This last season didn't seem to have as many days in it as they once did—almost as though we have been short changed. Surely it can't be because I'm getting a mite older! The 2011 fishing season just whistled by and we are now fair in the middle of the warmest winter ever and only 2 months to go and we will be full circle and back at opening weekend for back country fishing in NZ.

So far the off season has been very mild and no major winter floods to disrupt spawning which is in full swing right now. I was over at Hotel California only last weekend and slipped down to the Mangahina Stream a wee tributary of Yeatman R. and spent a most interesting half hour observing a couple of 4lb rainbows doing their thing. The water they chose was only about 2 meters wide and wouldn't have been much over a foot deep. They were very busy indeed and I wished them well in their efforts. Hopefully in a couple of years my clients will be able to test their off spring and then the following year they will no doubt be spawning themselves.

Our wild trout fishery is heavily dependent on seasonal spawning coupled with available ideal stream environment. Most of our back country rivers and particularly tributaries seem to provide the right setting and over the years I have wiled away many an hour spread eagled on top of a bank overlooking tail water, watching spawning antics. The brown trout are always the first to get randy, generally about late April early May and during this period when the fish flash (often forerunner to mating), the actual hooking can be quite a challenge.

When an angler does hook up though the fight can be a beauty with the brownie using all his cunning and increased bulk and cunning to out fox the fisherman who is generally flat out trying to stay upright, waving his rod around in an attempt to avoid his line from being entangled in snags and all the while trying to be in control. Couple all this with a guide like me shouting encouragement, giving instructions as well, and whilst sometimes being useful, from an anglers perspective are damned hard to carry out with a mad trout thrashing about on the other end of the line. Throw into the equation swift water as well, plus a trout that is hell bent on heading out to sea 50 miles downstream. It is no wonder that a fair percentage of trout hooked are just that and not landed despite our fancy high tech rods, smooth as silk drag reels and superior knot strength leaders, plus of course studded supposedly non slip studded running boots - yeah right!

Fishing on a Wilderness River

Jack from UK returned once again this year in search of workouts and on one memorable day in January we flew by helicopter into the Upper Ngaruroro River. On this occasion we decided to not follow normal practice and consequently walked down river for about an hour, which is what we thought would take a full days fishing to return up river to the chopper landing pad. The river in this region is simply beautiful. Untouched heavy beech forest comes right down to the river bed on the straight stretches, and free stone rock bars alongside the inner bends of every pool. The water is like crystal and quite swift. It is a true mountain river, flows out of the mountains above the timber line and no farming or habitation within the upper watershed. The crossings can be a little tricky and a wading staff is handy but there is plenty of water and Jack thrives on a bit of a challenge.

We reached our turn around point, boiled the billy and had a cuppa allowing the nearest waters to settle before Jack set about what he knows best—classic upstream sight fishing. The odd fish came to the net and then the inevitable happened. Jack hooked up to a bolting horse! The big rainbow did a quick couple of pool circuits before heading downstream in the direction of Hawkes Bay about 6 days walk away. Jack is a pretty handy soccer player, as you would expect anyone coming from Manchester to be, and he set off to tame the bolter which had no intention of coming to my net if he could help it. We struggled downstream, around boulders, through white water, across channels, right through water we had already carefully fished an hour before. Not much bend in the rod at all! Straight out pursuit and the backing getting less and less.

Lucky for us a big flood swept tree was smack in the centre of the river and the fish went the far side and the line became entangled in a whippy root. Thank goodness.  Jack was able to at last catch up and regain line, the root acted like a rod and outfished the carbon fibre, the fish was "rooted", and then the guide had to shed vest and pack and swim to unhook the line and then it was all on again but Jack was ready this time and the fish a beautiful rainbow hen was finally netted in the very next pool. The trout wasn't a real big one, about 25", but in lovely order and with a huge attitude. Jack was determined too! Just as well he gets lots of practice each year on Russian salmon even if it is with heavy tackle but as he says “nothing fights like a wild trout hooked with light gear in fast water”.

“Mind you if the guide was any good he should have been able to sprint across the river and head the bolter off in mid stream way back where it all started” - yeah right!

Once again it was great to guide my returning friends and it was noticeable this last season that there wasn't quite so much fishing pressure on the more readily accessed back country fisheries including the known helicopter accessed waters. The real hard to get to places were as always very rarely visited by anglers other than myself.

Some of you may have noticed that I have even mentioned a rivers real name up above. I don't normally make public the name of streams I fish as our wild fisheries cant handle too many visitors even if we always practice catch and release in the back country. However I have had a slight change after reading a recent article “North Island Nirvana” by Ross Purnell in latest edition of USA's Fly Fisherman.

