Bish on Fish in New Zealand Blog

Two Amazing Days in New Zealand

Bishfish — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:02:54 +0000

Some very nice pictures and a realistic story on some outstanding South Island fishing on the Orvis Site. Yes, just another little reminder of how lucky we are here in NZ.

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Catch Magazine Jan Issue 2012

Bishfish — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:15:07 +0000

They have done it yet again, another stunning issue of fishing photography that sets the standard for other on-line fishing magazines to try and match. Right now no-one comes close. Catch it here.

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Smartphone swell and weather for New Zealand

Bishfish — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:39:02 +0000

Be safe this summer and weather prepared with the new SwellMap mobile site.

New Zealand is a unique place for weather – the variability and complexity we experience daily means that our population is very aware of the weather outcomes. Everyone knows that the weather can be very different only 20 km down the road, and that’s why SwellMap provides forecasts at a resolution of 6 to 18 km. This allows us to predict the weather at many of the smaller towns in New Zealand, as well as splitting our bigger cities into smaller weather (and activity) areas.

SwellMap, New Zealand’s premier marine forecast site has a new mobile site. Designed with a smaller data feed and faster download time, boating and fishing enthusiasts can check the weather on the go on their smart phone. SwellMap provides colour coded weather map forecasts at a resolution of 6 to 18 km: sea temperatures, tides, wind, wave height, period and precipitation are all at your fingertips. Plan your outdoor fishing and boating trips safely to avoid strong head winds, heavy seas and rig up with appropriate gear. Simply login with swellmap.com on your mobile and you will be directed to the mobile version. Double tap on screen to zoom into maps.

About SwellMap:

SwellMap system has been developed by MetOcean Solutions Ltd, a science-based consultancy who provide high quality weather data to the offshore and marine industry in New Zealand and overseas.

SwellMap uses the latest atmospheric and oceanographic numerical models, and a large computing facility, to produce forecasts which are updated 4 times per day.

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Three new fishing quotes and sayings: Jan 07 2012

Bishfish — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 03:02:07 +0000

“… To this day I would rather see a fish, creep up to him and watch his rise to my fly than catch half a dozen fish unseen until they take.”

- Roderick Haig-Brown

“Consider the renowned Scottish gillie who was asked what was the single most important skill for a a career fishing guide. After scratching his beard in deep thought he replied, ‘I’d have to say it’d be the ability to yawn with your mouth shut.”

- Quoted in ‘The Trout Diaries’, in a chapter on guiding, and watching clients ‘blind’ fishing – casting to unseen fish.

“As if in suspended animation, the trout pivoted and shot towards the floating Wulff, downstream and across the entire creek, and nabbed the fly with a take as decisive as a punch.”

- Derek Grzelewski – in ‘The Trout Diaries – A year of fly-fishing in New Zealand’

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The Trout Diaries: A Year of Fly-Fishing in New Zealand

Bishfish — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 09:16:16 +0000

As a New Zealand fisherman with over 50 years experience, I am acutely aware of the almost dreamlike reputation New Zealand’s trout fishing holds for many overseas anglers. Unfortunately much of that dream has been fuelled by over-hyping in print, TV and other media. Sure we have big trout in superb surroundings, but the big trout are hard to catch, and require for the most part good fly-fishing skills, where casting and presentation techniques are key.
Fortunately Trout Diaries is extremely well written, and through an anecdotal style reveals the true nature and reality of New Zealand trout fishing, and the techniques that can lead to success.
In many ways the books title is a misnomer, it is most certainly not a ‘I did this on this day’ book, but covers a years worth of fishing trips throughout both the North and South Island of New Zealand. On the way you will meet some of the true characters that fish our waters, and learn a lot.
I cannot recommend Trout Dairies highly enough.

Another review:

“This is such a fine book; one that is able to be enjoyed on several levels.
It has inspired me to fish some new water, and it offers some gems on how to fly fish. The Trout Diaries is occupied by some of the most interesting characters to inhabit our angling literature, and the author has captured their voices beautifully. The book will appeal to people looking for the adventure that comes from new places and people, but primarily for me, it was about an adventure of the soul. This ultimate adventure, so well described, is the most important journey of all, and is what will make this book appeal to an audience well beyond anglers. It is a book that can make you laugh and cry, which is quite something for a book supposedly about angling.”

