Guides & Tuition

The Fly Fishing Guides at Owen River Lodge

The secret to maximising your fishing experience in New Zealand is to use an experienced fishing guide.

Fishing in these southern latitudes requires a great deal of stealth, due to the clarity of the water, the “canniness” of our brown trout and the fact that these behemoths sparsely populate our rivers, we absolutely recommend you use the services of one of our highly experienced fishing guides. Think about it: you’ve spent a lot of time and money getting to New Zealand. Investing in the services of a fishing guide is a wise thing to do. Time, after all, is one thing we can’t buy more of!

However, the choice is yours: use a guide for all, some or none of your time at the lodge. We are very proud of our team; we think they’re the best ever assembled in New Zealand.

They are all professional, full-time fishing guides, with a wealth of experience. All our senior guides are members of the NZPFGA – New Zealand Professional Fishing Guides Association.

One of the most important things our guides do is teach. Whether you’re a complete beginner, a once-a-year river warrior or an accomplished fly fisher, I believe our guides can assist you to better enjoy your time on our rivers stalking our wild brown (and a few rainbow) trout!

We also have an FFI Certified casting instructor in house, Kylie. She can assist with casting lessons and practice off the water. A lesson with Kylie may help refine your casting and maximize your time on the water with your guide, catching wild New Zealand brown trout.

David

David grew up fishing the Motueka River and started his professional guiding career in the 1990s. He’s married with three children and is passionate about both his fishing and our guests having a great time. David is kept very busy here guiding mostly his repeat clients.

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Chris

Chris grew up in Christchurch where at the age of 4 he caught his first fish off the Lyttelton wharf. Chris started fly fishing when he was 10 years old and is hopelessly addicted to it. He’s married with two children and in winter, when he’s not guiding he is a landscape gardener. Chris and his family also now live in the Owen Valley (We are taking over)

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Stefano

Born in Venice, Italy, Stefano began fly-fishing when he was 16 years old. Stefano has fished & guided all over the world, including Russia, British Colombia and the major European rivers. Memorable catches include a 20kg/45lb taimen in Mongolia and a 92kg/203lb bluefin tuna off Corsica. Stefano lives in the Owen Valley and speaks Italian (naturally), French, Spanish & English. He is very passionate about his fly fishing and loves guiding our guests onto large wild brown trout.

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Adam

Adam has been a keen angler, flytier and hunter for many years. Adam is about as local as you can get, living just up the Owen Valley with his wife Tash. Adam started guiding at ORL in early 2016 and has built up an impressive list of repeat clients. Like all our senior guides, Adam is a member of the NZPFGA

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Paul

Paul knows the Murchison/Nelson Lakes region like the back of his hand. A passionate angler, he’s been guiding professionally since 1990 and still gets a huge kick out of helping clients hook massive wild browns. Paul is a keen hunter and mountain biker. He also loves motorcycles—when he’s not taking his wife out for a spin, he’s racing them. He is a proud dad to his son.

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Gavin

Gavin is a local guide who grew up in Murchison. The son of the local vet, Gavin grew up fly fishing our local streams.He has a science degree majoring in genetics.

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Greg

Greg has been a professional fishing guide in the Murchison region since 1998 and is a very keen fisherman and hunter. When not guiding, Greg runs a successful sporting goods importing and distribution business.

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Robby

Robby has been fly fishing since he was a kid and has been guiding for 20 years. He grew up in Colorado, but fell in love with New Zealand. Subsequently, he moved his entire family to Nelson in 2018. Since he arrvied he’s spent countless days exploring the rivers on the top of the South Island in search of trophy trout. When he’s not chasing trout, you’ll find him sight fishing for Kingfish on his Stand Up Paddle board.

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Kylie

Kylie is New Zealand’s only female IFFF Certified casting instructor. Whilst Kylie doesn’t guide (she is too busy helping Felix run the lodge) she can assist with casting lessons and practice off the water.

A lesson with Kylie may help refine your casting and maximise your time on the water with your guide, catching wild New Zealand brown trout.

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Aaron

Aaron has been a fishing guide since 2002. He is a keen sportsman, hunter and fishing guide. Aaron has 3 daughters, so he really needs to work hard !

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Boris

Famous for his appearance in the Australian television show “A River Somewhere” Boris has been a professional fishing guide since 1990. Winter sees Boris up at the Rainbow Ski field where he & his wife Lee own and run the café.

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Steve

Steve starting guiding professionally in 1999. Steve is known around the lodge as “Big Steve”, he has a degree in outdoor education and is married with 4 children.

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Lindsay

Lindsay lives around the corner from the Lodge and has been a professional fishing guide since 1985.Lindsay is a keen hunter and golf fanatic. September each year sees him down the West Coast catching whitebait, some of which he supplies to the lodge

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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

Feb 15 2021

My husband was looking for a place to go to stay for a few days that provided him with a great place to fish but would suit myself (who doesn’t fish). He spotted Owen River… Read more

Helen & Brian New Zealand : TripAdvisor

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