Waikato Browns

Wow!, The fishing around the Waikato is red hot right now, Aggressive Rainbows all coloured up and in Superb condition just smashing the shit out of big Streamers right now, Buttery Beefed up Browns also showing there presence a lot more. Some mornings I can grab a Flatwhite on the Main street of Hamilton, Run down behind the Casino, Pass the Homeless guy sleeping in the bush and throw out a line and catch 2 or 3 Browns in Downtown Hamilton on the Waikato river in Ten minute's, That's how good the fishing is right now.

Iv'e been guiding more then ever at the moment a lot of my clients had been putting off there usual mid summer trips to chase late season browns, Which seem to be the main target right now, We are getting terrific runs of Browns running up the lowland streams in the Waikato area, As well as the hydro lakes south of the Tron, Any little stream flowing into these Lakes is worth throwing a Fly at. Throwing bigger meat flies at them seems to be getting there attention, We have been sight fishing with Streamers/Buggers using about 6-7' of 8-12lb Airflo Sightfree Extreme Flurocarbon, Using a slighty heavier Leader gives you the ability to give these fish a bit more pressure when playing them and also land them a lot quicker.

Fish Magnet Greig Cousins with a Stunning small stream Brown

The Mangatutu is fishing very well as it has all season, Getting up there during midweek is key which gives it time to recover from the weekend warriors. The Puniu river which joins the Mangatutu behind Waikeria has it fair share of Bows and Browns right now, My go to fly in these waters seem to be a Orange bead Hare and Copper, When Fishing down stream Dore's Mr Glister in brown is doing the damage, Have a look at some of the many streams running off the western side of the Kaimai Ranges, Especially when we get our next dose of rain these rivers are going to be cranking, Don't put away your rods yet we have another month of great fishing and theres a Brown out here with your name on it.

No fish & Dogs

30km of winding gravel roads, Plus the smell of wet waders and nets still embedded with fish slime those cheap shit service station pies were ready to come back out.
If it wasn't for the sight of that king Country river down the bottom of the valley my mates car would of had a good splattering of puke on the outside panels and windows.

We had finally made it after hours of scrolling maps and Internet abuse the night before this river was going to be legendary, We then had the rock paper sissors thing going to see who was going to get out of the car to knock on the farmers door, It wasn't because we were scared of the farmer but more his big fucking dog snarling and frothing at the mouth as it pounced all over our car.

After a quick coffee with Mr farmer (That's his actual name) we were given the green light to go for it, "Just leave gates as you find them and drive slowly, Good luck the fishing should be a piece of piss no ones been down there for ages". Now we were amping.

We drove as quick as we could down the 2kms of rough farm tracks, It was a very steep goat track down there I guess you could call it, Hope we can get back up "who cares worry about that later" was the call.  We couldn't believe it, We were going to be parking right on the river, I mean we could of fished from our car. This was going to be the best day ever everything was in our favour, We chucked on our gear strung up our sticks and walked the 3 feet to our first pool.

The pool was so fishy looking theres gotta be fish in there, A few flicks later with a few fly changes- nothing, We Fished for about 8hrs that day in some of the most cleanest clearest water the King Country has to offer and did not touch or see a fish, It was good day to pratice our casts and get some exercise. Yeah right.

I have fished this river since that day and have taken some nice fish, I have Gained regular access now and learnt some interesting lessons on this river which has kept me comming back, I also made a new friend, lady the big fucking dog.

Early Days- Intro

I was introduced to fly fishing by a English friend many years ago while living in Colorado, I had always seen these guys standing in the river waving sticks around, I was thinking what the fuck are they doing.

Years on now Im one of those guys and I still think- What am I doing?

I learnt to fish in the Rocky mountains of Colorado, I was living in Aspen at the time. Snowboarding and late nights of drunkiness was the only thing that mattered at this stage in my life, One summer I tagged along with a friend to a little creek up by Maroon bells to watch him fish, I thought this will be funny what the hell are you going to catch in there. His first cast was placed down on to the water and within a split sec that fly was smashed, He pulled in a nice little rainbow trout.
Shit that was cool," Your turn" he said after about a 1/2hr of trying to cast more than 3 feet of line from the end of the rod and catching bushes and trees and anything else that was behind me I managed to get a fairly good cast out with a white feather fly thing on the end, It hit the water and sunk- dam I thought that wasnt supposed to happen.
I suddenly felt the wiggle and weight of a fish on the end I could not believe how strong this fish was, It came off, Apparently you are supposed to let them run a little not skull drag them in.

The rest of the day was spent catching Brookies and Rainbows and this was the turning point in my life. The next day I went out and bought a rod and reel for $80 and fished 310 days that year.
Yep I was hooked.

I fished all over Colorado and some neighbouring states most days for years and have meet some amazing people and have made many many friends, I miss the rivers and creeks of the Roaring fork valley and one day I will return.

Now back home in NZ the adventure is just begining, friends are been made lessons are been learnt and always will be. I love Fly fishing.

www.waikatoflyfishers.co.nz