Yet another:

“Derek Grzelewski sees what most others do not; his thoughtful observations are carefully wound into stories that are neither just about technique, nor about the requisite equipment but rather how fishing for trout, pounding miles of river bank, chance encounters with locals and peering from bridges into running water, feed us. He threads his 12 months of fishing with his life experiences. This is not a book about pounds, numbers or the one that got away. He recounts his meetings with professionals, scientists, cockies, novices, old timers, whitebaiters… for each of them a different slant on what they take from the fabulously fresh still and running waters of New Zealand. I couldn’t put the book down.”

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Three new fishing quotes and sayings–17 Dec 2011

Bishfish — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 10:25:31 +0000

Presented for your piscatorial pleasure, three new piscine pieces of perceptive and pithy pronouncements – quote numbers 1054 – 1056

“Our tradition is that of the first man who sneaked away to the creek when the tribe did not really need fish.”
- Roderick Haig-Brown – A River Never Sleeps

“The cast was perfect enough for the purpose and the leader and fly piled up in the fast water. The drift was underway. You could see everything: the trout spotting the pattern, turning to face it, placing it in binocular vision, the approach, the mouth opening, the snout poking out of the water, the cicada disappearing. Too much fun.”
- Jack MacKenzie – Time and Space

“The soul of an angler embraces a collection of unquestioned convictions foremost amongst them the faith that a trout could take on any cast. Deprive him of that assumption and only a perplexing sense of waste remains.”
- Ted Leeson – Inventing Montana

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Five more fishing quotes and sayings Nov 11 2011

Bishfish — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 03:28:34 +0000

Here are five more fishing quotations: (numbers 149 – 1053)

“… the little white blink”

- G E M Skues, the nymph master delightfully describing the opening and closing of a trout’s mouth when feeding on nymphs.

“Rainbow trout lie in fast water, brown trout in slow water, and fishermen lie almost anywhere, any time.”

- unknown; and probably just as well.

And three quotes that should stir the pot:

“Catch and release fishing may be cruelty masquerading as political correctness.”

- John Mcphee – The Founding Fish

“I fear that my old pastime (fishing) has become the blood-sport of urbanites and vegetarians, so refined that someone who actually eats fish is considered to be spooky and recidivist as a cannibal”

- Stephen J Bodio – Confessions of a Catfish Heretic

“Catch and release angling is becoming a religion. Although in some instances it is essential to the survival of the species sought, in others, its major effect is to cloak its more evangelical practitioners in a mantle of righteousness.”

- Kelso Bryant – New York times

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Noise and Trout – is it a problem?

Bishfish — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 03:27:41 +0000

There are many who believe that metal studs on wading boots and metal wading staffs generate too much noise and make trout nervous, if not frightened away.

I have yet to become a believer. I have banged two hard rocks together underwater within 30 feet of trout and they have not moved.

Over on the MidCurrent site there is an interesting comparison video between a metal wading staff and a wooden staff with a rubber tip, and the sound generated by both. The video makes it pretty clear that the metal staff does make more noise as it hits boulders. But the wooden staff also generates a lot of noise as it moves rocks and boulders. It is that, that I think gets forgotten in the ‘no metal’ argument.

That majority of the noise generated by a wading angler is the displacement of rocks and boulders on the bottom, and this background noise reduces the impact of metal noise.

On rocky, boulder, river beds any time a wader moves across the bottom noise is generated. Best advice, metal studs, metal wading staff, or not, stay out of the water if at all possible.

But even if you have to wade, keeping as way away from the trout, or likely lie, is good advice – my experience is that trout most often only react to ‘clear and present danger’, in the water or above it. I am often amazed at how close you can get to a fish without spooking it if you wade carefully, despite the noise I make treading on boulders and rocks.

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Catch Magazine Issue 20 – out now

Bishfish — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:05:51 +0000

More absolutely outstanding fishing photography – Catch magazine link

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New Shark-Fin Pictures

Bishfish — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 19:12:52 +0000

Up to 73 million sharks are caught each year for the global fin trade, which fuels a demand for shark-fin soup, according to Pew Environment Group. Fishers usually slice the animals’ fins off and throw their still-living bodies overboard.

See National Geographic for the full story and more pictures and weep.

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