Bruce McLean - March 16 newsletter

Zipping out the line by Gebhard Krewitt

Club ContactsExecutive:President: Maree Peter 5224166 [email protected] President: Tony Entwistle 5444565 [email protected]: Bruce McLean 5480066 [email protected]: Ray Day 5441245 [email protected] Editor and Webmaster: Graham Carter 07 8551833 [email protected] 021 02600437CommitteeRichard Breakspear 5419050 [email protected] Lawler 5489753 [email protected] Williams 5445996 [email protected] Jemson 7443123 [email protected] Richards 0274349165 [email protected] Stevenson 5469632 [email protected] and Greet New Members Ray Day and Pete LawlerFishing trips James Macdonald [email protected] 03 5403520Fly Tying Convenor no appointmentClub Librarian Cameron Reid 547 1197 [email protected] Master Richard Boyden 544 8028 [email protected] Sponsorship & Newsletter Advertising Ray DayClub Speakers: Committee membersClub Night Tea/Coffee: Maree PeterNewsletter Distribution: Brian Richards [email protected] 0274349165Life Members: 2007 John Willis 2012 Graham CarterPast Presidents: 06-08 Lester Higgins 08-09 Ross Walker04-06 Richard Boyden 11-13 Ray Day 13-15 Tony Entwistle09-11 Dennis Ealam THE NELSON TROUT FISHING CLUBMeets once a month at: Fish and Game Offices, 66 Champion Road, Richmond. Normally the 3rd Wednesday of the month 7.00pm. Please phone 5224166 if unsure. Any views or opinions expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of the committee, club or editor. www.thenelsontroutfishingclub.com

President’s FlylineWe have had an interesting month with three lots of people in our B&B the firstone was a Frenchman from America. He flew into Nelson on Sunday the 7th andwas on the river fishing for the rest of the dayHe turned up at our house just as his Guide for the next day Don, was leaving sothey had a face to face before the next day and they knew what each otherlooked like.Don arrived at the agreed time on Monday with lunch in hand, and some Sultanacake was given from me to keep them going for the day. They had a great day onthe Mot and up the Baton, landing several fish, so Sabastian was very happy onhis return to our place.After tea we took him for a drive up the Wangapeka for a fish and a look, we sawsome big fish and that inspired Sabastian to head back up there on the Tuesdayfor the day, he hooked 3 but did not land any, so he was happy with his day.On the Tuesday (after directing him to the Jade factory in Hokitika to buy hiswife (that he had left at home with 5 children) a present. He headed off to theWaitangitaona River where he landed a 5-6lb fish he was very excited over thisand was very grateful, of the advice from a close friend of ours, to fish this riverand not drive from our house to Lumsden in one day, as several people were tellhim not to do. So he split the journey into two days and had a bit of a lookaround.Sabastian was very impressed with the water quality he had seen in our region,which is good to hear. It is always nice to have a likeminded person in the B&B.The next victims were two Australian girls biking from Picton to Murchison in oneday. They got caught with the day ending too soon or with them spending toomuch time in Nelson, so they were lucky and we gave them a ride to the Kawatiriturn off, where we headed off to retrieve a fuel bowser from a farm up theHoward. They were stocked to have a free ride to there.Then just last weekend a English retired couple do their big OE spending 3months in New Zealand and Australia. They had done the North Island and werefinishing their trip in the South before heading to Australia.I hope the fishing is still going ok, I hear the trout on the Mot are taking cicadasat the moment.So that is all from your most Gorgeous leader for this month.Maree PeterCover Photo: Great day on the river 5lbs. By Richard Breakspear 4

Nelson Trout Fishing Club INAUGURAL ANNUAL DINNER 6.30 pm Saturday, 11th June 2016 CLUB WAIMEA, LOWER QUEEN ST RICHMOND FOR MEMBERS & PARTNERS $25 PER PERSONMeal, guest speaker, spot prizes, quiz, raffles Lots of fun Get to know your fellow membersPreliminary notice put this date in your diary

