Tag Archives: fly fishing

New Zealand on my Mind

Visiting New Zealand is in the dreams of every fly fisher. Traveling there for the first time doesn’t relieve the itch. In fact, you can’t wait to get back!

Not an easy feat, to be honest, as money and spare time are hurdles difficult to overcome.

But, when more than a year ago I received an invitation from Chris Dore for some fishing in the South Island, I decided that it was time to jump those hurdles. So almost two years after my first trip to the sight-fishing paradise, I was there again.


Thanks a lot to Chris for his fantastic hospitality, we enjoyed a lot our stay at The Cottage!
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Too Poetic

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Prpa fishing on Pliva river

I have never seen any angler with such a good control of his drag-free drifts as bosnian guide, competition fly fisher and good friend Zeljko Prpic. Be it with a short or long line, all his reach, parachute and check casts are impeccable.

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¡Ve preparado!

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En algún río neozelandés; Parachute Adams #16; primer lance. Foto de Chris Dore

Lo suelo ver a menudo. Me refiero al hecho de embarcarse en un viaje de pesca pobremente preparado, especialmente en lo que se refiere a estar a la altura de las circunstancias en cuanto a técnica de lanzado. Yo mismo he sido culpable de ello más veces de las que me gustaría admitir. La frustración —agravada por una cuenta bancaria seriamente mermada— aguarda impaciente.

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Aprender de los errores

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Lejos de ser un ejercicio de auto flagelación estas reflexiones se basan en que hay buenos motivos para pensar que se aprende más de los errores que de los éxitos. Mediada la temporada, y con algún importante viaje de pesca a la vista, es el momento de reflexionar sobre algunos fallos para evitarlos en el futuro.

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Downstream Dry Fly Only

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Downstream on river Pliva

Upstream dry fly only, that is the rule stablished in some English chalkstreams by their managers. The rule in the Balkan spring creeks is exactly the opposite: downstream dry fly only, this time imposed by the fish themselves; the only law that incorporates in itself the punishment of frustation of those who violate it.

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Don’t Drag, my Fly, Drift Free!

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Piling the cast for the nymph to drift deep and naturally

Anyone marginally interested in the casting world tends to regard fly casting and distance casting as synonyms. It is the same in fly fishing shows: anglers trying bunches of new rod models with their eyes fixed in the far end of the casting pond; it doesn’t make any difference if they are holding a 9’#9 devised for bonefish in the flats or a 8’6″#4 destined to spring creek finesse. I can’t blame them, in the end most of the visual material available on the net is about putting a fluff as far as possible.

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Nothing New Under the Sun

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As the planning for a next New Zealand fishing trip began to take shape I remembered something lost somewhere in my messy fishing library. Browsing for a while gave its fruit. The book’s title is Stalking Trout, and it was published in 1985. On its first page a manuscript note by my hand says: June 2000. Continue reading →

Early? Late? Just the Opposite?

 

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The dreams of dry fly fishers are populated with big trout confidently sipping our flies from the surface. In my particular case I prefer to dream of a big brown eventually taking some of my tiny emergers, but only after a period of pure disdain interspersed with a number of refusals. There is no pleasure in too easy things. That is why a great fishing day can’t be measured in numbers, or at least not only in them. Continue reading →