NTFC Newsletter_June (1)

CLUB CONTACTS Executive Don Clementson 027 437 6019 [email protected] Barry Howell 544 3069 [email protected] President: Jean Willis 547 6432 [email protected] Past President Secretary Chris Clenshaw 544 5276 [email protected] Treasurer Committee Richard Breakspear 541 9050 [email protected] Kevin Nansett 545 2007 [email protected] Peter Lawler 548 9753 [email protected] Tony Entwistle 544 4565 [email protected] James Macdonald 540 3520 [email protected] Neil Anderson 539 4941 [email protected] Allan Ballard 544 1735 [email protected] Web Master Peter Lawler 548 9753 [email protected] 547 1197 [email protected] Club Librarian Cameron Reid 545 2007 [email protected] 027 437 6019 [email protected] Trophy Master Kevin Nansett Club Sponsorship Don Clementson Club Speakers Committee Members Club Night Tea/Coffee Committee Members Newsletter Editor James Macdonald 540 3520 [email protected] Life Members 1982 Chappie Chapman 2007 Jean Willis 2018 Richard Boyden 2021 Tony Entwistle Past Presidents 06-08 Lester Higgins 08-09 Ross Walker 09-11 Dennis Ealam 03-06 Richard Boyden 13-15 Tony Entwistle 15-17 Maree Peter 17-18 Michael Stevenson 11-13 Ray Day 19-20 Barry Howell The Nelson Trout Fishing Club Meets once a month at: Fish and Game Offices, 66 Champion Road, Richmond Normally the 3rd Wednesday of the month at 7:00pm Please phone (Don’s phone #) if unsure Any views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of the committee, club or editor Webpage: www.nelsontroutfishingclub.com Follow us on Facebook Cover: Pete Lawler’s first trout caught using a spinner in Germany

President’s Flyline Nelson Trout Fishing Club June 2022 Greetings Club Members. Welcome to the June Newsletter. Our mid-year dinner went a treat recently with a great turnout and lots of good spot prizes and fly lines given away. Thanks to our sponsor Flytackle NZ for supplying all the goodies. If you can support them for all your future fly fishing needs that would be great. Our fly tying for beginners is going well thanks to our teacher Tony Entwistle. The first night was on tying a basic nymph and then I demonstrated my world famous Copperdon last week which catches 90% of all my fish. This month not a lot of fishing is happening locally unless you travel to Taupo and catch rainbows in a barrel, or you could get the fly tying vice working to restock for next season. Some other things to do this winter if you don’t tie flies is to go and see the latest Tom Cruise Top Gun movie. Before you do, go and get a can of 8 Wired Maverick American Stout. It adds to the thrill. For those who didn’t go and see the first Top Gun movie years ago Maverick was Tom Cruises nickname. If you are finding it hard to catch a fish lately try the 8 Wired Dynamite Black IPA. It works every time. But if nothing is happening on the day then the Flatwhite Coffee Milk Stout works a treat. Don’t forget next month we will be holding our very short AGM and our very long Quiz Night. Be sure to be there

Buy & Sell 1. For Sale Sea Nymph Sea Rider 19 ft fibreglass runabout with 150 hp V6 Yamaha 2 stroke motor only 153 hours ,7.5 hp Mercury auxiliary. Single axle trailer, auto anchor, marine ship to shore radio, Humminbird fish finder and GPS, stainless steel rocket launcher for 6 rods, road cover, battery charger, demountable canopy and side panels, underfloor fuel tank, power cut out switch,and many other extras. All in excellent condition Offers over $39,000 Phone or text Chris 0274377630 2. Club Member Rick Usher would like to get in to Flytying. Would any members have some gear they would like to sell? Rick is a novice; he needs everything to make a start to flying simple flies in the Nelson area, mainly nymphs or drys. He will also need a vice. He is happy to loan and return as I have not done this before. Suggestions for links to YouTube would also help. Thanks Rick Ussher Contact Rick at [email protected] or 020 4168 1042



