Southern Hemisphere

On Apr 24, 10:26 am, "Larry L" wrote:
As I've mentioned, I'm trying to work out ways to be "gone fishing" more of
the year. Since ice fishing, and steelheading have no to very little
appeal to me, the only apparent avenue available is to travel to the other
half of the world.

I'm learning Spanish and leaning towards Patagonia,
But,
I bought some 'fish porn' videos of New Zealand a couple days ago. I must
say that as a fan of stalking and sight fishing it looks pretty darn good.
Big fish, visible fish.

Anyone here been to New Zealand, fishing? I'd be going for a couple
months and am as interested in information about availabilty of cheap
camping/ lodging and ground transportation as the actual fishing. In
other words, "travel" info over "fishing" info ... but I'm eager for any and
all information. I have ZERO interest in guides and guided fishing ...
just not my style.

Anyone been to Tasmania ? Other "bottom half" destinations with trout
available ( I have yet to find another type of fish as suited to my style
fly fishing .. i.e. small lures eaten in shallow water and in beautiful
areas ) in relatively pristine conditions and with little risk of being
eaten by the natives G

A guide is a good investment, at least one or two days.
You'll get the hang of completely new drill a lot quicker.

I spent 3 weeks on the South Island once. That's almost enough
time to drive around and get the feel of the place, but not near
enough time to learn how to fish it. The south island has more big
rivers than you can imagine. Every 10 miles is another Snake River.

Tributaries to the big stems, near the west side, have big sea run
browns.
Tributaries further up the big stem rivers hold non-migratory fish.
But you have to move quickly and quietly and cover a huge amount of
ground. You won't see many fish. The ones you will see are spooky.
You get one shot at them and then they're gone for the day.
If you fish up behind someone (perhaps a mile upstream and out of
sight) you might not see a fish all day........and not know why.

There isn't much feed. These streams are so clear they're almost
barren. There are some better hatches way down low, near Gore
(thank you Al?). But many of the streams further up have darned few
insects. A system
like that supports a modest population of small critters, and a few
scattered
monsters. That's how it seemed to be to me. I caught one 25" female
brown
and a fair number of 18" fish. The 5 days we had scheduled for
serious fishing
got stormed out. We were on the west side, in late Jan early Feb, and
the
rivers were swollen and chocolate brown, from a week of torrential
rain.
Spend some time in Nelson. You might never want to come back.

There are lots of nice spring creeks. Ah. And you have to get
the books: the South Island Trout Fishing Guide, but John Kent, and
the other one--not as good but still worth it--Brown Trout Heaven.

The Maoris are all on the North Island, along with Aukland, which
is the nicest big city I've ever seen. We got to the main park
on the 30th anniversary of Bob Marley's death, and watched
a Maori reggae band sing Bob Marley songs....along with a huge
crowd of rowdy but safe and friendly Kiwis. Cars get stolen, in
Auckland,
but murder is almost non-existent.