Text: Alan Bulmer Images: Frank Richard & Paul Smith Not every fishing is session is full on action, especially when fly fishing. Despite what the angling magazines would have us believe, it is not uncommon for anglers to have blank sessions or sessions where very few fish are hooked. Even professional guides have tough days where the fish do not seem to want to cooperate. On … Continue reading HOW TO BECOME A BETTER FLY FISHER
Text: Alan Bulmer Images: Mark Hoffman As you have probably gathered from the images posted on Active Angling I am a firm advocate of wearing camouflage clothing when fishing the flats, especially when using a fly rod. While it may not make much of a difference what you wear if you only fish around dawn or dusk once the sun rises and bathes the flats in light … Continue reading DOES CAMOUFLAGE CLOTHING WORK?
Recently I happened upon two pieces of information, an article and a catalogue, which got me thinking about how difficult it can now be to choose a weight forward fly line to match a particular fly rod, especially the newer fast action models. The article was “Line ’em up” and it was written by the late Hugh McDowell for Fish & Game NZ back in 2002. It is … Continue reading MATCHING FLY LINES TO RODS
Soft plastics, or soft baits, were not readily available in New Zealand until the early 21st Century. Since then the growth in popularity of these lures has been phenomenal due to their success in catching a wide variety of fish species. I started using them in the late 1990’s when I imported some Sassy shads from the USA. They were an immediate success, especially on … Continue reading HOW TO FISH SOFT PLASTIC LURES
Text: Alan Bulmer & Mike Ladle Images: Ross Baker (Tongariro River Motel) One of the biggest challenges facing wet fly or nymph anglers fishing in rivers is to figure out what the current is doing below the surface. If you can understand this then it makes it easier to identify where the trout will be holding and hatch a plan to effectively present a fly … Continue reading UNDERSTANDING FLOW BEHAVIOUR IN RIVERS
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