Season 2004/2005: Very good times to come!
Season 2003/2004: What a challenge!
Season 2001/2002: The year of plenty!
Season 2000/2001: Big Fish!

Season 2004/2005: Very good times to come!

Hello, good morning!

What a pleasure of a fishing season has come to an end. The fishing has been brilliant and the fish were in very good condition. Here in New Zealand, the fishing and more importantly fish sizes, seem to go in cycles. Often you get a good spawning and juvenile fish rearing season, followed by a few bad ones. This results in some fish generations almost missing and one generation therfore taking over. When this generation is in their last years, past their peak, generally the fishing and the fish condition is comparingly poor. After coming out of one of these bottom cycles in 2002, the fish now are fit, well conditioned and of very good size. Link this with a mild winter, as we are currently experiencing, and things look rather rosy for next season. To the point, where I am extremely excited about the future fishing prospects. The only drawback, a few more months to go before the new season starts again. Tuff, but then again, a small price to pay!

To all of you, greetings from New Zealand, where the fish are growing bigger and stronger by the minute.
Cheers and "very tight lines very often!"
Serge and the team.

Season 2003/2004: What a challenge!

G'day.

Another guiding season has come to an end and this year's motto has to be "what a challenge it has been"! The season started very positively, with the weather and fishing being right up there from October through to December. All factors like the weather, water, fish and insect activity were good and a relatively easy main season was on the cards.

In the New Year the weather gods decided not to give New Zealanders a summer and one front after another hit the country, with not very much of a break in between. This resulted in the water levels being up and down, enough to make even a Yo-yo dizzy. Therefore the fish never really settled into a predictable feeding position and behaviour. To be at the right place, at the right time doing the right thing was absolutely vital this past season. Deviate only a little from it and you would find yourself struggling to get a single fish in a day, as many unguided anglers soon found out. It surely was the year most visiting anglers needed a fishing guide!

If you got things spot on, some mighty good fishing was experienced. Two fishing trips surely stood out this season. On the one 51 trout between 3 and 6 lbs. were caught by a single fisherman in a couple of days. The second memorable fishing occasion resulted in 5 fish over 8 lbs. caught in a row in an afternoon. On this two day trip 19 fish were released, with an average weight of almost 7 lbs. Please note that these two trips were outstanding, but with a bit of luck and good planning, there is no reason they won't happen again. I for one can't wait!

Cheers
Serge and the team.

Sugie Noriaki (Japan)

Season 2001/2002: The year of plenty!

Hi sport friends.

How are you? Outside the leaves are falling, the temperature is sinking and the trout are once again left in peace to reach their spawning grounds and make babies for many years to come.

He couldn't resist a big dry.

For me it is time to open a beer, sit on my desk and reflect on the past season. Once again, I must say, "what a good season it has been!" While last year was the year of the monster trout, this year was most definitely the year of plenty. The start of the season was rather wet, but when the conditions improved the trout were everywhere. The most trout seen on any day was 55 and not only did we see 55 fish, but also their average was around 5 pounds. But things got even better when the temperatures and trout began to rise. Yes it was DRY FLY HEAVEN and on one magical day we rose 38 good trout to the dry fly. Only a dozen fish were caught on that day, as the client decided to bend in the hook and just pull out the fly of the fish's mouth after the fish rose to it. Why not, he had caught more fish then he has ever dreamed about and this way he could keep having lots of fun seeing the fish rise to his fly. But to be honest, on a few occasions (when spotting a very big fish) the hook was bent back into its right shape. Yes days like that one will never be forgotten. For that matter 6 weeks of magic like that will never be forgotten!

Of course not every days fishing can be like that and as always there were a few frustrating days in between the dream times when the weather, water or fish did not want to play the game. But all in all it was a fantastic season.

Another highlight this year were all the co-fishomaniacs we had the pleasure to meet and guide. It is almost unbelievable what people do to experience the New Zealand dream fishing once in their lives. But be warned you come once, you will want to come more often. As I always say, once hooked, means hooked forever and the New Zealand fishing will hook you for good!

Now to our web site competition. Yes, this competition had proved to be very very popular. A new record of entries have been received this year. Unfortunately we did not beat last year's big fish, but at 5.50 kg (12 lb+), this years fish is not a bad one either. Please check out the competition page for this year's winner.

Big fish, oh yeah, the one that got away. I do not know if it would have been the biggest fish this season, but the chances are high. It was most definitely the biggest fight of the year. First the fish was hooked on a dry fly, then we followed the fish about 100 meters upstream, followed by about 400-500 meters downstream. On the downstream run the fish took out 30 meters of fly line, 50 meters of backing and about 20-30 meters of back up backing. Unfortunately the fish broke off, because it went down another set of rapids, where we could not run after it anymore. I guess my client (or me) could have jumped into the river and followed it down the rapids just as they did in the movie "A river flows thorough it". I have never seen anything like it and do not think it will happen again in a hurry!

Finally once again we would like to take this occasion to thank the many people we had the pleasure to spend time with on the water. We hope to see you again and we are also looking forward to meeting new people in the new season for some more fishing adventures.

Cheers and "very tight lines very often!"

Serge and the team.

Season 2000/2001: Big Fish!

Hi there.

It is now mid June and the main fishing period is well and truly over. With winter well at our doorstep, it is time to reflect on the past season, which can only be summarised by "please, give me more!" Yes indeed, we have just had a wonderful year with lots of big fish caught (a total of 19 fish above 4 kg = 9 lbs.). The biggest whopper was 6.80 kg = >15 lbs.! Not only were lots of good fish caught, but also high was the average weight at almost 2.5 kg = 5.5 lbs. Unbelievable, but in the best big fish river the average weight of the trout caught was over the magical 10 lbs. mark. The main reason for the fish being so big are the many mice we have had in the local beech forests over the last few seasons. This year, more then any others I have ever witnessed, underlined the motto "quality, not quantity", for which our region is so renown for.

And another good one!

It is also time to announce our winner of the yearly "biggest fish caught" competition. The biggest fish weighed 6800 grams and was caught by Didier Cuenod from Geneva in Switzerland. Didier's wish was to catch a trophy trout and a rather good trophy did he catch. The closest guess was by Birgitta Hoevers (out of 68 participants) from the Netherlands with a weight estimate of 6450 g. Congratulation Birgitta, you have herewith won a day of free guiding! We will keep you informed on how the day turned out.

As the bookings for the new season are steadily flowing in, I am already thinking about the new season ahead. Indeed, with a season like the one just passed, I can not wait to go out there and do it all over again, even though a total of almost 90 days were spent on the water during the main season (October to April). For future lifestyle sake, we have decided to limit the number of guided days to 80 per season. This will give us the time to do some fishing as well, then once hooked, means hooked forever! Don't you wish, sometimes it was the same with fish?

Finally we would like to take this occasion to thank the many people we had the pleasure to spend time with on the water last season. If it was not for you, the whole season would have been only half as much fun! We hope to catch up with you again and we are also looking forward to meeting new people in the new season for some new adventures.

Cheers and "very tight lines very often!"

Serge and the team.