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For many years now I’ve noticed that catch rates are affected by the optical clarity of the water. Generally I have greater success if the water is optically clear than when it is murky or cloudy and full of suspended sediment. It is still possible to catch fish when the water is murky but it requires a change in tactics. More about that later. Turbidity … Continue reading HOW TURBIDITY AFFECTS FISH BEHAVIOUR
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Recently I was asked to test an Ocean’s Legacy Dream Cast DCL-S882L Light Shore Game spinning rod to see whether it was suitable for estuary fishing in NZ. I’ve used it now for over a month and to be honest it is a truly remarkable rod. Before testing any spinning rod it is critically important to select a spinning reel that best matches the way … Continue reading Rod Review – Ocean’s Legacy Dream Cast DCL-S882L Spinning rod
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Master NZ fly tier Steve Grace created the stunning Pandemic Popper to keep himself amused during the COVID-19 lockdown. He very kindly shared the pattern and tying instructions with AANZ: – Place a hole on your popper head with a hot bodkin. I heat mine with a lighter. Push the hook eye through from the back of the head and super glue in place. Set … Continue reading THE PANDEMIC POPPER
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Video: Mike Ladle & Steve Pitts Lead image: Mark Hoffman In the final video of the introduction to saltwater fly fishing series Mike Ladle chats with Geoff Hancock about how he connects leaders to the fly line and then attaches flies to the business end of the leader. If you missed the first two parts then click on the links below:- VIDEO – SALT FLY BASICS … Continue reading VIDEO – SALT FLY BASICS (PART 3)
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Lead image: Henry Gilbey (https://www.henry-gilbey.com/) Recently Dr. Mike Ladle was asked by Robin Bradley of the BASS club if he had any evidence to prove whether or not bass anglers’ catches have declined over the years. After giving it considerable thought this is Mike’s response. “I guess, on the face of it, this is a simple question; do I (and my pals) catch more bass now … Continue reading ARE BASS STOCKS REALLY DECLINING?
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Text: Mike Ladle Lead image: Henry Gilbey (http://www.henry-gilbey.com) In order to successfully target bass with lures and flies it is essential to gain a detailed understanding their feeding behaviour. The southern and western coasts of the British Isles are almost at the northern limit of distribution of bass although this is slowly changing due to global warming. Bass in this area are slow-growing and large specimens of … Continue reading BASS FEEDING BEHAVIOUR
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I’ve been looking for a slightly heavier rod suitable for targeting larger fish, especially kingfish, on the flats for some time. My aim was to pair the rod with an IRT 400 spinning reel and have a combination that could stop almost anything I’d encounter relatively quickly. I decided that the rod needed to be 9’6″ long, two piece, have a test curve of around … Continue reading Rod Review – Jackson Ocean Gate Shore Jig JOG-906ML-K SJ
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Just received a copy of Mike Ladle & Steve Pitts new book “Angling on the Edge”. It is a stunning book which covers the exploits of anglers from all around the world. Perfect for the coffee table or when you need some inspiration to pack up your tackle and head overseas for a change of scene. Divided into sections covering Indian Ocean, Central America, Transatlantic Relatives (USA), … Continue reading BOOK – ANGLING ON THE EDGE
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About 18 months ago I was asked by Kilwell to field test a new Toby colour prototype that they had developed. It was code named Emperor as it looked vaguely like a penguin. Kilwell have been proudly making Toby lures in New Zealand on equipment originally specified by Abu for well over 50 years. Not copies of the Abu design but the real thing manufactured under licence, stamped … Continue reading HAIL THE EMPEROR!
