Photos of New Zealand Rainbows

Hi,
This is mostly me testing image posting. Fingers crossed I got it right. Anyway, these are some rainbows (all released in good shape after the photo) I caught over Easter weekend. The largest, shown in the first picture, was about 2.25 lbs and was taken on a partridge and orange soft hackle, the other two were about 1.5 lbs. and one took a White Invicta, the other took a deer hair caddis dry.

  • Jeff

Hey Jeff, great fish, I am going to head down to Lake Aniwhenua in a couple of weeks and I hope all the fish are that fat!
All the best.
Mike.

WOW !!, … What do 'Bow EAT down there !!


Christopher Chin, Jonquiere Quebec
[url=http://flyanglersonline.com/travel/quebec06fishin/:e39ee]2006 FishIn Ste-Marguerite River[/url:e39ee]
[url=http://pages.videotron.com/fcch/:e39ee]Fishing the Ste-Marguerite[/url:e39ee]

Hi Mike and FCCH,

Over Easter I landed about 17 rainbows in the Rangitaiki (and had over 30 additional strikes and hookups - I kept a diary of all action). Most were quite small, in the 10-15 cm range. At the time, the most productive fly was a size 14 deer hair caddis that they would just attack at mid-day. Wee wets and soft hackles were very productive (I spooked the 2.25 lbs one in the first photo twice with a dry, but after it finished doing the “everywhere dash” it settled back to the feeding lane. So, I drifted a size 12 pheasant and orange passed it and it immediately grabbed that!).

Had a lot of luck with an Invicta, and took one with a pattern of mine I call a “white Invicta” (it’s just an Invicta tied with grizzle hackle for tail and the palmered hackle; white body, silver wire rib, white wings, and then peacock hurl tied in as a throat).

I hooked into an estimated 3.0+ lbs brown with an Invicta, but it was able to get under some weed then spit the fly.

I even tried a Doc Spratly, tied in size 12, and that worked really well in the mornings. I think it was taken as a stone fly, or as some sort of emerging nymph.

The fish were all in great condition, and put up really good fights. I was surprised by some of them when I finally got a look at them. Based upon the fight, I thought some had to be at least half again their size.

I’ve not fished Lake Aniwhenua though. Do post how the trip goes. I know I’ve had a lot of luck in Rotorua area lakes with the standard olive wooly bugger (on a size 10 2x hook) and on a similar sized Cosseboom (an Atlantic Salmon fly). I think they are taken for bullies as they work best fished slow and near the bottom.

Anyway, this is getting long already, so I’ll just cut it off here.

  • Jeff

Hi,
Here’s my personal best taken on a fly. This was a 7.25 lbs brown taken at the mouth of the Waiteti Stream in Rotorua about a year ago. What makes this extra special was how I had designed a fly to fish this spot, and this was the first time I had used it! Tied on a size 10, 2x shank hook, it’s a simple pattern: yellow tail, silver body, silver rib, red throat, pine squirrel tail, and small chesnut pheasant feathers for cheeks (should not extend beyond 1/3 body length). I’ve taken a couple of nice browns with this, and a decent rainbow too.

  • Jeff