Parkinson's Lake - Waiuku

Fishing Fishing Reports
1

Hi,

Went out to my wife’s parents property outside of the city for the weekend. It was good to get away for what turned out to be the best weekend we’ve had in months. First time it hasn’t rained on Sat and Sunday (Note the use of and, and not “or” in that weather report - it’s been a wet one here).

Anyway, next door is a small lake, stalked with rainbows. You can walk along the water’s edge and cast out over the drop off. Direct behind you the hill climbs straight up, so you almost have to steeple cast, but not quite. Just aim that backcast very high and don’t let out more than 10 feet of line and you’re away.

Normally in the summer this lake has a lot of fish rising through the day. I’ve hooked into one fish that was in the 3.5-4lbs range, but the one’s I’ve brought to hand have generally been in the 10-12 inch range (isn’t that always the way?).

So, with spring just begining, the weeds were low and there was very little insect life around. A fair number of midges, but no fish rising. I lie, I did see two or three over the weekend, but nothing regular. Anyway, last time I was there I had some luck with an adult damsel fly pattern of mine. There are tonnes of damsels and dragonflies in the summer here. So, I figured I would try some damsel and dragonfly nymph patterns.

Although fishing was slow, I did manage two small rainbows. One was 23 cm (about 10 inches) and the other was 28 cm (around 11 inches). I took one on a size 12 Hamil’s Killer, which is the first time I’ve caught anything on one of those! Hamil’s Killer is a very popular fly here in NZ, but althogh I’ve tied a few up, I keep forgetting to try them. It’s basically a black squirrel tail, dubbed wool body (mine was bright green, but yellow and red are the most popular colours) and tied to the side are olive partidge body feathers. The fly looks like a little almond with a black tail when dry. When wet, it streamlines nicely and is a very good damsel fly nymph pattern. The other was take on my “Green Mock Pupkeko” fly. The wing is made from two feathers from a cock ringneck pheasant. The copper rib on this helped get the flies down to the depth the fish seemed to be hanging out:

Anyway, only fished a few hours, but boy, was it nice to be swinging a stick! The fish were just a nice bonus.

  • Jeff
2

Jeff -

You KNEW that somebody had to ask - so it might as well be me.

What is a “pupkeko” ??

And how would one go about mocking it ??

And why green ??

John

3

Hey Jeff, nice to know you managed to get out for a flick. Gringo is going to be in NZ for the week starting the 19th of October, so we will be spending the week at the taltac club in Turangi, if you would like to catch up for a fish let me know and I will book a bed for you.
John a Pukeko is the Kiwi name for a marsh hen and they are a deep dark Blue in colour. We use the flank feathers tied flat on top of the hook for night flies. Looks like Jeff has tied his fly Pukeko style and I guess green as that’s the colour of the dragon fly nymph
All the best.
Mike.

4

Hi John,

Mike’s got it. (I mis-spelled pukeko, not sure where the extra p came from?) Pukeko-style flies are really popular night flies. They are often tied quite large (size 8 up to size 2, 4 and 6 being most popular), and fished slow near the bottom of lakes. Tied small, size 10 and 12, they can be good beetle immitations fished in a river.

But, since pukeko feathers can’t be bought anywhere else in the world (and even here in New Zealand there is only one shop with a licence to sell the feathers), it’s unlikely they will be found elsewhere. I had posted some patterns here a year ago, and included a few of my own (like the above) that used feathers from cock pheasants (ringneck and golden). Since I use “non-pukeko feathers in a pukeko-styled fly”, I called them “mock pukekos”. It’s also not unusual here to tie the same pattern with differnet body colours, and the body colour is often indicated in the name (i.e. green mock pukeko").

The “Stayner Ducktail” is tied similar to the pukeko-style flies, but uses mallard feathers for the wing.

The body dubbing is “insect green seal’s fur” and the tail is mallard dyed olive. Dragonfly and damsel nymphs tend to be green, though they go quite brown as they get near molting. The rib is copper wire, coloured “orange”, I think it’s size “medium” from Uni. The hackle is just a single turn from a Chinese neck, Cree.

  • Jeff
5

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the invite. Will have to see how work is doing. That’s getting close to the end of semester and students start needing a lot of supervision by then. So, that’s a great incentive to go! ha!

  • Jeff