Originally published in New Zealand Outdoor, October 1953

A request from Rhys Barrier, manager Nelson Marlborough Fish and Game. F&G would dearly love to find out exactly which waterways Rainbows use for spawning within the Rai/Pelorus catchment – they have successfully located Brown trout spawning at some sites in this catchment including Tinline, Brown River Reserve, lower Pelorus True left unnamed tributary downstream of Daltons Bridge, plus a few others, we are yet to locate recent rainbow spawning sites despite looking for the last few years in Aug/Sep…… Reason being Rainbows have a much wider spawning window than Browns and can potentially spawn right through until Xmas or even later, so looking for them is very much a hit and miss exercise! Anyway, some club members that fish this catchment regularly may have even seen rainbows spawning in the past, any information would be helpful – the Te Hoiere catchment project is promising a lot of riparian planting and the like so any up to date information around spawning sites would be helpful for me to pass onto the catchment group. Counting Redds The forms I gave you are optional, a simple grid ref or similar, distance walked, and number of redds/trout jotted in a note book or phone will also suffice – after some experience observers will realise there is often one or two false redds associated with a genuine redd – these are areas where trout have started scratching in gravels only to determine the site substrate or flow isn’t suitable – false redds are usually half the size or less than the genuine article which is usually within 20 metres or so of any false redds…….and sometimes the genuine redd has a fish guarding it……and for those that havnt observed redds before they are generally located in pea gravels at the tail-out of a pool or run where it starts to form a v-flow and drops down into a riffle (i.e. in sites suspected sediment won’t settle out on)…….. I have attached a pic Jacob took from the Pearse which shows a genuine

redd just above the riffle, plus a likely false redd about half the size upstream of it for visual reference. A typical Redd, this one in the Speargrass Timing wise every 2-3 weeks is worth a look but it needs obviously to be between floods/freshes so best bet is to monitor the MDC flow website and choose survey periods after at least 5-7 days or so with no heavy rain so the system has time to clear properly to aid with redd spotting – we located many rainbows spawning mid-Aug at Lake Daniels, but anytime from early-mid July until say mid- November is worth a look within the Rai/Pelorus catchment…..priority wise the Rai is our most significant fishery in this catchment so any records within here will be gold for both the Te Hoiere project, but also our upcoming water chapter mediation on the Marlborough Environment Plan where we have opposed all new allocation in this part of the catchment – if any anglers know whom to talk to for access permission up the Tunakino, I have a feeling that is likely to be a popular spawning site for rainbows so would be a great place to start…….. Rhys We as a club have agreed to assist and are looking to do counts from mid-July. Details to be advised. Jean Secretary

Mid-Year Dinner, June 12 The Nelson Trout Fishing Club held its mid-year dinner on June 12 at the Anchor Bar and Grill. Before we had the meal, we received an address from Ray Grubb, who is Chairman of the National Fish & Game Council. The dinner organisers advised Ray to steer clear of politics, so Ray instead told some amusing tales about fishing companions, life as a guide, etc.. President Don with Ray Grubb to his left Don explained how to present your fish to the camera

Much fun was had by all the Anchor Bar & Grill Dave & Jake Scranney enjoyed the meal

Fishing Club Activities in June – Fly tying A series of fly tying workshops were held during the month. Tony Entwistle commenced with “Introduction to fly tying” a very informative and practical evening, where he explained in details the basics, the tools, how to use, the mechanics of tying the fly, etc.



The next session was more practical, with Don Clementson explaining how to tie his “top secret” highly effective Motueka nymph: Building a CopperDon

