Tips on Chile and New Zealand

[FishingOnTheFly]

Hey everyone,

Some advice for the new traveler... I am spending a year fly-fishing and traveling after school. In an attempt to get away from the short days up here in the Northern Hemisphere, I really want to plan a few months of fishing (on a tight budget) in Chile or New Zealand. Does anyone have any tips on who to contact or connect with to learn about lakes, rivers, and accommodation in either country? I ideally would like to plan January to April... and the time is quickly approaching.

If anyone has advice or has fished in these countries, let me know!

Cheers!

[Paul Arden]

Hi Dylan,

A great plan! I fished 18-20 summers in NZ 5-6 months/year. My advice would be to head to the South Island and backpack into the mountain streams. Truly some quite exceptional fly fishing.

I’m guessing your budget doesn’t involve a guide. That’s fine, and it’s very possible to DIY. If you do want to see a guide for a few days then I’d recommend Ronan who writes the blog on the Front Page. I fished with Ronan in NZ many times, months at a time and he is a truly wonderful angler, beer drinker and stuntman.

Otherwise you just have to get in and do it. Don’t hang around on the rivers and instead push hard. Typically 10km of river covered in a day is normal in the backcountry.

Back then the angler’s bible was John Kent’s South Island Guide. It’s excellent if you read between the lines.

Don’t know about Chile but a few of the guys here do or have done in the past.

Cheers, Paul

[whinging pom]

Dylan
theres a bible i couldn't have been without;-
Heinemann New Zealand Atlas with Department of Survey & Land Info
its hard back and a bit cumbersome , but it has every road, track, path, dirt track and dead end to avoid , every trickle of water, its a passport into so many hard to find areas, and saves so much time and wasted miles.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295236162848 ... R4q2mfuXYQ

First trip, i struggled a bit , but fishing was second place on a road trip with my mrs. There's water everywhere it gets overwhelming.

Next trip with my Kid brother we hired a guide for one day, https://www.mataura.co.nz/ not to take us fishing but to show us the local waters in the area we were baseing ourselves, what to avoid what to focus on... and most important on the crystal clear south island waters ... How to spot trout ( look for the shadows on the river bed). What the fish would be feeding on.

He found this quite novel, normally he was guiding japanese clients who wanted to catch fish.

He got the measure of us during the day and our abilities, looked at our casting and got us to find trout for him.
On the basis of that he warned up to not waste time with Gore and the waters around there , the nearby Oretti trophy zone , for sanity's sake ignore the Mad Matuara Rise!! ( he was so right!)
He said Dont bother fishing the River at the back of where we were staying, but drive ten minutes up the road to the Hamilton burn.
We wouldn't have got that without him and wasted days exploring the ribbon gravel drifts of the wide Oretti looking for sparse and solitary trout, instead of finding a wonderful little dry fly water brimming with Trout that got fat on caterpillars dropping out of the bankside willows.

He thought we should drive out a bit as we would really like the Nokomai Gorge , but warned us to park up and walk as far down stream as we could and then work back up stream as the American tourist tend to over fish the first mile near the parking, but go a bit further and you've got it to yourself. He was spot on, one of my favourite days fishing of all time.
Being In Matuara when the evening rise started was just about the worst!

Also if your in that area of south island Stu's fly shop in Atholl is a must visit, there was loads of really great flys , he's also a guide and Ive heard a lot of good reports .... whenever i have been in his shop he's been out guiding so never got to meet the chap.

you lucky lucky chap!
pom

[Paul Arden]

Stu doesn’t have his shop nowadays. But he is still in the area. https://www.stusflyshop.com/

NZ certainly became popular. 30 years ago I walked and fished most of the Mataura, from the estuary through to above Garston. Just before Christmas. In all that water I might have encountered 5 or max 10 anglers. Some days I didn’t see anyone!

[whinging pom]

On the banks of the Matuara not far from Athol was some of the finest clay I’ve ever come across, like fullers earth or rottenstone.
It made the best tippet sinkant and de- gloss. I drove back before the end of the trip to grab some more. Possibly the most expensive Leda-sink ever
I still carry a tub of it made up and a gradually diminishing dried lump of it stashed away.
Dave the guide shared your view on night fishing and said that there were really good sea run trout on the Matuara , just that not many people knew about them or bothered to fish for them.

[FishingOnTheFly]

Thanks all! This is fascinating to hear. Most importantly, it sounds like there is a robust fishing community in New Zealand and great info about how/where to fish it... I am curious to know why Chile/Argentina still seems relatively unexplored compared to NZ (or maybe just a different experience)? Water rights, access, price, language? Paul mentioned public access is better, but with NZ relationship and history to Britain I am curious to know why water rights are different!

Cheers!

[Paul Arden]

Same reason as in the US and Canada I believe. When Europeans started emigrating they did so partly for a better life (apart from Australia of course where we sent them to get rid of them). And one of the things that they managed to do in many places was to put public hunting and fishing access in place. Historically the rivers and lakes are privately owned in many parts of the UK (not all). Many rivers in NZ have public access along both banks and can all be fished for a reasonable annual license fee. This is very rare in Europe. South of France I believe is one license fee but that’s the only one I can think of off the top of my head.

I don’t know how it is in Chile. I know that in Argentina, unfortunately, there has been a push to privatise some waters.

Approximately 1/3rd of NZ is publicly owned and National Parks make up over 10%. But what makes NZ special is the size of the trout. In many backcountry rivers 5lbs is a small fish and fish under 4lbs are exceptional. The sight fishing is excellent. Some parts of Europe; northern Russia & Iceland for example also have very large trout. But there is just a lot more of it in NZ.

Cheers, Paul

[whinging pom]

But what makes NZ special is the size of the trout. In many backcountry rivers 5lbs is a small fish and fish under 4lbs are exceptional. The sight fishing is excellent. Some parts of Europe; northern Russia & Iceland for example also have very large trout. But there is just a lot more of it in NZ.

Cheers, Paul

…and that’s the word of warning for a newcomer fishing there. Some say it’s the best trout fishing in the world….that doesn’t mean it’s the easiest .Learning how to spot them , and stop them spotting you, can be a very steep learning curve for some of us Europeans.
What’s actually easier to do there, is blank!

[Vicente G]

hi! sorry for the really late reply but it might be of use to someone

down here in Chile all natural bodies of water are public, and you can buy an annual license to access every natural body of water for an unlimited amount of time (meaning you can stay on the river for 3 months if you wanted to lol), no purchasing beats or anything like that, it just costs 13 dollars for residents. the limit to take home here is 3 pieces of any salmonid or 15kg per day, whichever arrives first. foreigners can purchase weekly or monthly licenses but they are more expensive (maybe 20 or 30 dollars it depends) there's a hell lot of places you can access and fish solo that have amazing trout, last year from late September there where the first reports of Chile's legendary Chinook salmon , make sure to bring equipment that can withstand a lot of pressure because these fish are crazy.

[Paul Arden]

That’s great to hear Vicente, since we had this discussion NZ is much less happy place to fish for the travelling angler because they’ve created a two tier system, where for many of the prime waters, foreigners need to pay a daily licence fee and are also restricted to fishing only 5 days annually on them combined in one district. I call them Aparthied Rivers!

Chile sounds like a blast. I hope to visit in some years.

Got any pictures?

Cheers, Paul