In the article Ross mentions about 6 different rivers, each one of which I have fished and continue to do so although some of the more well known ones we like to give a miss in the heart of the season as there may have been another angler there not many days beforehand and fish will be spooky.

Fishing Pressure and Catch and Release

Fish and Game NZ and others have now realised what some of us guides have been well aware of for years and that is that our wild trout do become mighty hard to catch when they are subject to what we call heavy pressure. Particularly so in the smaller clear water back country headwaters. Catch and release is always practiced and our trout generally don't like to be caught again - not twice in a season if they can possibly help it. My clients will notice that I always mark our fish with a slight nick out of a fin. I have been doing this for years starting about 1988 when I was head guide at Poronui Ranch. Catch and release was in the early stages of introduction to NZ by visiting American anglers and I was doing my own wee surveys on survivability, repeat catching and general observations. Afterall we had yet to be convinced that letting a hard won fish go was a good thing!

My marking of fish has certainly proven to me that it is well worth our while when fishing to wild residential trout to make a big effort to rotate the beats and not fish the same stretch for as long as possible. My guided anglers will notice that we never ever fish the same beat twice even if on a 2 or 3 week trip. Rainbows are more likely to be multi caught than brownies which my marking proved that we only caught 11% of fish again within the one season.

It is really great news to hear from some of my European angler clients that they are now seeing catch and release practiced in their waters with great success.

Mogens from Denmark reports that sea trout fishing in his Icelandic stream has really improved since he imposed catch and release on his stream.

Jack Meredith, Andrew Cowan say the same about their beloved salmon in Scotland and Hugo Ross who guides out of Wick is absolutely delighted with their reinvigorated salmon fishery following introduction of catch and release. Apparently some of the Atlantic salmon streams of NE Scotland have had the best results of fish caught since records have been kept and even if the Scots have trouble speaking clearly they sure know how to keep records!

Fishing Access

Fish & Game have been looking at restricting fishing access to our more fragile wilderness fisheries... They have done this now for a couple of years on a trial basis in the Greenstone R out of Queenstown and also the Rangitikei R out of my home town Taupo. The fishing has by all accounts improved in the upper Rangitikei but then it had to as it was being hammered. I had stopped going there some years ago as I had found other waters which were just as good and a darn sight cheaper to fly to. There has been a noticeable decline of helicopter borne anglers these last 2 seasons mainly I think due to the global financial downturn. In other words the helicopter flying got too dear and this wasn't helped by the rising NZ$. I have been able to arrange a deal with a helicopter company very close to Hotel Ca. and we have been still able to helicopter into the very best of the North Island rivers at very reasonable rates. The trick is to match the fishing to the client - no sense flying in somewhere where you have to be an ex soccer player to land a trout. My 4 wheel drive truck is still by far and away the best transport and luckily we are able to access some really isolated waters via private property where others seldom visit.

Fishing Guide License

The ongoing saga of the Fishing Guide License is still slowly rolling along. I reported about this in a 2004 newsletter and said then that it will take time and it surely has. The latest is that the Minister of Conservation has asked the Fish and Game to release a paper on the license and call for public submissions. This has been done and the submissions closed a month ago and no body knows anything yet.

The Guides Assoc endorsed the idea of licensing but of course they don't want to be just a revenue earner for Fish & Game. The guides assoc want a trade off and would like some sort of cap to be put on the number of licenses available as if they are to comply with all the beauracracy such as Health and Safety plans, insurance, safety communication, first aid, Govt Adventure Operators regd etc etc and then if fly by nighters start up guiding or come in from o/seas without any of these enforced costs the licensed guides wont be very happy. I guess the present guides are just wanting to preserve their patch. I very much doubt if there will be any real progress to report in next newsletter 2012.

Another hot topic concerning guides/fishing/ overseas anglers has been exclusive capture of fishing waters. It is a very complex subject and generates fierce debate but a very brief collection of facts and concerns follows just in case you are interested;

Fish & Game have a govt. given mandate to manage our sports fishery and their only revenue is from licenses...Their regional councils are democratically elected by license holders.

Fish & Game do not own the fish, the water or the river beds.

Fish & Game want equal fishing opportunity for all license holders and that includes you readers who come to NZ and have to buy a fishing license in order to fish - same price as a kiwi pays for his license

The Crown owns all water but in many cases the adjoining land to rivers are privately owned and in some cases (particularly large properties and all maori owned land), the beds are treated as privately owned land as well.

The Crown can also own riparian strips and also river beds where they have been specifically surveyed and that is approx half or less of all waterways.

The trick facing any angler is to know who owns what relating to fishing water.

