Perseverance Pays Off

December 09, 2013

The rivers that surround Owen River Lodge are inhabited by wild brown trout. It’s no coincidence that wild trout live in wild places and it doesn’t matter where you go in this world, if you fly fish for trout the weather can – and quite often does – play a significant role. Indeed, the quality of the wild trout fishery in New Zealand is, in a large part, a result of the amount of rain New Zealand receives.

If you cast your mind back to all the fly fishing you’ve done over the past couple of years, how much of it was in perfect conditions? And, are we talking perfect conditions for the trout or the angler?

When you start to think about the complexities of weather, you open a Pandora’s Box of possibilities – of wind, rain, cloud, droughts & floods. So, the reality is that perfect day, weather-wise at least, is a rarity.

Adrian & Maureen, a delightful South African couple were staying with us last week to experience 3 days of fly fishing in New Zealand. Unfortunately the weather gods weren’t being especially kind. We’d had some rain over the previous few days and the conditions remained moody. The grand total catch after the first two days’ fishing was a single brown of around 6 pounds. The pressure was on for the 3rd and final day and thankfully the sun came out, the mayflies hatched all day and Adrian hooked 11 browns and landed 10 of them – all on dries!

Which just goes to show that in fly fishing, if you stay positive and persist, that big day is never far away.

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Mar 16 2020

The very best ! We just concluded our sixth visit to Owen River Lodge over the course of the last few years. On our last two trips to New Zealand we have stayed at ORL on two separate… Read more

Jim & Nancy Chicago USA : TripAdvisor

Jan 15 2022

New Zealand’s TVONE visited Owen River Lodge to discuss the increase in women taking up fly fishing You can watch the story here : Read more

Jessica Roden, 1News Reporter

Awards & acknowledgements

Owen River Lodge NZ: “Fly fishing at its very best”

Ph: +64 3 523 9075 Address: Owen Valley East Road, Murchison, Nelson, South Island, New Zealand

Email: fish@elevenangling.com