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Lead image: Paul Smith For some time now I’ve been fascinated by the claim that fish feeding behaviour is largely influenced by changes in barometric pressure. The fascination started when I read Ronald Reinhold’s book “Predicting the Bite” (ISBN 978-0-578-04734-8) which discusses how to predict when fish will be feeding based largely on changes in barometric pressure. Reinhold is convinced that barometric pressure is responsible for fish … Continue reading THE BAROMETRIC PRESSURE MYTH
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Lead image: Grant Bittle (https://www.catchfishing.pro/) Recently I was contacted by a good friend and asked if I could help explain a feeding phenomenon he had observed. It was a spring tide in Dorset and millions of helpless seaweed fly maggots were being washed into the ocean with every crashing wave. Bass were clearly visible gorging themselves on the maggots and it appeared that they were … Continue reading FISH DIGESTION AND HOW IT DRIVES FEEDING BEHAVIOUR
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Most anglers like nothing better than to show off their lure collection and generally it is an eclectic mixture of lure types and colours. Collections are very personal and most of the lures were purchased for a specific species or reason. However, irrespective of how many lures an angler owns, it is likely that the great majority never get used and when they occasionally do … Continue reading THE SINGLE LURE EXPERIMENT
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Lead image: Game Fishing Asia One of the most frustrating things that an angler using lures can experience is losing a solid fish due to a hook breaking or pulling out. Why do hooks break and is there anything that can be done to reduce the likelihood of hooks breaking? Aside from casting damage, the two most common reasons that hooks break are work hardening or stress corrosion … Continue reading HOW TO STOP HOOKS BREAKING
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Video: Paul Smith. Lead Image: Black Creek Ops NZ Stunning 40 second video from Paul Smith which encapsulates the essence of back country fishing for trout in New Zealand. The angler fortunate enough to be fishing in paradise is Gareth Bayliss (Trout Hunting NZ). Continue reading VIDEO – NZ BACKCOUNTRY BLISS
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Lead image: Rob Wilson (https://www.ghostfishing.co.nz/) One of the biggest issues facing anglers spin fishing from the shore is snagging and losing lures. If you are fishing an area for the first time or using lures not suited to the terrain that you are fishing then losses can be significant and expensive. There is a fine balance between getting your lure close to the bottom where … Continue reading HOW TO STOP LOSING LURES
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This easy to tie fly is constructed from a foam ear plug. The type of plug used in noise attenuation. TYING MATERIALS Hook: Daiichi 2546 Saltwater hook. Size: 2/0. Tail: Three layers. Bottom layer is red Hareline Dubbin Fishair. FH310. Middle layer is pink DNA Frosty Fish Fiber. Top layer is Pearl Hareline Dubbin Krystal flash. Body: Orange foam ear plug. 1″ in length. TYING … Continue reading EAR PLUG POPPER
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Images: Mark Hoffman and Alan Ang Several times recently I’ve ventured out onto the flats at dawn and encountered foggy conditions. On the first occasion it was a thick “pea souper” with low visibility and two of us only hooked one fish in the entire session. Interestingly the fish took as the fog was finally starting to lift but it was an isolated incident as … Continue reading UNDERSTANDING FOG AND HOW IT AFFECTS FISHING
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Text: Mike Ladle Lead image: Paul Smith The tides, the weather, and the manner in which these effect the sea are crucial to understanding the behaviour and feeding patterns of sea fishes. The tides are due to a double bulge of water, on either side of the earth, caused by the attraction of the moon. If the moon was stationary in relation to the rotation of … Continue reading USING TIDES TO PREDICT WHEN TO FISH
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Lead image: Henry Gilbey (www.henry-gilbey.com) When using braid it is critical to spool spinning reels properly to avoid wind knots. Most manufacturers of spinning reels made for use with braid are aware of the importance of line lay and have designed the rotor and line roller to fill the spool evenly from top to bottom with braid of a specified diameter. If you use the correct diameter … Continue reading SPOOLING BRAID PROPERLY
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The iridescent green beetle is a excellent imitation of the Manuka beetle. These beetles hatch over summer (November – February) and trout feed actively on them. They are widespread across New Zealand and are an important favourite forage species for trout, especially in the central North Island area. Unlike the Brown Beetle, the Manuka Beetle is active during day light hours when the wind will blow them … Continue reading TYING THE IRIDESCENT MANUKA BEETLE
