Fishing the South Island

03 – 09 March 2023
We fished rivers in two more locations: near the towns of Gore and Twizel.

On the phone we asked Bonnie’s brother Richard if he had seen the first fishing post, and he said Yes. It was full of fish. Our work is done. Actually, for Robert, each fishing post is way to record his thoughts on the styles and techniques each guide offers, what casting, playing, and retrieving habits he should correct, learn, and improve upon. Also, every post records the scenery of each location because the New Zealand landscape is magnificent and varied.

Gore

Our guide in Gore was Daryl Paskell. He is a man on the hunt—for fish. He is constantly peering beyond the glare of the water to spot a black or grey smudge that turns out to be a brown trout of eighteen plus inches. His favorite word is “Yip,” which he shouts when he sees a trout take a fly. At times Robert overreacts to his enthusiastic shout and either launches the fish out of water or breaks the line. In one case, Robert lost the complete leader, something Daryl has never seen in forty-seven years of fishing.

We were lucky to secure him as our guide. He took on only three new clients this year. Some regulars fish with him for twelve days or twenty days at a stretch. Like many of his colleagues, he does not only make his living as a fishing guide. He is also a wool broker, helping farmers sell their wool through auction or directly to offshore clients. Some distinguished fly fishers use his services. The next day he was guiding Nelson Ishiyama, an avid fly fisher, owner of a well-known fishing lodge in Montana, and a member of the Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club in Golden Gate Park where we have run into him. Nelson was fishing with Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia. We saw both of them eating dinner at the Howling Moon in Gore. Seeing these two world-class fly fishers confirmed that we are fishing in the right location at the right time of the year.

Daryl is precise in his directions. Fish a bit more to the left. Now, land your fly two feet up
stream and one foot to the right—to the right! Nice cast. He likes a sparse fly and will consistently trim off excess foam or feather. Robert noted that New Zealand guides mostly favor natural-looking flies. No glitter or flash that you often see in the USA.

Daryl is also one patient guy, sustaining Robert’s multiple tangled nymphs and hook ups in trees. He is a very keen instructor too, providing tips on how to cast multiple nymphs by roll casting before they come downstream to you and using one false cast before landing them in the location he directs you to. It is similar to spey casting. As Daryl says The more time the fly is in the water, the more chance you have of hooking a fish.

Daryl helped Robert a lot on how to play and land a large fish. Robert is not used to hooking a fish in excess of two pounds. As Daryl said, Robert will gain confidence on how much power to put onto a fish to lead them to the net, keeping the fish out of the fast current, playing them to the bank, holding the rod horizontally to maximize the pressure on the fish, etc. Whatever bad habits Daryl drilled out of us and instructions he provided will surely help us fish with future guides on this trip.

Also, you never know when you might assist your guide in freeing a sheep from a tangled wire. Daryl spotted one and untangled it while Robert held it down. They are frisky critters and don’t stay around to say thank you.

Daryl likes to use 5 wt. rods and says they can handle large fish. He uses a 10-foot 5x leader and adds an additional 4.5 feet of tippet with additional tippet for the flies. We used the 5 wt. rod the first two days and the 6 wt. on the last.

Robert drove about thirty minutes north from Gore each day to Balfour to meet Daryl. They fished the Waikaia River the first day and the Mataura River the following two days, one day with Bonnie. Daryl wants you to catch fish and keeps a tally of the number of fish landed and the number of strikes you had. Here’s how we did:

Day One: 3/11–17, 20, 22 inches
Day Two: 2/14–17 + 1@20 inches
Day Three: 6/10–16-18 inches + 1@22 inches

Waikaia River

Video! Daryl trying to help land a big fish!

Mataura River

Grubs lay eggs in one type of willow tree that lines the river banks. When the grubs hatch, their yellow larva fall into the water and are food for trout. Although this hatch peaked a month or so ago, there was still some going on and the memory of the trout made this fly effective.

Twizel

08 – 09 March 2023

Our guide for two days was Declan Wong. Like the rainbow trout in New Zealand, Declan is a transplant from the US, born in Upstate New York. Like other guides, he is a man of many professions, expanding widely on what we have heard to date. He is a filmmaker, magician, and actor. He once appeared at the Oscars, doing a shitck with Pee Wee Herman. Declan was the robot. Yes, it’s true. We looked it up on YouTube. He and his partner offer an Airbnb Experience in Queenstown—dinner and a magic show at their home and an introduction to fly fishing. Had we known!

His demeanor is very calm and thoughtful (until you hook a fish!), characteristics needed when he guided Robert and Bonnie. He lives in Queenstown and goes to Twizel on extended stays to guide.

Robert believes you need at least two days with any guide. Three is. better. The first day is for the guide to understand your abilities—what you do right, what you do wrong, and how to correct you. It gives the guide time to give you some instruction, which they are happy to do. This time also allows us to understand their demeanor and style of casting, which varies guide to guide. As an example, a prior guide had Robert shift his rod to be parallel to the shoreline in a bent form to play a fish to the bank. When Robert did this with Declan, he asked why Robert was not playing the fish with the rod bent in the vertical position. Styles differ.

Ahuriri River

The water level moved up in the past few weeks creating a shallow lake near the river’s mouth. We fished that first by sighting fish in the shallows. Only one hookup, but it snapped off. We then moved to faster water and were more successful. An additional four strikes and two landed—one fish about ten inches and the other about twenty-two inches. Declan says that in New Zealand, they compare trout by weight, not length.

We fished a variety of flies—midges, emergers, and dries. Some of the spots were technically challenging. One required a snap cast in which you hold the fly to form a bow in the rod and then let it sail over the water on rod length. Something like a bow and arrow. We hooked the larger fish this way. In another case, after hearing Declan’s exclamation on one cast, Robert stripped in the fly too soon from what was about a five-pound trout.

Grays River

Like the Ahuriri River, the Grays River is an hour’s drive from Twizel. It is small but technically challenging. So much so that Robert, although hooking two to three fish, got none into the net. In addition, Robert’s fly line broke during the day. Brand new. Declan pointed Robert to the Fisherman’s Loft in Christchurch for a replacement fly line—our first stop the next day.