Most private landholders adjoining fishing waters give permission when asked by anglers to cross their land to gain access to a stream, particularly if the land owners only have a small river boundary. Some landowners don't allow every Tom Dick and Harry access but I do not know of a single case where a landowner big or small does not allow somebody to cross his land for fishing access., even if it is only his close friends and relatives.

The Conservation Act section 26ZN prevents landowners selling fishing rights

Some large properties (mainly maori owned with no other income, wilderness land, also a few non maori owned land with some income ) have been entering into agreements with generally helicopter companies and large fishing lodges. Sometimes the helicopter companies will allow one specific lodge's guests only to access a particular stretch of river. This exclusive arrangement can back fire on a lodge as they can be induced by the helicopter company to push the heli fishing with their company if they are to retain sole only fishing rights and the fishing can then become over pressured. If the lodge enters into an arrangement with a landowner directly the lodge has to cover its significant up front payments and once again the fishing will inevitably sufferwhen the lodge pushes clients into fishing their expensive water. I know of 3 or 4 once exceptional rivers which have suffered terribly from lodge directed over fishing.

Hopefully the main lodge in question has finally learnt its lesson and is letting the arrangements lapse when time frame expires.

Many individual guides and also many general public anglers are happy to show their appreciation to a landowner for him allowing them access over his property by presenting the landowner with a gift such as a bottle of wine perhaps, but rarely is money asked for or given. Some maori land owners prefer a monetary payment ( and remember the land has no other income ) but I know of only one general land owner who wanted monetary payment in order to help maintain an extensive 4 wd road he had personally carved out of a hillside to gain access to a river which had public riparian strips alongside.

Very little fishing water overall NZ is affected by landowners not readily granting fishing access.

Fish & Game NZ are taking a hard line and trying to enforce section 26ZN in such a way that any landholder who allows an angler access must give other anglers the same access.

I find the whole access thing debate most interesting as from 1987 until 1998 I managed Poronui Station and the fishing lodge Poronui Ranch which was within the property. I also still, manage Yeatman Forest which is o/seas owned and has a lovely trout stream on the 3 X fishing beat boundary and I am also a landowner myself.

There is quite an interesting conflict taking place. On one hand we have Fish & Game NZ wanting all fish license holders be given free access to fishing if a landowner allows any access to fishing at all, and on the other hand most landowners willingly allow some fishing but on their terms and fiercely defend their property rights.. The Govt backs up the land owners and says that land owners have the right to allow who they want or don't want to allow on their property and they can charge for access but not for specific fishing rights.. Fish & Game NZ are attempting to disallow guides from gaining a license to guide unless they will agree to not reward a landowner for giving the guide access to a waterway.

It seems to be a bit of an anomaly to me that an ordinary licensed angler is allowed to reward a landowner but not a licensed fishing guide.- yeah right!

Didymo

Each newsletter I have made mention of the dreaded algae didymo and the control measures in an attempt to stop it spreading. Well it is now spread from bottom to top of the South Island but thankfully is not in all watersheds.

Touch wood, but didymo has still not established itself anywhere in the North Island so perhaps the control measures employed are working. Thank you to all who make an effort to disinfect fishing gear between different watersheds and North and South Islands.I know that a lot of readers of this newsletter do fish in both islands. A big thank you from all NZ anglers for your continued vigilance.

Rugby World Cup

The Rugby World Cup is being held in NZ this coming September which is a bit unfortunate for anglers amongst the visitors because of course the back country streams don't open until October. Never mind I will have a lot of football to watch then and little time for guiding. Lake Taupo tributaries are open all year though. There is also one or two streams in all regions open all year but the fishing is invariably slow and feeding resident trout are a long way apart in the back country rivers.

High Dollar

The NZ$ is damned high and naturally enough NZ tourism is having a hard time as is everyone else, wherever. The good thing about it though is there are fewer anglers in the wilderness fisheries and as long as you don't want to come during our school vacation periods you are almost certain to having fishing to yourself. You get that being guided by me in any case so I guess that isn't really much of a selling point!

Family

My family for those of you have met them ( and many clients do get to meet them ) are all ok.

Belle is thriving since getting out of the Garden Centre. Her health is excellent now, and she is back working a few days a week and also has taken on a new horse for schooling.

Pat and family are still building houses at Havelock top of SI

James is still farming near here in Taupo and is about to get serious with his niche commercial brewery.

Skye is working in Auckland in the film business, finding it tough but always keeps busy.

Jess has had another baby and her and partner have just bought a house in Hastings and are renovating it themselves in spare time.

I have bought myself a new rifle when I don't really need one. Nice to remember the old days though.

We still have the bach up the coast and I am heading up there tomorrow hopefully to catch the early season lobsters and some nice snapper.

All the best to all of you and I hope to see you soon, hopefully directing a delicate cast to a supping trout in one of my still secret back country streams