Preparing for your trip to New Zealand

March 17, 2018

By Felix Borenstein

For some a fly fishing trip to the South Island of New Zealand is a once in a lifetime event; for many of our guests it’s an annual pilgrimage.

In either case there are two things you can do to maximise your fishing success and hopefully also your enjoyment.

Practice your casting
If there was one thing I would recommend to all our guests, it would be to practice your casting before you fish here. You absolutely don’t need to be able to cast your entire fly line, just 30 > 40 feet with a reasonable level of accuracy.
I don’t know many fly fishers that could not benefit from a casting lesson; if not to reinforce the basics then to refine our skill set.You may have heard that we use long leaders and you heard right ! So practice with a 12 ft leader and a few feet of tippet.

The International Federation of Fly Fishers has accredited casting instructors all over the world. They are bound to have a casting instructor (CCI) near you. http://www.flyfishersinternational.org/

Your fitness
The wild brown trout that live in this region are big, and quite often, spread thinly throughout our rivers. That may mean there is only 3 or 4 brown trout per kilometer of river. On an average day, you may walk 2 > 4 kilometers, which may not seem like a huge amount, but when you add a bit of walking over rocks to the equation it all adds up.

This may mean you need to examine your level of fitness and maybe go for a walk to the local park 3 or 4 times a week for the month leading up to your trip – and while you’re at the park, give that fly rod a casting work out !

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