TROPHY TROUT NEEDEDDear Club MembersHere it is early March and most likely each of you have gone fishing once or twicesince our last meeting in February.I have found that in most places like the Motueka or Wangapeka that there arefish around even in the low clear water. Right now its cicada season.As the trophy master for the club I wish for you to enter your catch with me atnext meeting - how’s about it ?I do not care if its on a piece of paper with details - weight, length (for conditionfactor rating) and maybe a photo .I will have entries forms at the meeting.If you would it will be great - there are still a lot of club trophies with no entriesat all.Please Note: we also accept entries from club trips outside our region andpersonal trips. Thank You.A bloke walks into a bar in Sydney and orders a shandy.All the Aussies sitting around the bar look up, expecting to see another Kiwivisitor.The barman says, \"You ain't from around here, are ya ?\"The guy says, \"No, I'm from New Zealand.\"The bartender says, \"What do you do in New Zealand?\"The guy says, \"I'm a taxidermist.\"The bartender says, \"A tixidermist ? What the hick is a tixidermist ?Do you drive a tixi ?\"\"No, a taxidermist doesn't drive a taxi. I mount animals.\"The bartender grins and yells, \"He's okay, boys. He's one of us !!\"Matt's father picked him up after school and asked, \"So how did the school playtryouts go?Did you get a part?\"Matt enthusiastically announced that he indeed did get a part in the play.\"I play a man who's been married for 50 years,\" he said.\"That's great son,\" the father replied. \"Keep up the good work and before youknow it, you'll get a speaking part.\" 6

How to recover your Salmon and others luresby Richard BoydenThis story starts with fishing with a friend Terry Kelso, who made the commentthat he had lost 27 lures while fishing on the Rakaia River fishing for salmon,until a fisherman told him about the lure recovery bottle technique.“mate you should be trying the trick of using a one litre milk bottle to lift thehooked lure off the bottom of the river”.Since using this method Terry has a recovery rate of 90% and saved many dollars.Try this:Material –One litre milk bottleOne snap swivel and half metre ofmono line (to tie snap swivel to bottle andsecure to your belt to carry).Method to recover:Hook bottle to running line and hold rod highto bring bottle closes to water and nearhooked lure. Put pressure on line and maybemove left or right until releases the lure. Itworks and easy.Try it!! and carry the recovery bottle with you.

Lake Brunner, February 17-20, 2016By Dave Scranney and James MacdonaldThe annual trip to Lake Brunner was scheduled originally for late January. Theforecasted poor weather led to a postponement to mid February. As it happenedthis also coincided with pretty ordinary weather, when nearly 100mm fell inNelson over a couple of days. Lake Brunner benefitted from an inflow of coolerwater lowering the near surface temperature to 19-22oC from a recent high of25oC, according to the gentleman behind the bar in the Moana Hotel.Mike Standish-White, Chris Sherwood and James Macdonald arrived on theWednesday, with Dave Scanney and son, Jake, arriving a day later. The objectivewas to target the trout with cicada patterns. James did manage to hook oneearly on with a cicada, but the fish spat the fly after one short run. Mike hooked(and lost) a fish on his spinning rig, while both Chris and James caught a smallnumber of fish over the two days, using a rainbow bead-headed spider and acruncher (Chris) and Hamill’s Killer (James). A mussel that clamped on my sunk line 8

Meanwhile, Dave & Jake achieved greater success; Dave writes: I'd managed tosway Jake's teacher to release him from school for a two days father & sonfishing trip. Jake is 7 and I can't believe my luck that he has the fishing bug asbad as me.Jake and I arrived at Moana early Thursday afternoon following the morning’sdrive from Nelson. We were eager to fish and full of anticipation. This was verymuch fuelled by Jakes uncanny angling luck rarely blanking.However, Brunner is a big lake and relatively intimidating when you fish it thefirst time. Nevertheless, following one’s nose around the lake it didn't take longto find very fishy habitat. We soon found several large shallow bays withLargosiphon weed beds, fringed with Kahikatea swamp margins. The habitatlooked ideal and we anticipated a firm pull on our twitched damsel flies.Hours later and not a fish had shown, no rises and absolutely no pulls. This wasdespite covering large amounts of water, bays, points, drop offs and river ripsand fishing various depths, an assortment of flies and colours, all drifted andretrieved at varying rates. Best fish of the trip to a muddler minnow 9

Back at the motel we discussed tactics with Chris, James and Mike. It wasevident the fishing was tricky with few fish netted. The discussion touched onthe patchy locations cicadas were hatching and the high lake surfacetemperature.So the next day I decided to have a nose around the river mouths carefullywatching the fish-finder for depth and temperature.The temperature was a consistent 19 to 20oC wherever we went. Pretty muchthe upper limit for brown trout feeding and most likely that any trout would seekcooler water. The Two main rivers the Crooked and Hohonu were marginallybetter at 18.5 but it seemed the cold water quickly sank into the depths just offthe river mouths. Well the water here quickly descends to beyond 50m well outof reach of a fly fisher. I had no jigging gear nor was interested in fishing otherthan with a fly.So we pottered around to Swan Bay under the impressive bluffs and beautifulshoreline of Mount te Kinga. As we approached the Orangipuku River in a metreof water the temperature read 17oC. Perfect, I thought, and worth droppinganchor and prospecting the relatively cool bay. Close up of the best fish