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Several years ago I began to experiment tying flies with combinations of rubber bodies and more traditional synthetic and natural fly tying materials. The initial aim was to craft hybrid flies which mimicked successful lures. The technique worked so I wrote an article on hybrid lures last year. Click on the following link to read it: – https://activeanglingnz.com/2016/08/28/crafting-flies-to-mimic-successful-lures/ Earlier in the year when researching an … Continue reading HYBRID FLIES USING RUBBER TAILS AND MYLAR TUBE
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Research undertaken by NIWA scientists, Dr Mark Morrison and Dr Glen Carbines, using towed underwater cameras has clearly shown that some snapper sleep at night. Check out the video below and see how some of the snapper barely move until they are almost hit by the camera. A fascinating insight into snapper behaviour. Continue reading VIDEO SHOWING SNAPPER SLEEPING
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Lead image: New England Boating I recently read an excellent article by Tony Bishop on the rules that should be followed when releasing a fish. It is well worth a look:- http://www.bishfish.co.nz/articles/general/releaserules.htm This prompted me to do some research to find out what scientific studies had been conducted on Catch & Release practices and what else had been discovered. I managed to unearth an excellent publication by Stephen … Continue reading HOW TO PLAY AND RELEASE FISH SAFELY
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Featured image: Al Barnes. One of the most important skills to learn as an angler is peripheral awareness. That is, training yourself to spot things in your peripheral vision which alert you to the movement of actively feeding fish. This was brought home to me yesterday when I was on the flats with another experienced fisherman. During the course of the session I managed to … Continue reading IMPROVING YOUR ABILITY TO SPOT FISH
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There is no doubt that the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water has a major impact on fish behaviour and survival. What actually is dissolved oxygen though, where does it come from and what happens if there is insufficient available? The most comprehensive and easy to understand article that I’ve read on dissolved oxygen is from the Fundaments of Environmental Measurements website and can be accessed by clicking … Continue reading HOW DISSOLVED OXYGEN AFFECTS FISH BEHAVIOUR
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In order to successfully stalk fish it is important to have an appreciation of what fish can actually see. This is determined by several things, where their eyes are positioned on their head, water clarity and how deep in the water they are holding. There are some fundamental rules of physics which help understand what a fish can see and it is really useful to understand these … Continue reading THE SCIENCE OF STALKING FISH
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The holographic anchovy is an all purpose pattern that is effective on everything from trevally to kahawai and kingfish that feed on small baitfish. It works exceptionally well when cast to feeding fish and retrieved rapidly away from them. There is nothing quite like seeing a big predator lock onto the fly and watching a V wake surging in behind as you retrieve at high … Continue reading TYING THE HOLOGRAPHIC ANCHOVY
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It is very important to routinely maintain spinning reels when they are being used in saltwater in order to ensure optimum performance. The last thing that you need when fighting the fish of a lifetime is for the reel to fail due to poor maintenance. Recently I stumbled across an article on spinning reel maintenance while visiting the Alan Hawk website. The Alan Hawk website (www.alanhawk.com) is well worth … Continue reading SPINNING REEL MAINTENANCE
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Lead image: Maruska Laboratories. Like humans, most bony fish experience the world around them using the classic senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. However they have an additional sixth sense, related to a structure called the lateral line, that is more sophisticated than touch and it is this sense which is very important to anglers. The lateral line system is responsible for the sixth sense which allows fish to … Continue reading HOW FISH USE THEIR LATERAL LINE
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Images: Mark Hoffman & NZ Fishing World Recently I wrote an article which described in detail how to find suitable estuarine flats to fish using Google Earth and marine charts and the signs to look for once you are at your chosen spot which give away where the fish are probably holding. https://activeanglingnz.com/2014/04/21/stalking-the-flats-part-one-the-approach/ Despite what Google Earth and marine charts show estuarine channels are dynamic. They are … Continue reading FINDING FISH ON THE FLATS
