Highlights of February & March 2013 Fishing

Posted on June 10, 2013 by admin

February signaled the end of the rain that plagued the region in late December and January. As usual for February the weather was warm and sunny. The river levels quickly dropped from their high state and the fishing got really exciting. There is nothing more exciting than walking up a crystal clear New Zealand river spotting large wild brown trout rising to the surface eating cicadas & blowflies !

Fishing New Zealand, Fly fishing New Zealand, Fishing lodge New Zealand

Summer in New Zealand, sunny days, crystal clear rivers & large brown trout feeding on the surface!

I guess it’s most anglers secret ambition to land a “double digit” trout. It can be the culmination of an angler’s life long quest. Now it doesn’t happen every week, but typically, a few times each season (many more during a mouse plague) the Mount Everest of fly fishing grants a few lucky, skillful angler’s their dreams. On the 1st of February, Brandon Edwards from the USA had an unbelievable day landing this stunning 10lb wild New Zealand brown trout. Now Brandon didn’t need to jump into a helicopter to catch his dream fish, he landed this stunning brown on one of our many drive to rivers, indeed you could almost see the road from where Brandon caught his double digit beauty !

10lb brown trout, New Zealand fly fishing, fishing lodge new zealand

10lb of wild New Zealand Brown Trout !

Brandon went on to catch this lovely 7lb brown a few minutes later – quite a day at Owen River Lodge ! Whilst staying at ORL, Brandon & his lovely wife Vicki celebrated 10 years of marriage and took the opportunity to renew their wedding vows in a simple ceremony in our gardens.

Each February, we are honored to have Barry & Cathy Beck host a group of traveling anglers from the USA. They choose to stay & fish with us in February because of the reliable summer weather and the terrific dry fly action that terrestrial fishing provides.

Barry & Cathy Beck, Fishing New Zealand, New Zealand fly fishing, South Island fishing lodge

Summer in New Zealand – Barry & Cathy Beck

One of our guides, Aaron with a lovely brown – Barry & Cathy Beck

Barry & Cathy Beck, fly fishing, brown trout, Fishing New Zealand, New Zealand fly fishing, South Island fishing lodge

Greg, one of our guides with Barry & Cathy Beck

Barry & Cathy Beck will be at Owen River Lodge February 9 > 18, 2014. If you would like to join Barry & Cathy Beck at Owen River Lodge, please contact Stew Armstrong @ Frontiers International or send Felix an email !

Barry & Cathy Beck's super beetle, fly fish New Zealand,

Barry & Cathy Beck’s super beetle strikes again !

Robert & Kelli Dotson decided to skip winter in Utah and returned for their second dose of Owen River Lodge fishing. Robert is an accomplished angler, and as you can see quite the photographer too !

Robert Dotson, New Zealand fishing, Fishing lodge new zealand

Robert & Kelli’s guide Aaron spotting their next capture – Robert Dotson Photo

February, wet wading & crystal clear water – Robert Dotson Photo

South African’s, living in Perth, John & Berit stayed and fished with us in late February. They had such a good time (and great fishing) they returned a week later for a second stay !

Fly Fishing lodge, South Island, New Zealand, Murchison, Fly fishing New Zealand, luxury fishing lodge

Berit with her new friend !

Berit with another new friend

Luxury fishing lodge, South Island New Zealand, Owen River Lodge

John with a smaller brown in super condition !

John with one of the many brown he & Berit caught !

Owen River Lodge, Luxury fishing lodge, South Island New Zealand,

We had to let the lady have the last say – Berit strikes again !

Our guests come from all over the world, with an interesting range of backgrounds. From veterinarians from Australia, doctors & surgeons from the USA, CEO’s of telecommunications companies, presidents of International airlines and even the occasional multi billionaire flying to New Zealand in their own jets. Most like the anonymity that Owen River Lodge provides them. March saw Sir Ian & Lady Kath Botham stay with us in between cricket test matches being played in New Zealand. Sir Ian is a very keen angler and loved his time at Owen River Lodge. He was very kind and gave us significant international television publicity as he commentated the cricket.

Sir Ian Botham

Sir Ian Botham with one of his catches

We are running an Early & Late Season Special Deal – Stay for 5 Nights and Pay for only 4!
This special package is available for accommodation & fishing at Owen River Lodge for the months of October 2013 & April 2014
You get 5 nights of 5 star luxury accommodation, all your meals, use of all our fabulous facilities, use of fly fishing gear – waders, boots, rods/reels & 3 days guided fishing for only NZ $3,500 per person, twin share

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog !

Remember – you are only a stranger once at Owen River Lodge.

