Fishing Reports index >July 2007

Trout Chasing

Just a quick one from me this month – mid winter flu has be bedridden and not in the most creative mod. All apologies there.

With the abnormally icy temperatures the Wakatipu has been experiencing of late, I have not heard of too any anglers getting out and about. However, a friend and I spent a most enjoyable afternoon throwing slimelines around the Glenorchy river mouths just this week past, and an orange rabbit seemed to be doing the job. Fish were caught at a relatively steady pace throughout the morning, and whilst many came to the net in the 2 – 2.5lb bracket, a couple of 4lbers livened things up late afternoon.
A slow retrieve is required in these icy waters, for trout will attempt all to conserve energy. Baitfish will appear sluggish, and as we must imitate this popular food source with our streamers, a slow figure 8 retrieve is called for.

Often I fish the drop offs throughout the winter months with nothing but a floating line and a long leader, but this year (maybe due to lower water temperatures) have found the fish to be holding a little deeper. A full sinking line seems to have become essential to reach the bows on the few times I have been out this month past.

A Pleasant way to spend a half hour on a sunny winters day is to break out the targets on the lawn at home, or at the local park and get in some accuracy practise. Use hoops, dinner plates, or ice cream lids, anything that makes for a highly visible target. Replace your fly with a small tuft of yarn, and you are ready to go.

The common stance we use when casting for accuracy is known as the closed stance.
Firstly, stand with your casting foot comfortably forward. This means, if you are right handed, stand with your right foot forward, and vice versa for lefties. Your casting elbow should hang comfortably at your side. This is known as the closed stance, and is what we use for short – medium length casts requiring accuracy. This stance allows everything to line up, e.g.; leg, arm, line of sight, rod and consequentially line, for increased accuracy, similar to throwing a dart. If we place our weight moreso on the back foot, this will help prevent the common tendency to lunge with our body into the cast.

When casting for basic accuracy it is important to keep the rod tip close to the perpendicular plane. Your line should pass directly over your rod tip for utmost accuracy, and you should consider your trajectory when casting at targets of varying distances.
(i.e.; for a target resting at 20’ your back cast should be higher, and your forward cast should be lower than say if aiming at a hoop 50 feet away.). Simply tilt your casting plane accordingly so that your tippet straightens just above the target.

Think you have it sorted? Try cantering your wrist towards your off shoulder and try again. Your rod tip should now be traveling across the other side of your body, a handy technique when fishing alternative banks, or when the wind blows in from your casting side. Side cast, roll cast and even try casting with the other hand (you never know when this could come in handy, in case of injury etc). Aim for those targets in every conceivable situation.

Don’t let the winter go to waste, get on form for October by blowing off the cobwebs now!

Tight lines

Chris Dore
FFF Certified Casting Instructor
Queenstown
027 693 3027

Chris Dore is an independent fishing guide; his reports are not officially representative of Fish & Game NZ

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