Friday 29 July 2016

Productive Day

Date: 28 July

Air Temp: 8C to 11C
Water Temp: 15C
Water height: -15cm
Number of rods: 12
Number fish caught: 13
Biggest fish: 22lbs Tom Craig
No 30+: 0
No 20-29: 1
No 8-19: 4
Grilse: 8

 Tom with a cracking fish out of Upper Norcamp

Weather: 
Some brief showers before lunch, and dry cloudy with a North East wind all afternoon.

Rupert D with a fish on in Snake Pool (Lyliok River) yesterday

Manager's Comments:
We have far better fishing conditions now, and its is seriously increasing our salmon count which is great news! I am positive that this cooler weather is all that is making the difference and if it continues we may really see a difference in numbers of fish caught. The figures this week have certainly been increasing everyday as each day gets cooler and cooler. Lets hope this continues for the next couple of weeks.

Rupert with a fresh fish from 7 Islands

Gordon had a fantastic day in Lyliok today. He landed three fish and two of them were really quite fresh indeed and had certainly not been in the river more than a week. One was a lovely 15lbs hen fish. So an action packed afternoon for him.

Rupert and Nick managed three fish between them - a 14lbs fish each and Nick also had a 7lbs grilse. They had these out of the draws in 7 Islands, a beat that I think has fished exceptionally well this year. It is without a doubt my favourite beat on the system, a mixture of fantastic pools and very dynamic in that it has everything from lovely streamy necks, big boils and brilliant fast-flowing glassy draws that all feel so unbelievably fishy.

Tom C has had a great day today. He was fishing Upper Norcamp and had a nice 22lber that he caught on a huge sparkly cone-head sun ray shadow. The fish took with huge ferocity and proceeded to rip yards and yards of line off the reel at high speed as it steamed of down the pool.

The drug of the tug!

Tom and I deployed up the Lyliok River again last night after supper and he managed a lovely 16lber that also put up a great fight so once again the walk was worth it. Really good fun to catch such good quality fish out such a small little river.

Tom C with another cracking fish

In essence, a much better day and let's hope we keep this cool weather for as long as possible and the fish numbers will continue to rise.

Toby Burrell

Thursday 28 July 2016

Better Results

Date: 27 July

Air Temp: 8C to 11C
Water Temp: 17C
Water height: -17cm
Number of rods: 12
Number fish caught: 10
Biggest fish: 13lbs Stuart Campbell
No 30+: 0
No 20-29: 0
No 8-19: 0
Grilse: 5

Weather: 
More cloud cover all day, light drizzle and a cold swirling wind. Heavy rain by 11pm.

Manager's Comments:
The second day of cooler weather has certainly brought more fish on and made some of the older resident fish slightly more active, giving us an opportunity to catch them. I believe that every rod had a fish on some point during the day, sadly not everyone landed one. Gordon had a couple of good fish take him in Poachers this morning but annoyingly didn't quite make either of them to the net. One was certainly 20lbs+.

Stuart C did well to get a nice 13lber out of the left bank pots of Boulder Alley. The fish took him right up against the bank and motored off down towards home pool. William D also had a fish of similar proportions out of Island pool. His fish also took the fly with in millimetres of the bank, at first William thought he had a grilse until it suddenly darted for the rapids and nearly made it over the edge.

Geoff B managed a brace of fish out of Crows Nest this afternoon, both reasonably fresh. Rob L had a good 12lber from the first draw in 7 Islands and Rupert D also had a salmon out of Lyliok this evening.

In summary, we are defiantly moving in the right direction with the fish numbers. This colder weather has certainly moved a few of the older fish and brought them on the take. I think the colder weather is going to stay for the rest of the week and hopefully the rest of the season.

Fingers crossed!

Toby Burrell

Wednesday 27 July 2016

Better Temperatures

Date: 26 July

Air Temp: 8C to 11C
Water Temp: 15C
Water height: -17cm
Number of rods: 12
Number fish caught: 10
Biggest fish: 7lbs Rob Layton
No 30+: 0
No 20-29: 0
No 8-19: 0
Grilse: 10

Weather: 
Good cloud cover all day with comparatively cold temperatures and a nippy downstream breeze.

Manager's Comments:
Today's conditions certainly felt a lot more like a fishing day with much cooler weather and no
sunshine at all. We perhaps didn't connect with quite as many fish as we had hoped but having said that at least most rods did manage to hook a grilse at some point in the day. I think after the amount of hot weather we’ve had we really need a few more days of cold to really cool the whole river system down.

Rob L and Stuart C had a good evening on right bank Lyliok again, managing to land four between them in a reasonably short period of time, perhaps a small pod of them just coming through. They also saw numerous other fish showing out in the pool.

Stuart C with a 20lber 


Stuart C with a fish on in Lyliok

Tom C and I went on a little adventure up the Lyliok river again, after supper we deployed up to the only three pools on the small river. We had very exciting results indeed, endless follows and swirls at the fly. I think mainly all grilse but very exciting all the same. Tom managed to land two of them, both taking yards of line of him, he did well to stop both disappearing down the rapids into Pinro Pool. There is rather a large cliff between the two pools, so anything leaving the pool down the rapids is almost a guaranteed lost fish. But a very exciting action packed evening for Tom and great fun to see these fish come zooming after the fly form quite some distance at times.

We can only now pray that this cooler weather stays with us for as long as possible and hope that the water temperature drops off quickly. This should begin to shift some of the older fish and hopefully reduce a few bigger one for the book.