Felix, Ryan, Jo, Lillyanne, Amanda, Liz & Sharyn

Highlights of December 2012 > January 2013 Fishing

Posted on June 10, 2013 by admin

December heralds the start of Summer in New Zealand. Traditionally, summer sees river levels dropping, long sunny days, warm temperatures and the sound of cicadas fill the air. Well, that’s how December 2012 started !

Howard & Huon from Sydney returned to New Zealand and Owen River Lodge for some early summer fly fishing. This was Howard’s 7th trip to Owen River Lodge & Huon’s 3rd stay with us. They were greeted by some exceptional fishing; landing 35 brown trout in their 5 days of fishing with Greg their guide.

Fly Fishing brown trout New Zealand, fishing lodge New Zealand

Howard stayed with us in December, that makes it 7 seasons in a row !

Howard’s mate, famous Australian wine writer and Judge – Huon Hooke

Greg & Susan stayed and fly fished with us for a week in mid December. Greg had a HUGE time fly fishing for sighted brown trout in our local rivers, landing 32 browns in his 6 days of guided fishing – the largest weighing in at 7 lb.

Greg from the USA, with one of the many brown’s he landed

Fishing lodge, South Island, New Zealand

Greg strikes again !

We had a visit from the Australian fishing television host Paul Worsteling who, with his crew filmed 2 episodes for their television show iFish. The first aired on Australian TV in May, with the second episode due to be broadcast on Channel 10 in early August !

Weather being the constant unpredictable factor it is, caused our long hot summer to go into hibernation on Christmas day when it started to rain and rain and rain ! It basically didn’t stop raining for more than a day or two until the end of January ! Its a tribute to our fishing guides and their expertise, that through all the rain (and floods) we experienced during this time – our guests still caught fish !

Fly Fishing lodge, South Island, New Zealand, Murchison

Curtis, an American living in Paris, stayed with us for his 5th visit. This shot is of Curtis fishing a high country lake – spectacular scenery & fish !

In between all the rain of January, we did have some very good fishing. Curtis had an unbelievable day fishing one of our west coast rivers landing 20 browns (yes 20 !) between 4 > 6 lb…

Tom & Meg from Australia, stayed with us for their 5th visit. Meg was suffering from a bad back, so Tom got to do all the fishing having some fantastic wilderness fishing

Texan’s, John & Katie stayed with us 2 seasons ago as part of their honeymoon in New Zealand, they enjoyed their stay so much they payed us a return visit and we are happy to say, they have already re-booked to join us again in January 2014.

John & Katie

Katie with a stunning 6lb+ brown caught just above the lodge

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog !

Remember – you are only a stranger once at Owen River Lodge.

Felix, Ryan, Jo, Lillyanne, Amanda, Liz & Sharyn

Early Season Fishing at Owen River Lodge

Posted on September 17, 2012 by admin

The river fishing season for the top of the South Island of New Zealand opens on the 1st of October and ends on the 30th of April, which means that the session starts in spring, moves to summer and ends in autumn/fall.

The changing of the seasons brings changes to the rivers, the weather and trout behaviour which means that there are 3 distinct “seasons” within the fishing year.

These are:

Early Season – Spring (October & November)
High Season – Summer (December, January, February & March)
Late Season – Autumn/Fall (April)

One of the most underrated times to fly fish in New Zealand is the early season. The early season fly fishing in New Zealand has some advantages and disadvantages.

On the very positive side, the fish haven’t seen an angler for 5 months, there are very few foreign anglers about and the browns start feeding more aggressively as the water temperatures warm up after winter.

These 3 factors can lead to some very successful early season fishing !! It’s early in the season that the brown trout in this region seem to love big nymphs – the stone fly is a classic early season fly.

Typically 75% of your catch will be using a nymph under an indicator. The fishing is still very much casting to sighted fish and most of our rivers have mayfly hatches on a sunny afternoon, so there is always a chance for some classic dry fly fishing action. The majority of the rivers in this region don’t usually suffer from a lot of snow melt; however they can be running high due to recent rain. However, with over 27 rivers to choose from (within a 90 minute drive) we can normally find a wonderful stream to spend the day on fooling an early season fish or two !

On the down side, the weather this time of the year can be changeable, so it’s always an idea to pack your dull-coloured rain coat. But, you have to remember, fish live in water and a little rain can actually help the fishing by dislodging food from under rocks.

To celebrate the start of the new season, we are offering a very special package deal for the month of October 2012.

Special Deal – Stay for 5 Nights and Pay for only 4!
This special package is available for accommodation & fishing at Owen River Lodge during October 2012. You get 5 nights of 5 star luxury accommodation, all your meals, use of all our fabulous facilities, use of fly fishing gear – waders, boots, rods/reels & 3 days guided fishing for only NZ $3,400 per person, twin share

Early season is a wonderful time to fish at Owen River Lodge, we look forward to show you some of the best fly fishing in the world.

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