Above: Jake Scranney - a natural skipper, and below: Nice brown to a damsel

Keeping Jake's spirits up and interest levels high was necessary between thesqually rain showers and so far fish-less trip. I talked up our chances saying ifthere were fish to be had they'd be here. I set Jake up with a bubble float anddamsel fly on his spinning rod. His instructions were simple - cast it out as far asyou can over the weed bed and twitch it back so that it jiggles.Meanwhile I put on a Mrs Simpson on a fast sinking line and cast into the drop offarea up wind. I had surmised the cool water would cascade down the slope intoBrunner's depths, and any feeding trout would concentrate here. I guess 5 or 6casts later I had affirmation - a rod wrenching pull was my cue to hand the flyrod to Jake. A good tussle later had Jake beaming as we netted a solid goldenBrunner brown of about 4lb. And worthy of a photo for Jake.A short while later the wind shifted and rose abruptly. It was a near gale within10 minutes and the waves with the longer fetch were soon crashing over the bowand bouncing the wee boat. This was clearly alarming Jake who took refugebehind the consul (he later told me he thought \"this was the story of how Jakey-boy dies\") - he is only seven after all!So we upped anchor and found a nice calm sheltered bay. Despite seeing a fewfish rise at drowned cicadas we had no further luck that Friday.Saturday came and we were back on the water by 9 AM. Despite Jake'strepidation about heading back to Swan Bay off we went. It was a different dayand the water was often glassy between a light ripple from the shifting breeze.Using a similar set up this time Jake managed the first fish on his damsel fly,another 4lber and later a fish of nearer 5lb on a muddler minnow. We weren’tsure whether this trout mistook the muddler for a bully or a drowned cicada. Ihad one more brown too with Jake completing the honours of playing the fish.Despite relatively low numbers it was a memorable trip for many reasons andexercise in persistence and puzzle solving. We are keen to go back but perhapswhen the water is cooler and the fish are in the margins..... Reward after rain

Top left: 4 eyes better than 2 Gebhard Krewitt; top right: Back water of LakeBenmore, by Brian Richards; mid left: Buggered but happy, by Peter Lawler; midright: It's a long way home, by Bruce McLean; bottom left: Released, by PeterLawler; bottom right: Wonder what they are taking, by Peter Lawler;Top left: A 5lb smile on a Murchison river, by Brian R; top right: Great day on theriver 5lbs, by Richard Breakspear; mid left: Happy camper, by David Cartwright;mid right: Who caught this Gebhard Krewitt; bottom left: Hook up Caples Riverby Brian Richards.



Online Entomology CourseFly selection often comes down to a guessing game, and when you have hundredsof flies in your box, that game can take a while to figure out. What's harder, iswhat may have worked last time on the water, doesn't work this time. It can befrustrating and can take away from the enjoyment of catching fish on the fly.We want to help you figure it out faster. We've put together an online coursethat will provide all the info you'll need to identify an insect that trout arecurrently eating, and match it to a fly in your box so you can spend more timefishing and less time guessing.Here is a free bug guide that will get you started in understanding what all thoseflies actually imitate in your box. It's a great resource so make sure to bookmarkit and come back to it often as you learn.The Catch and The HatchMost anglers open their fly box, look aimlessly at the hundreds (maybe more) ofdollars of flies and make their fly selection based on their past experiences orwhatever “looks good” in their box. “I did good on that one last year, guess I’lltry it out.” When is the last time you heard a guide say that?You don’t, and it’s because they first ask the question, what are the trout eatingtoday? Once they have a strong, educated decision, they select the fly and beginto catch loads of fish. The knowledge that helps them select the right fly fasterand more accurately is fly fishing entomology.This article will help you understand the orders, stages, sizes and colours of99.99% of all insects you will need to identify on the river. This is the first step infly fishing entomology. With time you will learn to observe and identify thespecific insects, and stages, which are attracting the trouts attention, but fornow let’s just familiarize ourselves with the menu. We’ve put together acomplete list of orders, stages, sizes and colours that are important to the flyangler. Insect Categories Midge Dry – Non-biting mosquitos Let’s learn quickly what we mean by orders and stages, then we’ll show the list of insects by order, category, size and colour. Orders are just a fancy and scientific way of saying a category of insect. Remember in highschool biology when they taught Kingdom, Phylum, Class, ORDER, Family, Genus, Species?

