Catching Fat Trout Off-Season
Fly fishing season can last all year
Great off season Brown Trout caught.
Angler Phillip Norman, guide Andrew Christmas.
We’ve always classed our fly fishing season as running from November through to, say, April. This is the time most anglers want to come to Stonethrow Lodge hoping to catch brown or rainbow trout. However, the reality is that the fly fishing season here on the Whanganui River can last all year. A few tributaries close, but the main river remains open for fishing. This means there’s 25 km of river full of fat fish just waiting…
This year, we’ve had a couple of late bookings for guided fly fishing tours from eager trout fishermen. We said yes, hoping the weather would hold and praying for the best.
The first “off-season” angler to come out was Phil Norman, one of our regulars from Australia. He had an absolute ball. He reckons the average fish was fatter and faster than early in the season. Phil has been fishing here for about five years and does four fishing trips year, two of these in the supposed off season.
The second booking was Dave and Raully from Auckland. Given the weather forecast, I thought they were rather ambitious, as there was some wet stuff due. As predicted, the weather wasn’t great, but the boys arrived back from their fishing on both days pleased as pie. The fish “were going off”, they said.
This fits with something I discovered during my years as both a commercial and a fly fisherman. Some of my best fishing happened right as the weather started to turn.
I was fishing at Kuratau Lake once and noticed a big nasty weather pattern approaching from the south and, sure enough, it turned cold as the front approached. The fishing to this point had been average, but with bad weather on the way, the fish started to bite the instant the fly hit the water. That day is one I’ll remember for a long time, as I caught 37 fish in an hour! Then the heavens opened up, which sent me zooming back to the ramp.
I’ve had similar experiences fishing at sea where the longline had a fish on every trace when a front came through.
Catching a lot of fish is good, of course, but the best thing about fly fishing late in the season is the condition of the trout. The fish tend to be fat, due feeding up for the spawning season. And if it rains here at Taumarunui, you can always drive over the hill and fish the mighty Tongariro River.
So it’s all good. The only downside is you better make sure you wear a wading belt and around, oh, 25 layers of clothing!