Toby Burrell

Tuesday 26 July 2016

Bright Sunshine

Date: 25 July

Air Temp: 15C to 25C
Water Temp: 17C
Water height: -12cm
Number of rods: 12
Number fish caught: 5
Biggest fish: 20lbs Stuart Campbell
No 30+: 0
No 20-29: 1
No 8-19: 1
Grilse: 3

Tom C with a fish on in Lyliok

Weather: 
Bright sunshine all day, not a wisp of cloud in sight. A soft east wind..

Manager's Comments:
Today's conditions were tough to say the least - baking hot with blindingly bright sunshine all day. There was an odd fishing showing here and there throughout the day. Alistair kept up his record of a fish a day with a very nice fresh 14lber out of Lower Norcamp this morning on a size 10 temple dog.

Tom C made contact with a fish in Cliff this afternoon and managed to crack a couple more in Lyliok this evening giving him a grand total of 3. A very good day indeed given the hot weather. Both fish he had in Lyliok were caught on a size ten stoats tail, both took in the same spot about 30minutes apart from each other.

Stuart is off the mark with a fantastic fish out Lyliok pool this evening after supper. The 20lbs hen took his second cast and whizzed off downstream taking 100 yards of backing with it. Stuart managed to stop it before it made the rapids and had it safely landed with in 10 minutes. Well done Stuart for catching your first Yokanga salmon and an excellent one at that!

Lets hope tomorrow does not bring more of the same sun. We are due temperatures to drop down to 10C for the rest of the week. This would be ideal, last nights catches in Lyliok are certainly a promising sign.

Toby Burrell

Monday 25 July 2016

Fresh 10lbs

Date: 24 July

Air Temp: 11C to 18C
Water Temp: 15C
Water height: -6cm
Number of rods: 12
Number fish caught: 8
Biggest fish: 12lbs Rob Layton
No 30+: 0
No 20-29: 0
No 8-19: 2
Grilse: 6

Weather: 
A wide variety of weathers today ranging from heavy showers with strong winds to cloudless skies and bright sunshine.

The team!

Manager's Comments:
The guests all arrived safe and sound yesterday and in good time. We were able to all get out on the river by about 4:30 on a full stomach after another one of Uri’s delicious feasts. There where a couple of successful rods that evening, one of which was Simon A who took faith in my advice and deployed up the Lyliok river itself. A fantastic little river when it works, of course it is nothing on the mighty Yokanga but as Simon is with us for 14 days, it is nice to have a slight change in scenery and style, and there is every chance of catch a few fish. Simon managed to hook and land a brilliant fresh hen fish of 10lbs. A successful little trip up the river that has left Simon keen for more.

Rob L chucking out a good line across Lyliok

Simon S and William had an interesting evening down in Lyliok pool on the Saturday evening, both fishing hitches and sun rays and both rising a good number of fish but sadly nothing was committing properly. Although an action-packed few hours for them they sadly returned home empty handed.

Today's conditions felt good all morning; perhaps a little warm at times and certainly this afternoon with the cloud cover clearing. Top rod goes to Rob L, he had a short spell of madness down in Lyliok this afternoon hooking four fish in the space of 30 minuets and landing three of them. All on right bank just above the Lyliok stream.

The fish today have certainly been slightly more active. I believe every rod has had at least one encounter with a fish but they have all been very slow and rather pathetic attempts at taking the fly leaving us with very few landed fish. A lot of pulls and slow takes that haven't come to a proper hook up. Hopefully these fish will become more aggressive with cooler water, we are due more rain this week.

Toby Burrell

Sunday 24 July 2016

Week 16-23 July

Date: 16-23 July

Air Temp: 14’C -21’C
Water Temp: 15C-19C
Water Height: -26cm to +37cm
Number of Rods: 2
Number of fish Caught: 12
Biggest fish: 18lbs Geoff Barber
No 30+: 0
No 20-29lbs: 0
No 8-19lbs: 5
Grilse: 6
Sea Trout: 1

Weather: A mixture of sunshine and rain, generally it has been a warm week with the odd spell of cooler weather tending to bring rain.
 
Incoming heli

Managers Comments: Certainly not the easiest of weeks fishing for our two guests on the river this week. But as always they have worked hard and ticked away. We have really struggled to move any of the bigger fish this week, they are obviously hunkered down and not budging at the moment. In my experience of salmon fishing, the fish are never so keen when the water level is yo-yoing up and down like it has this week. Very unsettling for them indeed, however it may work wonders for the week to come as it will have woken up a few of the older big fish.

View of Pump Pool towards Home Pool
 
The water level has gone from -26cm this week to +37cm and back down to 0 all in a five day period. This is a huge move in water in a very small period of time. It certainly has dropped the water temperature by a few degrees leaving us at 15C now which is much more like it.

Well done to Geoff who had a fantastic day on Wednesday landing four fish collectively weighing 43lbs biggest 18lbs. A truly epic afternoon of fishing by any standards and especially satisfying in these harsh conditions, so a big well done to you Geoff!
 
Geoff's sea trout
 
Simon has fished very well indeed and has been in contact with fish all week, and has never lacked in action but struggling to find any of the bigger fish. His time will come.
 
European elk (alces alces)

Promising conditions for the coming week, cooler water and a dropping river, cloud cover is forecast for most of the week with the odd spells of rain. Let’s hope it is correct and the fish come on!

Toby Burrell