I remember my first trip to New Zealand with John about ten years ago. It took all of an hour to organise. A quick email to Felix at Owen River Lodge to check availability, flights booked and calendars blocked. Busy people get things done! This current trip took a bit longer to organise. John has since […]
I’ve always maintained that you really can’t plan a DIY New Zealand trip until about two days before you arrive. That’s because the weather forecast is only useful for about 3-4 days ahead, and the 10 day forecast, well that’s just an ambitious guess at best. This was certainly the case for my three friends […]
We all know that sometimes the best laid fishing plans and expectations can be turned on their head. This was certainly the case in late January with a huge cold front, rain and a bank of clouds hitting the South Island during our annual summer adventure. In the 7 years Fly Odyssey have been hosting groups to New […]
Over the past 5 years or so we’ve planned an annual trip to the North Island and made a concerted effort to experience a new piece of water each time. Because of our keenness to always see new water, often these fishing holidays are the ones you need a holiday to recover from! This trip was no exception. The […]
A balmy evening greeted me as I hopped off the plane in Queenstown. A little later, beetles buzzed the streetlights as I walked down to buy a Furg Burger. A good omen, I thought…but I was in Southland. I was woken in the night to the sound of rain, heavy rain. My worst fears were realised […]
Around 20 years ago (neither of us can remember the exact date) I taught Felix to flyfish. Or more accurately, I gave him his first flyfishing lesson, since literally teaching someone to flyfish assumes an endpoint which I haven’t arrived at myself, let alone been able to pass on to someone else. Anyway, if you haven’t […]
Warm weather, gentle flows, bright blue days, crystal clear water and trout taking dries? You could easily assume that I am talking about summer fishing in NZ but in fact my recent trip began just 12 days after the season opening. I give up, I can’t pick the best time to fish this amazing region. Conclusion? […]
I’m just back from my annual trip based out of Turangi in NZ’s North Island. About midway through the week we’d had another good day on the famous Tongariro River (FlyStream magazine issue 2) landing 8 wonderful rainbows. So, feeling smug, we – my brother David, nephew Jamie and I – knocked off early and went to the Turangi pub for dinner. Guide […]
I was doing my best to maintain a steady drift down the old Eucumbene river bed on Providence Flats, the electric motor was excellent at nudging the boat back into the channel and the action, if not relentless was pretty consistent. The first decent fish I hooked stripped line with classic big brown lunges and […]
I follow the weather pretty closely leading up to fishing trips especially when heading to New Zealand. More often than not I nervously watch the progress of cold fronts and rain-laden clouds and pray they miss! On this trip the complete opposite occurred. Little or no rain for the preceding 4-5 weeks saw me resorting to performing […]
