Wild trout live in wild places and it doesn’t matter where you go in this world, if you flyfish for trout the weather can – and quite often does – play a significant role. Indeed, the quality of the wild trout fishery in New Zealand is, in a large part, a result of the amount of rain New Zealand receives.

If you cast your mind back to all the flyfishing you’ve done over the past couple of years, how much of it was in perfect conditions?  And, are we talking perfect conditions for the trout or the angler?

When you start to think about the complexities of weather, you open a Pandora’s Box of possibilities – of wind, rain, cloud, droughts & floods. So, the reality is that perfect day – weather-wise at least – is a rarity.

Just last week we had a delightful South African couple staying with us here in the north of the South Island to experience 3 days of flyfishing. Unfortunately the weather gods weren’t being especially kind. We’d had some rain over the previous few days and the conditions remained moody. The grand total catch after the first two days’ fishing was a single brown of around 6 pounds. The pressure was on for the 3^rd and final day and thankfully the sun came out, the mayflies hatched all day and Adrian hooked 11 browns and landed 10 of them – all on dries! Which just goes to show that in flyfishing, if you stay positive and persist, that big day is never far away.