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Fish with Bish Newsletter
April 1999

April, no, it cannot be! But it is. Don’t time fly!
Down at Taupo over this Easter weekend, the Autumn chills were starting to make themselves known. Still, very soon now the rainbows will start-on up the rivers in the central North Island and we can look forward to great fishing.

I managed to get some wonderful trout out of the river mouth at Hatepe, fishing from 10pm to 12pm – and under a full moon in very bright and light conditions. "You can’t catch fish under a bright moon," I hear some of you say – maybe the fish cannot hear you say it. Think I can feel my next article coming on.

But to more immediate things, my new article in the April edition of  NZ Fisherman, and now up on my site, is on the subject of saltwater fly fishing. Hanging On In There is about what to do when you actually hook a fish – many books and articles go into all sorts of detail about tackle, lines, knots, leaders and flies, but usually too little detail about the angler must do when he or she actually hooks one of the brutes. Hope this article fills in one or two gaps.

Saltwater Fishing Keeps On Keeping On

Despite the fact that Autumn is now upon us, the long hot Summer and long periods of wind pushing warm water down from the tropics means that saltwater fishing will remain very good for another month or two yet.
Inshore fishing for snapper and kingfish should only improve over the next month or so, as fish keep piling on the weight to get them through Winter.
Out wider, good numbers (in fact record numbers) of marlin and tuna are still being taken, and probably will be right through into May. Later on in May could be a good time to have a crack at Albacore on light gear or saltwater fly.

But a word of caution, Autumn weather can be very fickle, please ensure you get a forecast before you head out into the briny. There are old fishermen, and bold fishermen, but there are no old, bold fishermen!

Practice Makes Perfect

Winter fishing in the Central North Island of New Zealand requires throwing big heavily weighted nymphs. It is not called ‘chuck and duck’ for fun. Now is the time to get in some practice casting these bombs, before heading out fishing.
Seems to me to be a waste of valuable fishing time getting your casting up to speed on fishable water, instead of doing the ground work now.

Quick Tip:

Fly casting purists will scoff and jeer, but one of the most effective ways of ‘loading’ the rod when casting heavy nymphs is to let the fly hit the water on the forward false cast. The grip of the water helps to fully load the rod so you can get the line up to speed.

Casting Free Spool Reels

Mark Kitteridge, one of the better casters around on saltwater has an article on casting free-spool reels in the April edition of NZ Fisherman. It is one of the best I have read on the subject – well worth a look if you are trying to overcome the dreaded backlashes associated with casting these reels.

Old Chinese Proverb

If you want to be happy for a few hours get drunk,
If you want to be happy for a week, kill your pig and eat it,
If you want to be happy for a month, get married,
If you want to happy for the rest of your life, go fishing.

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