Of course you don’t, who listens in highschool biology? You should have listenedthough cause it relates to fly fishing!All you really need to know is that as fly fishermen, nearly all of our fly patternswe use imitate orders of insects, not the specific species. Aside from somemayflies (Hex, Green Drakes, BWO, etc) and some stoneflies (salmonflies, yellowsallies etc), we keep it simple and only focus on the categories.This is great news for all of us, because instead of having to remember 10,000insect species, we just need to understand 12 or so categories.If you can identify the order of the insect, you’re more than 25% of the way toselecting the right fly. Stages aka Insect Lifecycles Stages of an insect simply refer to their current stage within an insect lifecycle. Insects go through complete and incomplete metamorphsis. Complete metamorphisis includes a pupa stage while incomplete skips that step and gets on with the story. Most insects that you need to know for trout fishing go through a larva (nymph), emerger, adult (dry), and spinner stage. We refer to these plainly as nymph, pupa, emerger, dry, spinner when fly fishing and they often correlate to fly patterns.Not all insects have these stages, and some have an extra pupa stage, and onlysome of those stages apply to trout feeding behaviour…We know it gets a bitcomplicated, but for now hold on to the fact that this provides a list for you todigest, not the entire subject. You’d need a fly fishing entomology course forthat and is a great idea if you’re ready to take your fly fishing to the next level.Let’s simplify and give you a framework you can use to start learning your bugs.In it you will see all the major insect orders (categories), the stages ofimportance to the angler, and common hook sizes and colors you’ll want toimitate them with. Book mark this page and refer to it often. On the river, atthe tying bench, whenever you need to match the bug.

The Complete List of Insects for Fly Fishermen Midges • Stages: Nymph, Emerger, Dry • Sizes: #14-26 • Colours: Any Color ImaginableMayflies• Stages: Nymph, Emerger, Dry,• Spinner• Sizes: #6-26• Colours: Any Colour Imaginable Caddis • Stages: Nymph, Pupa, Emerger, Dry • Sizes: #10-20 • Colours: Blacks, Browns, Olives, Oranges, TansStoneflies• Stages: Nymph, Dry• Sizes: #6-18• Colours: Blacks, Browns,• Oranges, Yellows, Olives, Tans Scuds • Stages: Nymph • Sizes: #12-18 • Colours: Greys, Pinks, Oranges, Olives, Blues, Whites, Two-Tones 17

Sowbugs • Stages: Nymph • Sizes: #12-18 • Colours: Greys, Pinks, Oranges, Olives, Blues, Whites, Two-TonesAnnelids (Worms)• Stages: Nymph• Sizes: #8-16• Colours: Reds, Pinks, Browns, Tans, Purples Damsels • Stages: Nymph, Dry • Sizes: #8-16 • Colours: Blues, Tans, OlivesDragonflies• Stages: Nymph, Dry• Sizes: #6-14• Colours: Reds, Blacks, Tans, Olives, Blues Water Boatman • Stages: Nymph, Dry • Sizes: #10-16 • Colours: Blacks, Olives, Tans, BrownsHoppers• Stages: Dry• Sizes: #6-16• Colors: Browns, Olives, Pinks, Purples, Tans, Reds, Yellows

Ants • Stages: Dry • Sizes: #14-20 • Colours: Blacks, Reds, Browns, TansBeetles• Stages: Dry• Sizes: #12-18• Colours: Blacks, Olives,• Browns, Purples, BluesWhen you break it all down to these categories, it doesn’t look thatoverwhelming. Contained within this list is 99% of all the insects you’ll need inyour fly box. Doesn’t look like much but when you begin adding up all thevariations, it’s no wonder why we all have 15 fly boxes and still complain to ourspouses we don’t have enough flies!This information is an excellent guide to helping you stock your box,understanding the basics of fly fishing entomology and beginning to learn how tomatch that hatch whether it’s above or below the waters surface. Want to Learn More? As you can see, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to learning about fly selection and entomology. We have a comprehensive online entomology course that you should check out. Just scroll down to learn more. https://thecatchandthehatch.com/product/fly-fishing- entomology-course/ Online Entomology Course Retail: $199.99 Sale: $99.99 Get $100 Off (50% Savings) The Premier Bug Course for Anglers Learn What Trout Eat – Catch More Fish

