Twizel Canals Winter 2022 - Five Fishing Tips For Beginners By Allan Burgess The Twizels Canals are a spectacular place to fish for trout and salmon at any time of year but the winter season offers something extra special. It gets very cold at night, like as low as minus 10 deg C and some…
Flats Kahawai - A Date with Little Olive There have been a few big flats kahawai showing up along the southern edge of the Otumoetai Channel. Another reason I like to frequent this location is that there is always a small chance of seeing a juvenile white. My heaviest kahawai on a #3 rod using…
Tauranga Flats Kingfish on my Vintage Glass Fenwick Feralite FF 858 By Dick Marquand Some of you will know of my love for vintage glass fly rods, particularly the Fenwick Feralite series that were made in the USA in the 1960s and 1970s. Kilwell in Rotorua imported the glass Fenwick Feralite blanks and built the…
Salmon Season 2021-2022 Final Washup There was a big improvement in fish numbers in the Rakaia River but overall returns were patchy! By Allan Burgess Salmon anglers fishing the Rakaia River witnessed a marked improvement in fish numbers overall compared with recent years. I have been told by a number of old hands that it…
Hatchery-Reared salmon doesn't mean smaller fish By Michael Field-Dodgson I read a lot of comments on why the salmon runs have dwindled and the size of those salmon caught is smaller. One significant variable that negatively impacts the salmon which no one has mentioned is the impact of Homo sapiens.........the angler. In this article, we…
Sand Flounder - Rhombosolea plebeia - Considered by many to be the best eating fish in the sea The Sand flounder is one of the four main species of flounder, or flatfish, sold in New Zealand…
Flounder Netting By Peter Langlands I have still not lost that feeling of excitement as the flounder net is hauled by hand from the invariably murky water in which the flounder inhabits. The flounder can be felt wriggling in the net. Flounder netting is something I haven't paid much attention to until recently when I…
Canterbury Winter Fishing Blues By Piscator As an angler, don't you just hate winter? The salmon runs are over and many trout waters are closed, days can be cold and nights are long. I know a lot of anglers pack their rods away until the warming days of October and November. Yet there is some…
Terrestrials and the Trout - A User's Guide in Four Parts - Parts One and Two By Paul Corliss What has changed since the very first account of fishing with a fly was written? Nearly all things but one have, that one is the food. The insects and creatures of water and land are pretty…
Fenwick Feralite FF98 the slow soft-action was ideal for a Lure Rod By Allan Burgess Many Kiwi anglers will remember with fondness the old Fenwick Feralite fibreglass fly rods. The blanks were imported from the United States, fitted out and marketed by Kilwell Sports back in the early seventies. In their day these were top…
Breakaway Surfcasting Sinkers for distance casting and firm grip on the seabed The breakaway sinker, I believe, first originated in England. The idea was to produce a sinker that would cast a long way, and hold firm on the bottom using wires that would release when a fish hit or the angler decides to reel…