Fly Fishing with Chris Dore

So the past couple of weeks have been interesting indeed! Summer disappeared with a bang, bringing snow to the hills and blanket flooding not often seen in these parts.  

Rob Vaz with a change-of-season monster

However, the rivers have recovered and are in fine form for those who can adapt to the conditions and with the background knowledge of where to find productive waters in changeable conditions.

In the high country

Whilst the summertime cicada populations have taken a hit, it is still worth prospecting the high country on warmer afternoons with a large dry, for whilst there may not be many naturals on the wing, the prey image of the large terrestrial will still be fresh in the trouts mind.

For the most part, our backcountry fish will be more so nymphing, and it is important to fish at the depth of the fish – they won’t often lift for a nymph in cooling temperatures, but will happily accept most things which enter their foraging zone. Many nymphs are simply not heavy enough, even with tungstan beads. Most autumn nymphs I tie incorporate oversized tungsten beads along with an under body of lead. Split shot is often applied to the leader in order to attain depth in the faster flows, and above all, keep your nymphs small – you must represent the size, general shape, and the depth at which the naturals are present. If the trout appears to be ignoring your nymph, it doesnt mean you are fishing the wrong pattern – you simply arent getting deep: Lengthen and maybe lighten your leader, change your casting position, implement a different slack line presentation or add a peice of shot. If he is feeding he can be caught. Fact.

Hotspot Caddis - a great late season pattern.

Green Caddis, Mayfly bombs, stoneflies – as long as they get down to where the fish want ‘em, you are in with a grin.

However, in the high country it is the streamer which I use to the fullest extent. Sight fishing with streamers can be fun. Deep holding, dormant fish will often break out of their lull as they switch from the ‘need to feed’ to the ‘need to protect their territory’ mindset, and the aggressive nature of autumn fish plays into the anglers favour. Double bunnies or conehead streamers work a treat when fished on a level, 10lb leader and 7wt rod. Keep your eye out in stores for my ‘Dores Mr Glister’ conehead streamer, designed to get deep, cast easily and hit these bigger backcountry trout.

Simply pitch them upstream either blind, or ahead of a sighted fish and dead drift them back down as you would a standard nymph. Maintain contact with your fly and when it tugs; tug back! See the following videos for a demonstration of short line, dead drift streamer techniques. Keep your eye out for the fish sitting just off the drop offs, but a rod ahead of the angler.

Vid 1

Vid 2

And the lowlands

The shift from our summertime approach however is more to do with water temperature. Whilst this recent downward plunge in the mercury will send trout in the cooler, high country waters into preparation mode for spawning, the cool, crisp mornings giving way to pleasant afternoons really get the mayfly going in the lowlands.

Following the rains of recent, knowledge of the more stable riffles will produce the goods. Lesser sections of river will have had their mature mayfly populations obliterated, and only the larger, more stable rocky riffles will have survived.

When prospecting riffles I utilize a longer leader leading to a pair of small, tungsten mayfly nymphs. Indicators are helpful at times but I feel they restrict ones drift somewhat, and many hits go undetected due to the time they register to sight. Contact nymphing with a longer leader and without an indi is my preferred method in faster waters, and one is often left wondering if the take was felt, seen or ‘sensed’ afterwards – a great feeling indeed.

Hatch time is the usual – fish well, present better and use small, flush floating emergers for success. Study the rise form for it is not unusual to get a spinner fall coinciding with an emergence of duns, and with mass amounts of mayfly on the surface fish will often lock on to a specific prey image to the detriment of all else. If they are locked onto spinners, an emerger will be met with random success and if they are locked onto emergers and you are presenting a full floating dun, in the words of Al Pacino – ‘Forgeddaboudit’.

April provides some of New Zealands best, and some would say only, true match the hatch fly fishing opportunities. Check out my page on Awesome Autumn opportunities and get down south for some of the best dry fly action of the season.

Bring it on!

Chris

Hotspot 'Mr Glister' Streamer - Simply Awesome!