How Tides WorkTide's are the single most important factor in dictating bite times. It doesn’tmatter what species you’re chasing, from billfish to gurnard, their movementsare dictated by the tides.Everyone seems to understand the importance of the tidal effect in estuaries,especially up north where the tides can be huge. But offshore it seems it is rarelyconsidered by most anglers, yet it is just as important. We can’t see it so wedon’t think about it.The common misconception is that there is no tide offshore, but that is onlybecause we can’t physically see its effect.In an estuary you can see the tide exposing the sand banks then comes back inflooding everything, but offshore there is nothing to actually compare it against.While anglers may not be able to see it, the fish can certainly notice it.The tide influence is just as strong on all predatory fish be it snapper or marlin.However, its effect goes one step further and it is worth pointing out that tideoften affects prey species even more than the predators.How tides workEveryone knows that the tide comes in and goes out, but when you delve deeperinto it, there really is a lot of detail involved in the tide and how it works.The earth and the sun spinning on their axes have a big bearing on the tide butthe biggest influence is in fact the moon.Being closer than the sun, its gravitational pull is substantially stronger and itpulls the water out towards it as it spins around the earth.

This creates a bulge in the water wherever it is pulled towards the moon. It ismirrored on the opposite side while at each end of the earth it shrinks tocompensate. As the earth and moon move relative to each other the moon pullsthe water with it creating the high tide.The moon circles the earth every 28 days.During this time the earth rotates every 24 hours and 50 minutes, which is whythe tide change varies from day to day.When you see the moon rising it will be a run-out tide but when it is overhead itis a high tide because you will be in the centre of the bulge. Slack water is whenthe tide comes to a complete stop before swinging and going the other way. It’sa bit like throwing a ball in the air - it goes up, stops dead and them comes backdown.What is interesting is how long it stops for. On the full moon the slack tide maylast a few minutes while off the moon it can be 20 minutes or more. This seemsto be directly related to the intensity of the bite.On spring tides the bite can often be really intense but it never lasts long,alternately on neap tides the bite period tends to last a lot longer.Basic understanding like this will play a massive role in helping you to understandhow to maximise your time on the water.Tidal baitIf you are planning any fishing time in saltwater then you need to use the tides.When you have a good day on the water check and compare the time to the tideso you can build up a mental bank of when the fish bite according to the tide.Do this and you will catch more fish.A classic example of this occurs most days at the entrance to most estuaries andbays. With the run-out tide, bait starts to stack up as it is forced out. Thepredators know this and congregate to take advantage of the situation. Salmon tosharks and kingfish all take advantage of this tide-induced feeding frenzy. This isa scenario that is repeated right around the country.Offshore the upcoming tide change sees massive bait shoals rise up from thedepths towards the surface. While the bait isn’t the primary target, it certainlydraws up predators with it so the tide directly affects the bait, which in in turninfluences the target species. Why the bait rises up is still something no one cananswer.As a general rule you have four tides a day. As a result of this we get theoccasional days where we end up with five or three tides.

Try to coincide your fishing day with at least one tide change and preferably two.If fishing offshore an 11am and 5pm is just about perfect and means you don’thave to get up too early!In estuary waters where the run-out or run-in will produce the better fishing youhave to be a bit more precise with your fishing to match specific tides as opposedto simply a tide change.King of tidesTides are not equal. They vary greatly in size throughout the year. In places likeAuckland the variation is minimal, barely more than a metre.In the Kimberley in Northern Australia it’s more than 10 metres.Larger spring tides occur around the full and new moon when the sun and moonare aligned creating maximum draw. The smaller neap tides occur on the firstand last quarters (half moons) when the moon’s effect is least.Some of my best fishing sessions have been around the build up to the full moon,which happens to be the neap tides. One of my favourite times is the end of theneap tides just as they start to grow towards the springs because we have theclearest water but increased water movement at the same time.This writer hates fishing on a full moon when the springs are in full effect. It isthe week leading up to the moon that sees the most consistent action.Kingies and snapper inshore and even marlin offshore all see an increase inactivity four to five days before the moon.Estuary timesDon’t discount big tides in theestuaries. The water clarity will beless but being bigger the springscover more ground at the top of thetide.This allows many of the estuaryinhabitants a chance to feed overfresh ground. Species such asmullet will get right up in the flatsand as a result predators liketrevally follow them.Things change dramatically afterthe tide turns and suddenly all theprey species need to get back andthe predators are there waiting. 22



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