Tag Archive for: flats

nz, new zealand, fly fishing, diy, backcountry, brown trout, south island

Read the first part of this series HERE.  After a few weeks on the island we had put some great fish in the net but conditions had been tough.  The rivers had blown out twice and most of the fishable days had overcast skies which made spotting tough in lots of the water we were fishing.  We pushed through and made the best of it.  We spent some time fishing the flats for kingfish which was a wild experience.  I think we were a few weeks behind on timing and it seems that the locals feel the fishery is getting heavily pressured and there’s some shady tactics being used by guides with boats.  We had a good time despite few kingfish sightings and wen’t back to town before being flow deep into the backcountry.

nz, new zealand, fly fishing, diy, backcountry, brown trout, south island, foot bridge, jungle

Headed into the abyss, and hopefully home to many big brown trout.

nz, new zealand, fly fishing, diy, backcountry, brown trout, south island

NZ flats tugger

nz, new zealand, fly fishing, diy, backcountry, brown trout, south island, kingfish, flats, ocear

Headed out in search of kingfish

nz, new zealand, fly fishing, diy, backcountry, brown trout, south island, flats, ocean, kingfish

Kahawai headed back to go smash baitfish

nz, new zealand, fly fishing, diy, backcountry, brown trout, south island

Target spotted. Clear water made it easy to see fish but harder to catch.

nz, new zealand, fly fishing, diy, backcountry, brown trout, south island, hooked up, big pool, friends

Teamwork as Zack tries to bring a brown trout to the net.

nz, new zealand, fly fishing, diy, backcountry, brown trout, south island, zack boughton

A medium sized backcountry brown. A hell of a fighter though.

nz, new zealand, fly fishing, diy, backcountry, brown trout, south island, travis boughton

The longest and arguably the prettiest fish of our trip to NZ.

nz, new zealand, fly fishing, diy, backcountry, brown trout, south island

Josh making light work of a bank side brown trout.

nz, new zealand, fly fishing, diy, backcountry, brown trout, south island, josh rokosch

This day we got worked for hours until Josh picked the right bug and flawlessly drifted it until this brown took.

nz, new zealand, fly fishing, diy, backcountry, brown trout, south island

Chasing brown trout in big water meant a slip was inevitable.

nz, new zealand, fly fishing, diy, backcountry, brown trout, south island

Got him netted baby!

nz, new zealand, fly fishing, diy, backcountry, brown trout, south island, alpen reels, simms fishing

Small guy but big engine.

nz, new zealand, fly fishing, diy, backcountry, brown trout, south island, heli, fishing

1st fish after the heli drop. Stoke was HIGH

The backcountry was amazing but the fishing was tough!  Coming that late in the season meant that the easy to see fish were insanely spooky and picky on flies.  We all got into beautiful fish but our hookup to sighting percentage was definitely in the single digits.  Finding fast water and taking extra time to try to spot fish in that water made things easier as it seemed these fish hadn’t been pressured as much.  Be looking for Part 3 soon.