We've just added to our video trailer section the pre release trailer for Once in a Blue Moon by On the Fly Productions.

This is a slick production, due to be on sale via amazon some time next month. On the Fly Productions consists of husband and wife team Carl McNeil and Jeanie Ackley. Carl is one of New Zealands only two qualified FFF master casters (there are only 100 or so in the world), add to that he's an uber talented fisherman and a hard case. To add to Carl's skills Jeanie is herself a sought after adventurer and film maker having spent a large portion of her resent career heading the Natural History New Zealand s dive teams.

Anyway point being why this is so good is there is a guy who know what he's doing with a fly rod and a girl who knows how to put together professional quality documentary's, add a few funky swimming mice, aerial footage and some smoking trout, this is going to be a great production.

The On the Fly guys are worth keeping an eye on over the next few years. The best way to do this is join their VIP club, rumour has it there is going to be some more pre release footage made available to VIP members only over teh next few weeks.

I fished last weekend with my brother Rob. We don't get to fish together enough but it's always great when we do.

Rob's still quite involved in the New Zealand competition scene and as a result I'm always eager to learn what new bit's and pieces he's been picking up along the way. Anyway here are a few picks and some things I learnt from Rob over the weekend.

1. Wading sticks are good

I'd always hassled people who asked me about wading sticks, thinking I didn't need them. Well maybe I'm just getting older but I just realised I do need one, especially when fishing fast rivers and trying to get into dodgy situations. I thought using a wading staff would be much slower, but I actally found I was able to cross rivers faster and of course a lot more safetly with the use of a wading staff. Anyway as a result I've just ordered a bunch of wading staff's from Airflo which should be here some time in May, in time for the Tongariro and winter fishing.

2. Spread your flies out

For a lot of the weekend Rob fished a dry fly with two nymphs. All of which were positioned around two feet (60cm) apart. I would normally fish the two nymphs much closer together but I realised by spreading them out the middle nymph fished mid current as an emerger pattern which is an excellent idea. Great for targeting fish working the water column and perfect for increasing the amount of water your covering effectively.

3. Softer rods are great for shortline nymphing

When fishing heavy nymphs I've always tended towards fast action rods. However I've also tended to fish long line techniques versus shortline techniques. Over the weekend Rob fished a G2 9'0" #6 and it was obvious that the softer tip was perfect for loading short casts and feeling for takes when shortlining.