Graeme Christie | Tuesday, 14 July 2026
I was still down south in New Zealand.
Ronan said the fishing was on, even in the cold. The forecast's main problem was ice over the high passes after snow. Black ice, freezing conditions, dangerous driving. The other problem was that I was down with my family, and I wanted time with them too. I can't be all about fishing.
Off we set. The roads were okay and we took the pass carefully. Minus eight on the tops. The forecast said freezing fog, and we hoped that somewhere along the lake we'd drive out of it. We did. Brilliant blue sky, low wind, a classic cold South Island day.
It was one or two degrees when we got to the water. The frost hadn't lifted off the grass and wouldn't. The sun was just tipping over the hills and the light on the country behind made the backdrop spectacular.
Two rigs. A dry dropper, and a woolly bugger on a floating line.
We set off across the flats, prospecting. Cold. Nothing showing. After a while I started putting the bugger into likely water and was into a fish almost straight away. A post-spawn brown, lovely colour. Back he went.
I always reckon I'm a bit lucky with fishing, early on at least. An early fish builds enthusiasm. Then we covered a lot of ground, looking and blind casting, nothing.
Much time went by and eventually the day warmed and something shifted. One of those brief windows. Maybe the light angle changed, maybe the water warmed half a degree. We started seeing trout. We spotted one, tracked him, and put the dry dropper in his path. He came at it like a savage and sucked the dry down. Strike. Fish on. He rolled over at the end. That's when you see the size of them. Ronan grabbed the net and we did a quick weigh. Just shy of six and a half pounds. A couple of photos and we let him go. He powered off into the green.
With the day warmer we kept moving, stripping the bugger through likely spots. Soon enough, another fish. A lovely rainbow. We sighted a few more and I had one good follow, and that was the day.
It was a holiday weekend, Matariki, in the middle of the school holidays, Ronan had a great contact and we spent a great evening at their accommodation. Some poor soul broke down outside in the freezing fog. We towed the vehicle somewhere safe and they stayed the night too. A young tourist, woefully dressed for minus temperatures.
Next morning, same weather, different spot. Foggy and freezing, but the spotting was still good. Within five minutes we found a fish. The dry dropper landed in front of him and bang. Another really nice brown, five and three-quarters. The luck was holding. An early fish again.
Then the long middle of a winter day. We prospected, spotted one more, blind fished for nothing, shifted again.
By this stage I had an intermediate line on, a DI2 perhaps. It was about right for this part of the shoreline. It has that brick on a string feel, but with a high bank not far behind it worked well for casting and some good distance. In so much of fly fishing you can't always make the perfect cast, and adjusting for that is part of the craft. One thing about these lines: if you haul too early you upset the trajectory and put the fly line ahead of the fly, which risks tangles. It was a lesson in keeping my haul as late as possible.
When the sun came through later, another fish on. A nice rainbow.
We searched the shoreline for cruisers. Nothing seen. Some fish were rising back where we'd started, so I finished there. One trout that disappeared into the deep, and a few bites blind fishing the bugger.
The day was almost done but we hit a stream mouth and I landed one more. By then, after two days of casting, tiredness was creeping in with errors. Tangles. Flies in bushes. I was starting to enjoy the cold. It's part of the challenge. Can you keep ahead of it and still enjoy it? Plenty of layers answer that question. Non-leaking waders too.
We'd both worked hard for it. We hit the road content, snow banked beside the tar seal, the pass in twilight, minus seven. Beautiful.
New Zealand has some top trout fishing even in winter. Each water is different, the numbers turning on food cycles and spawning, lake levels, the big hydro catchments that hold it all.
A big thank you to Ronan for great days on the water. He guides down there too, and if you want a winter fish on a big river or lake, he's the man to put you on one.