AANZ is often asked to recommend a selection of “go to” nymph patterns for the streams and rivers in the North Island of New Zealand. Patterns such as the Gold ribbed Hare’s Ear and Pheasant Tail are ubiquitous and proven all around the globe. Tied on # 12 – # 16 hooks, with or without bead heads, they are without peer. Leaving them out of any selection … Continue reading “GO TO” NYMPH SELECTION
Lead image: Paul Smith 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 fish” in order to become consistently successful. 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 THINKING LIKE A FISH
Text: Mike Ladle Lead image: http://www.fishcrack.com Around the world flatfish are regular targets for shore based anglers yet here in NZ they are largely ignored. However, rather than simply chase them after dark with a spear or net the opportunity exists to target them with a rod and line during the day. To do this it is important to understand how flatfish, and flounder in … Continue reading UNDERSTANDING FLOUNDER AND OTHER FLATFISH
Text: Alan Bulmer Featured image: Mark Hoffman There is no doubt that stalking fish is more effective when the angler is wearing camouflage clothing and the reasons why are covered in some detail in the following article:-. https://activeanglingnz.com/2016/03/21/does-camoflage-clothing-work/ However, it is not easy to find a camouflage pattern which allows you to blend in and remain unseen when you are stalking fish on the mudflats. … Continue reading GEAR REVIEW – SITKA STORMFRONT JACKET AND JETSTREAM VEST
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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
Text: Alan Bulmer Featured image: Henry Gilbey Over the past few years I steadily have come to the realisation that long spinning rods, especially those over 2.6 metres in length, are ideal for shore based estuary fishing. The main reasons for this are explained in: – https://activeanglingnz.com/2015/09/24/are-longer-rods-better-on-the-flats/ In New Zealand the issue, especially when fishing small hard bodied lures and soft plastics, has always been finding … Continue reading ROD REVIEW – YAMAGA BLANKS BALLISTICK EVO 94/16
Text: Alan Bulmer & Tony Bishop The first time that I ever saw glass beads being used in fly construction was in the mid 1990’s. A group of us had fished with the groom on the morning of his wedding and it would be fair to say that our efforts on a heavily pressured fishery were nothing to highlight in neon. The groom did manage to land … Continue reading EXPERIMENTING WITH GLASS BEAD FLIES
Text: Alan Bulmer Featured image: Auckland Freshwater Anglers I have just finished reading a book by Reed Curry entitled “The New Scientific Angling – Trout and Ultraviolet Vision”. The ISBN number is 9780984086306. It is thought provoking read that will probably change forever the way you think about trout fly design. The book looks primarily at UV reflectance and how this is likely be used by … Continue reading CONSIDER REFLECTED UV WHEN TYING FLIES
Featured image: NZ Fishing World Recently I wrote an article which described experiments conducted by Mike Ladle in the UK to compare the effectiveness of lure and bait fishing from the shore versus fishing from a dinghy. These results clearly showed that, while the catch rate using bait and lures were similar from the shore, the frequency with which big fish were caught increased by nearly six fold with lures (34 … Continue reading ARE SOFT BODIED LURES MORE EFFECTIVE THAN BAIT?
Text: Mike Ladle Featured Image: Scott Gray Many years ago fisheries biologist, Mike Ladle, and four of his UK angling friends set out to determine the relative success of various methods of fishing in salt water and whether fishing with lures was as successful as fishing with bait. All of the anglers were skilled bait and lure fishermen. They designed an experiment to ensure that … Continue reading ARE LURES MORE EFFECTIVE THAN BAIT?
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