other flyfishers is that the number of fish per km of river is much less than what we are used to in Northern America and Europe and that the fishing can be tough if you don't know where to fish. The average size of fish however is different as well...... You have to do quite some hiking to catch numbers from what I understand, although that can differ per river over there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjbailey Posted December 3, 2014 Author Share Posted December 3, 2014 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 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muffin Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 Wow Bailey, thanks a lot for all the info, your approach and also the resources you used. I will definitely have to do some more exploring into this. Still pretty early in the planning stage at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bigdirty Posted December 4, 2014 Share Posted December 4, 2014 yeah Bailey, great post! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buck Posted December 4, 2014 Share Posted December 4, 2014 Thanks for the info Brandon, how many other anglers did you see out on the river during your outings? You mentioned that you hiked a decent amount, is it similar to around here ? (ie. seeing a bunch of anglers grouped up within 1km of parking, after that having most of the river to yourself). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dutchie Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Thanks for sharing that , I think i must go and give it a try Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjbailey Posted April 19, 2015 Author Share Posted April 19, 2015 I am starting to plan another trip to NZ for next winter and found myself going back over old pictures today and realized I hadn't posted any pictures of my last trip. In short, the trip was fantastic. I hiked a lot and got into a lot of waters that I didn't have a chance to last year. Unfortunately, most of the days I was fishing alone so had pretty crappy selfies from a GoPro, but here are a few of the ones that turned out better (or from the days I had a fishing partner or guide). I wish the pictures could bring as much enjoyment for you as catching the fish did for me! I seem to have to upload each individually, so I guess I may as well provide a caption. This first fish was on a really rainy day with terrible visibility due to overcast skies. We still found a few fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjbailey Posted April 19, 2015 Author Share Posted April 19, 2015 This was the release of the same fish. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjbailey Posted April 19, 2015 Author Share Posted April 19, 2015 This was the one and only sea-run fish I caught, which coincidentally, was the only fish that broke the fabled 10lb mark as well. Many other anglers caught many more "mousey" fish this year in NZ than I, but I also can't handle flying across the world to compete for space on rivers 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjbailey Posted April 19, 2015 Author Share Posted April 19, 2015 A nicely coloured brownie spotted on the shoulder of a fast run. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjbailey Posted April 19, 2015 Author Share Posted April 19, 2015 This fish was definitely top of the trip for me. It was sitting in a very shallow inside flat feeding in a tiny trickle that joined the main stem of the river. He took the dry on the second cast and was an absolute blast in the skinny water. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjbailey Posted April 19, 2015 Author Share Posted April 19, 2015 Same fish, just before the fly was taken out. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjbailey Posted April 19, 2015 Author Share Posted April 19, 2015 My favorite are still the smaller creeks that hold one fish every 500m or so, but it's always interesting trying to land 6lb fish in rivers 15' wide... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjbailey Posted April 19, 2015 Author Share Posted April 19, 2015 This was a really fun fish... it refused the dropper on the drift past but then changed its mind after the fly was already passed him. He turned and chased the fly 15' downstream with my leader almost to my rod tip before finally taking. Last pic for now! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishinglibin Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Was Your guide Derek Nees per chance? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjbailey Posted April 19, 2015 Author Share Posted April 19, 2015 No, it was Serge Bonnafoux. I'd highly recommend him to anyone. I've fished with him two years in a row now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heimdallr Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Man...great pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveM Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Gawdamn! Fantastic browns! :bow: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ArtVandelay Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Outstanding photos and fish! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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