The CopperDon Photos by Jean Willis & Don Clemontson

Mary Bolland Fishing The Pelorus in Late June Photo by Michael Stevenson

My Fly Fishing Journey by Peter Lawler What age were you and how did you start fishing? My earliest fishing memory was when I was about 4 years old. It was a family and friends fishing trip camping by the mighty Murray River near Echuca in Victoria. I recall fishing for live bait from a dinghy which later on lost its outboard when crossing the river. The outboard was never seen again. I think that we were trying to catch Murray Cod. I can’t recall seeing any fish caught, but everyone seemed to be having fun, particularly around the campfire at night. I think Fosters was the drink of choice back then! In the early 60’s when I was five my father’s job was moved from Melbourne to Canberra giving him the opportunity to fish the now famous (in Australia) Lake Eucumbene in the Snowy Mountains as it was filling for the first time. This enormous man-made lake flooded several trout inhabited rivers to form a massive water supply for irrigation and hydroelectricity. In doing so it also established a large trout lake fishery. My father used to take us there to bait fish and spin from the banks and we would often sleep overnight in the back of the old Ford Falcon station wagon. I still have memories of being woken during the night by a reel screaming as another trout fell to either a live frog or worms. My father always beat me to the rod so I never actually caught one of these fish. Did you fish anywhere else while growing up? We moved to England a few years later and then to The Netherlands spending most of my adolescent years living away from Australia. I adapted what I had learnt from trout fishing to canal fishing in and around The Hague. While nothing like fishing in the wild places of the Snowy Mountains while dodging snakes and spiders, I enjoyed the thrill of catching a range of coarse fish, including roach, rudd, bream, carp as well as english perch and pike. I used ½lb breaking strain line, size 28 hooks, self cocking quill floats and live maggots. With everything scaled down it was still a challenge and good fun. And it was while traveling through then West Germany on a family camping holiday that I caught my first ever trout - on spinning gear at a river mouth flowing into a large lake called Kochel Am Zee in Bavaria. What happened when you returned to Australia? We moved back to Canberra which meant the Snowy Mountains was again the main fishing location. As soon as I had a car I was able to explore a few more places, although a Mini is not the greatest off road vehicle! It was during this time that I took up fly fishing - my first fly caught trout took a grasshopper pattern and weighed about 2 lbs and came from the Goobragandra River near Adaminaby. I became an active member of the Monaro Acclimatisation Society in the late 70’s which still exists today. The Society plays a major role in restocking waters in NSW, particularly following drought periods as well as keeping the State Government in line with requirements for protecting and promoting recreational angling.

FIRST TROUT - WEST GERMANY The South Coast of NSW also became a nearby fishing destination, particularly when drought conditions decimated trout waters, which opened up fishing opportunities for Australian bass. These wild native fish inhabit coastal rivers - the less accessible the better, so a canoe was often used to get into the headwaters. Fishing these places also opened up chances to fish lower down where a range of saltwater fish could be caught using a fly. Flathead, bream, luderick, mulloway, kingfish, tailor and Australian salmon were all targeted at various times. Fly fishing from the rocks was also a challenging way of catching some of these species.

THE GOLDEN MILE - MONARO TROUT FISHING, NSW I eventually purchased a boat designed for fly fishing which opened up further opportunities and we towed it far afield to places such as Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory where it was great for catching barramundi, saratoga and tarpon on fly in billabongs and rivers, although having very little protection from crocs was a constant worry and higher sides would have been more reassuring on a number of scary occasions! My work requirements also meant spending a fair amount of time in places such as Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Christmas Island and Jervis Bay Territory - all offering a variety of SWFF opportunities, one of my favourites being wading the flats, something I still love doing around many of the lakes on the South Island. I also worked out of Perth for a while which exposed me to fishing along the West Australian coast. I teamed up with a couple of other anglers from Perth to do a trip by boat to a deserted island off Exmouth where we lived out of a tent for a couple of weeks. We had to organise for all our food, fuel and other needs to be carried out by a larger boat and floated ashore. We later found out that this exposed us to a very large tiger shark which terrorised us on a number of occasions including attacking the outboard motor on the rear of our boat. Despite this we had some amazing fishing including giant trevally and queenfish on poppers and fly using 10-12wt fly rods and lead core trolling line as shooting heads. One of the trip’s highlights was a 22kg world record spanish mackerel on fly caught by one of my mates.

SPANISH MACKEREL - OFFSHORE EXMOUTH WA To top off my SWFF fun I spent time with my nephew in Exmouth Western Australia, where he took me out to catch sailfish and black marlin on fly - this time scaling up to account for the size and fight of these fish - up to 15wt fly rod. I am not sure that this can truly be labelled fly fishing, but nevertheless a fly rod, reel line and fly of sorts is used! SAILFISH - EXMOUTH

Why did you move to New Zealand? In between all of this, while working in Canberra, Heather and I fell in love with New Zealand and tried to get here most years for a couple of weeks at a time to enjoy the scenery, people and the trout. This eventually led us to move here about 11 years ago - a decision we are still very happy with. I still have my custom fly fishing boat which needs to be used more often and have added an off road caravan to my armoury which means a bit more comfort for Heather and myself when staying beside rivers or lakes away from caravan parks and people. I love heading off to explore new waters either on my own or with mates and over the years have enjoyed some fantastic fishing all over the South Island – something I will never get tired of. I still believe that fly fishing for trout is the pinnacle of the sport and where else would you want to be but on the waters of a river or lake in New Zealand? Thanks for the opportunity to tell some of my story.