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 !

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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

Review of October & November 2012 Fishing (Early Season)

Posted on May 8, 2013 by admin

Early season fishing is an incredibly underrated time of the year to fish the top of the south region of the South Island of New Zealand. A big statement I hear you ask – well I’m here to tell you why !

Early season fishing at New Zealand's leading luxury fishing lodge

Ian and Maryanne from Melbourne stayed with us for 4 nights having a well earned break. Ian had 3 days fishing our local rivers and landed some great browns – the largest at a little over 7 lb !

The vast majority of the rivers in this region are closed all winter (1st May through to the end of September) this means that the usually weary browns are a little easier to catch as they haven’t seen an angler for 5 months. Speaking of which, early season fishing also means significantly less anglers on the rivers than in the peak of our season (Summer – December > mid March). October sees the days getting warmer and longer, this translates to warmer water temperatures and an increase in insect activity.

luxury fishing lodge, Fly Fishing Lodge, New Zealand, Fishing lodge,

Joe from USA stayed with us in early November- for the 3rd season in a row. No wonder he’s smiling with a fat brown trout like that !

Although October started off with a little rain, the weather stabilised and the days grew warmer. Sunny days saw mayfly hatches on the majority of our streams. This resulted in our guests landing between 30 > 40 % of their catches on dry flies. Classic flies like the Parachute Adams and standard Adams were deadly.

brown trout , guided fishing, luxury fishing lodge

Andrew from the USA stayed and fished with us early in November. His 3 days of fishing saw him land 11 browns, with several of his catches weighing in between 7 > 8 lb !

Two South African mates – Wayne & Darryl had 3 sensational guided fishing days with us in late October using Lindsay as their guide. In 3 days they hooked 27 browns, landing 17 of them to 7.5lb. Almost 1/2 were taken on drys !!!

Fly Fishing Lodge, New Zealand, Fishing lodge, luxury fishing lodge

Darryl enjoying the sunshine & dry fly fishing in late October

Fly Fishing Lodge, New Zealand, Fishing lodge, luxry fishing lodge

Wayne, staying at ORL for his second visit, with one of the many browns he and his mate Darryl caught

Early season is an ideal time to come to New Zealand and learn the gentle art of Fly Fishing. Wayne & Vicki from Melbourne stayed and learnt to fly fish with us in mid October. As you can see from the photos below – they both succeeded !

Learning to Fly Fishing at New Zealands finest fly fishing lodge

Early October saw Wayne and Vicki from Australia stay with us and learn the fine art of fly fishing.

Learnng to fly fishing in New Zealand at Owen River Lodge, 5 star fishing lodge

Vicki with her first brown caught on the fly

South Australian, Panteli, stayed with us in mid November. His 2 days of guided fishing saw him land 16 browns to 7lb – 1/3 of his catch on dry fly !!

Early season can see higher catch rates than summer, with many of our early season guests landing 8 or more browns in a day !

Owen River Lodge, Fly Fishing Lodge, New Zealand, Fishing lodge, murchison fly fishing guide

Panteli strikes again !

Early 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 month of October 2013.
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

February / March 2012 Review

Posted on May 6, 2012 by admin

Well, thanks to all our fabulous guests, we had our busiest February and March ever ! Lots of guests catching lots of wild New Zealand brown trout makes for a happy lodge owner and team at Owen River Lodge. The ambiance around the dinner table was fantastic, with the sound of laughter and the reminiscing of the days adventures being shared with new friends.

The fishing in New Zealand is special, its all about sighted fishing in crystal clear, wild rivers. In an ideal world, a sunny day allows the guides to spot the fish you are about to catch, its really like hunting with a fly rod – except the fish gets to swim away !

Peter from California stayed and fished with us for the first 7 days of February. He rated 2 of his days fishing as the best 2 days fly fishing he’s ever had….Landing an 8lb New Zealand wilderness brown being a highlight !

One of the nice things about staying at a dedicated luxury fishing lodge is meeting anglers from all over the world. Stephen, a South African living in London, stayed and fished with us for 7 nights at the same time as Peter – here are a couple of his “fish porn” photos !

Occasionally, the fish are just plain hard to get to, and the only way to cast to them is to swim to a good spot (in the middle of the river). Alberto, a Spaniard living in the USA was not going to let a little swim get in his way……

Elizabeth, an American Horse Veterinarian living in Australia stayed and fly fished with us in mid February. Elizabeth caught many fine browns and a rainbow in one of our local rivers – the first rainbow caught in the Maruia in many years…..

When I developed Owen River Lodge as a luxury 5 star rated fishing lodge, I never thought of it as a honeymoon destination. However, to prove me wrong, every season we are lucky enough to have honeymooners staying & fishing with us ! Texans, John & Katie stayed and fished with us for 4 days at the end of February. Katie had never fly fished before, but in her 3 days fishing, she landed many of our wild browns – the largest weighing in at an impressive 6.5 lb !

Bruce from Pennsylvania had a sensational first days fishing with us when he stayed with us in early March, landing 8 browns & a rainbow – the largest at just under 7 lb !

Australians, Michael & Marion from Canberra had a HUGE time fishing with us, Michael caught 6 browns in his first 2 days fishing with us – all between 6 > 7.5 lb !

I am very excited to announce that Owen River Lodge is now an official Sage Dealer, one of only 2 or 3 fishing lodges in the world that has this unique honour. So, our little lodge shop will now be able to sell the rods & reels that we provide for our guests to use whilst they stay with us. In light of this, we now have almost the complete Sage line up for our guests to use – including the new Sage One, ZXL, VXP, Flight & Z Axis – most in both 5 and 6 weight configurations. As part of our direct relationship with Sage, we have also been granted a dealership for RIO & Redington.

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

Felix, Ryan, Lillyanne, Louise & Amber

December 2011 / January 2012 Newsletter / Blog

Posted on April 10, 2012 by admin

Hello and welcome to the new look Owen River Lodge Blog / Newsletter

Its been an interesting season thus far, the New Zealand bureau of Meteorology have announced that the Nelson and Marlborough regions have had the cloudiest & wettest summer on record. However, despite all the rain and cloudy days our talented group of guides got our guests onto quality fish ! This blog entry (which is very late) is short of words and large on fishing photos ! With this entry being a review of some of the fishing action during December 2011 and January 2012.

Curtis, stayed with us for the third time in early December. He landed this stunning 10lb sea run brown, the largest sea run caught at Owen River Lodge.

Kevin & Jerry, 2 fishing friends, from California spent a week fishing and relaxing with us in early December. They caught many fine browns up to 8lb, here’s a peek at a couple of them.

Adam, an Englishman had a dream 3 month holiday fly fishing all over New Zealand. He came and stayed/fished with us twice during this time. He had some sensational dry fly action on the Owen River landing 7 browns (mostly on Cicadas) on one very memorable day…..

Australians, Howard (staying with us for his 6th trip) & his mate, famous Australian wine writer Huon Hooke (staying with us for his 2nd trip) fished with us in mid December. Here’s a couple of the many browns they caught !

Tom and Meg from Australia, stayed with us for their 4th visit to ORL during January. In their 4 days of fishing, they hooked 32 browns and landed 23 almost all of them on Cicadas….

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

Felix, Ryan, Lillyanne, Louise & Amber

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