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Lead image: MidCurrent (Hughes) Most rivers still have an evening rise during Spring and Summer where trout rise voraciously to feed on insects concentrated in the surface film. Stretches of river which appeared barren during the day suddenly spring to life as dusk approaches. It is arguably the best time to be on the river if you are a dry fly fisherman. Casting to rising trout … Continue reading FLOATING FLIES FOR NIGHT FISHING
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Lead image: Paul Smith One of the most important things to understand before venturing onto the rocks, flats or in a boat to go fishing is tidal movement. Many anglers, especially those with no marine background or those new to the sport, assume that the tide comes in and goes out at a constant rate. This is definitely not the case and it is very … Continue reading TIDES AND SAFETY – THE RULE OF TWELFTHS
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Recently I was given the opportunity to test an Epic Fastglass 888 fly rod made by the Swift Fly Fishing Company. Swift is based in Wanaka New Zealand and sells premium quality fibreglass and carbon fibre rod making kits and studio built fly rods. The studio built rods are handcrafted and made-to-order. Like many anglers I learned to fly fish with fibreglass rods and while … Continue reading ROD REVIEW – EPIC FASTGLASS 888 FLY ROD
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Lead image: Kiyoshi Nakagawa When I was young my father, who always seemed to catch something when we went fishing, used to harp on about how I needed to learn how to “think like a trout” in order to consistently outsmart them. Teenage boys rarely listen to their fathers so this advice, which I struggled to understand without some concrete examples, entered one ear and … Continue reading OUTSMARTING TROUT
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Recently I was fortunate enough to accompany my wife on a business trip to Toronto. One of the items on my bucket list had always been to catch a pike so on a day when I was not required to carry luggage I arranged a fishing charter with Taro Murata of Fish City Tours to try and catch one. Taro and I corresponded before the … Continue reading PIKE ON LIVEBAIT
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Featured image: Tim Angeli Arguably the most important factor in soft bodied lure fishing (soft plastics and soft baits) is selecting a jig head that best suits the conditions encountered. Much of what has been written on this subject is fairly generic and it often does not make much sense until you’ve experimented extensively and learned from experience what works best and when. Many people … Continue reading CHOOSING THE RIGHT JIG HEAD
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Text: Alan Bulmer Lead image: Sport Fishing magazine Gel Spun Polyethylene (GSP) fishing lines get their strength from the weaving or laminating of many polyethylene fibres. True braids, as their name suggests, achieve this by ‘braiding’ fibres together while fused braids use a proprietary form of ‘heat welding’ the fibres together. Fused GSP lines are generally cheaper, stiffer and thicker than braid of … Continue reading AVOIDING WIND KNOTS WITH BRAID
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For several years I’ve had a growing feeling that fluorocarbon monofilament simply does not live up to the marketing hype. It is twice as expensive as nylon monofilament but is it twice as good in terms of performance? The short answer is No and this piece will explain why. Recently I lost a large kingfish from the shore after a torrid 20 minute “no holds barred” … Continue reading THE FLUOROCARBON MYTH
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Text: Alan Bulmer Lead image: Sportquest Recently I read a chapter on drag systems from the 2007 book “Fishing Techniques” by Steve Cooper (ISBN 1865131067, 9781865131061). It really got me thinking as it raised some excellent points. Cooper stated that “drags should be set at 25% of the lines breaking strain with a full spool of line. To make sure that the setting is correct use an accurate … Continue reading WHY YOU SHOULD ADJUST THE REEL DRAG DURING THE FIGHT
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Text: Alan Bulmer Lead Image: Sport Fishing magazine Flounder are present in many estuaries worldwide and NZ is no exception. In NZ very few people try to catch flounder using a rod and reel, preferring instead to target them with a spear, drag or set net. While flounder may not be renowned for their fighting qualities, they are delectable on the plate and definitely worth … Continue reading FLOUNDER ON A BAITED SPOON
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Most rivers in NZ have an evening rise when trout seem to appear from nowhere to feed on insects. More fish seem to rise to flies on the surface after dark than during the day. Why is this so and can it be explained scientifically? Dr Mike Ladle, a retired UK fisheries ecologist, spent many years studying this phenomenon and shares some of his insights … Continue reading WHY IS FLY FISHING IN FRESHWATER BETTER AT NIGHT?
