Our good friend and FlyStream regular Christopher Bassano is one of the team representing Australia at the World Fly Fishing Championships 2015. This year, the competition is being held in Bosnia, based around the historic, stunning village of Jajce – the pic below from their website gives some idea of venue! (Go to http://35thwffcbih2015.com/ for […]
Up on the north-east coast of Queensland, the summer wet season had drawn to a close. Though not the biggest on record, this ‘Wet’ brought enough rainfall for several major flushes through our rivers and wetlands, which should hold our fisheries in good shape for the year ahead. We’ve now settled into a stable early dry season weather pattern. The […]
I was recently forced by my wife to take the family on a three week intrepid adventure around Sri Lanka to appease her for the “numerous” flyfishing trips I do. Sri Lanka has a phenomenal history, but the part that excited me the most was the English occupation of the highland regions of Sri Lanka […]
Snowy Mountains trips with Steve Dunn rarely go to script, but they’re always fun and they usually contain a surprise or two. This April trip was supposed to be a ‘last of the warm weather’ trip when we locked it in back in February; in fact it played out as a start of winter trip, […]
As autumn begins it’s march toward winter, my thoughts turn to trout moving into the edges of our cooling lakes and snatching a few more days on our rivers during those still, blue sky days in north-east Victoria. However the drumming rain and frost of July and August holds less appeal. Although I watch the rainfall […]
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 […]
After a magic day fishing Auckland harbour for kingfish, it was time to focus on the trout. We had a few ideas and with the help of ex flyfishing guide Lindsay Lyons we were able to finalise our itinerary. Lindsay is our go-to flyfishing resource in the North Island and these days, he and his […]
Lesotho, isn’t that an Italian dish? No, it’s an independent kingdom surrounded by its much larger and more powerful economic neighbor, the Republic of South Africa. Pronounced ‘Lezutu’, 80% of the country is situated above 1800m and with higher peaks nudging 3500m, it is truly mountainous. It’s a simply spectacular drive through this country, now […]
New Zealand’s trout fishing is undoubtedly world class, and for this reason I try to plan a trip there once a year. My latest visit was meant to be only slightly different to the last, joining four good mates to check out a few rivers in the North Island we hadn’t fished before. One of our major suppliers at The […]
A belated Merry Christmas! Our present at Rainbow Lodge was sun, rain, snow and fish! The last few weeks have had the usual mixed Tasmanian weather and usual great Tasmanian fishing. To put it in a few words; sharks, duns, spinners, tailers, gum beetles, jassids and rivers. Let’s start with the sharks. The high pressure […]
Yesterday was Hobart’s wettest January day for a century and nearby Mt Wellington copped a massive half a foot of rain in 24 hours! Fortunately this came at the end of my trip with Andrew Marsic (FlyStream’s designer); not the beginning. We could watch the rain lashing the terminal windows while waiting for our weather-delayed flight without feeling too ripped […]
I’ve been guilty of ignoring Australian saltwater flyfishing opportunities till now. I knew I would do a trip one day but for me it would come after Venezuela, Costa Rica, Seychelles, Cuba and Christmas Island. Why? Most likely the same reason someone might want to catch a permit on fly or try and access a […]
I think that I have come to the realisation that it may be futile trying to plan a trip to NZ based on weather predictions or expectation. Leading up to my early November trip I was little apprehensive that I may be pushing my luck a bit and I would encounter cold, rain and high-fast flowing […]
It is rare to get any time off in November but over the past week, the Rainbow Lodge guiding team managed a trip to Victoria to practice for the National Fly Fishing Championships scheduled for the end of the month. We travelled to Falls Creek where we had two days on Rocky Valley Reservoir. The […]
So you’ve done a bit of fishing and you’re looking for a little adventure. Does falling asleep at night to the sounds of lions, hyena and hippos sound appealing? Have you considered targeting tiger fish in Africa? Aren’t they those mean looking critters you saw on ‘River Monsters’ once? Yes, yes they are, in fact […]
After 5 months of ‘look but don’t touch’, on Wednesday the 2014/15 river season opened and I was finally able to fish my local rivers again. Good mate and guide Craig joined me and around mid morning we headed to a stream just a few minutes’ drive from the lodge. It didn’t take long to […]