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Predators are very skilled at using shade to ambush prey. Whether it be hiding in wait under a moored boat or wharf, attacking prey in the margins at dawn when the light angle is low and the prey is staring directly into the rising sun or hiding behind a sunken obstruction in a river, predators regularly use shade to improve their chances of success when feeding. … Continue reading WHY PREDATORY FISH USE SHADE TO AMBUSH PREY
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Getting down to the bottom of the river is critical for success when fishing weighted nymphs. Fly fishermen use a variety of techniques to do this, mainly by adding lead split shot to the trace or incorporating brass or tungsten beads into their nymph patterns. Common logic is that materials with high bulk densities, such as Tungsten, sink fastest and that the heavier the bead … Continue reading SINK RATES OF FLIES TIED WITH TUNGSTEN AND BRASS BEADS
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Hook penetration is one of the most important aspects of fishing and probably the least well understood. The aim of this article is to help clear up some of the confusion. The sharpness, length and profile of the point all govern how far the hook point will penetrate into the flesh in and around the mouth of a fish. The barb is the projection extending backwards … Continue reading HOOK PENETRATION
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Words: Alan Bulmer Images: Tim Angeli When I was young and learning to fly fish I was given a tattered book on trout fishing by a curmudgeonly old friend of my fathers. He took me aside, gruffly told me that I should read the book as it contained a wealth of useful information, attempted a wry smile and shuffled off. The book was “Trout fishing … Continue reading ANALYSING TROUT RISE FORMS – A LOST SKILL?
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Several months ago I wrote a rod review on the innovative Kilwell Xantu 9’6” #8 weight fly rod. Check it out:- https://activeanglingnz.com/2015/03/27/kilwell-xantu-96-8-weight-rod-review/ One of the things that I noticed as soon as I held the rod was that the diameter of the cork handle was slightly larger than any of the other fly rods in my arsenal. In real terms it was around 2.5 millimetres wider which … Continue reading WHY THE SHAPE OF FLY ROD HANDLES IS IMPORTANT
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Waiheke Island is located in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf. A short ferry ride from downtown Auckland it is arguably the jewel in the crown when it comes to saltwater fly fishing around Auckland. If you want a better idea of how good it can be click on the following video from Paul Smith to see local fishing legends, Adam Clancey and Tom Lusk, getting up close and … Continue reading WAIHEKE ISLAND – SALT FLY NIRVANA?
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Back in the day most anglers timed their trips to the Tongariro river to coincide with the main rainbow trout spawning runs which occurred over the winter months. Between 1960 and 2000 these runs were mostly concentrated between May – August. However there has been a major change in the timing of the rainbow trout spawning runs since 2002 and the fabled winter runs have … Continue reading WHICH MONTHS ARE BEST TO FISH THE TONGARIRO?
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Text: Alan Bulmer Images: Paul Smith & Mark Hoffman New Zealand has around 15,500 kilometres of coastline and as a consequence is blessed with lots of harbours and river mouths for anglers to explore. Most hold large numbers of fish and a surprising proportion of these may be trophy specimens. Estuarine environments are often dominated by large expanses of sand or mud which are fully … Continue reading HOW TO FIND AND STALK THE FLATS
Video: Mike Ladle & Steve Pitts Lead image: Mark Hoffman In Part Two of the introduction to saltwater fly fishing series Mike Ladle chats with Geoff Hancock about the tackle he uses as Geoff fishes a tide race. Once again finding a place where fish are likely to congregate to feed is the key to success. Note how Geoff retrieves the fly and the emphasis … Continue reading VIDEO – SALT FLY BASICS (PART 2)
Active Angling New Zealand 