Team Tuesday - Chris Dore's Super Succinct Season Wrap Up
We wanted to get a few words from Chris Dore about how his season guiding went, and if you know Dore then you know a few words usually turns into a lot of words! Therefore we've managed to just get the topline things that have stuck in his head about what went down this season and distilled them down into little bite sized pieces for you.
We present to you, Chris Dore, abridged.
3 HIGHLIGHTS:
- The expression on every anglers face the moment I lift the net around their first fish of the day. It’s a moment I quickly turn around to witness. Its happiness, exhilaration, celebration and the release of frustration and tensions. Nothing else seems to matter in that moment, and it makes all the hard work and coaching worthwhile.
- 92 year old Bob on his lifetime trip to NZ, finally walking a very short section of his dream river after reading and viewing pictures of it for many years, never thinking he was capable of fishing or walking the terrain. Luckily the sun was high and we found it stacked with fish. Nothing to the net but some crackers hooked and lost, and “it’s better to have hooked and lost, to never have hooked at all”.
- Being fortunate enough and having the opportunity to get outside into nature, and to share our waters day after day with a variety of people of different character, friends and clients, all with a love of fly fishing.
LOWLIGHT:
Seeing so many opportunities missed because people simply underestimate the NZ trout fishery, especially relatively easy opportunities on the many otherwise tough days. Big trout in clear water don’t care if you catch fish back home. If you can’t make a decent presentation to this fish, without first alerting him then he’s not going to eat your fly. There are no bad fishing days - just bad preparation. Practise any time you can as there’s no downside to becoming a better fly caster. Anyone can do this, and you’ll not only catch more fish, you will enjoy the entire experience a heck of a lot more. Simple.
AN EYE OPENER:
Just how high and discoloured a river can be, and still produce fish. Trout will still locate your regular sized flies in some pretty gnarly water conditions. You just have to work slower, more precise and much more methodical. Going big and bold just makes it a little easier however a small natural on a dropper ahead of a big-ass bloodworm, or stonefly took fish in some surprising conditions in the latter half of the season, and I’m not sure they would have eaten the ‘attention fly’.
SOMETHING YOU LEARNT:
Don’t give up. There’s always another cast, another bit of water, another opportunity to make that shot. Keep the enthusiasm and belief that it will happen alive, and it usually will...often right at the end of the day. Keeping people focussed and the hope alive, and striving to make them a better angler became my main approach to guiding this season. People, I feel caught more fish and had a better experience because of it.
HOW YOU'LL STAY FISHING OVER WINTER:
Good gear. Good friends and some of the finest scenery on the planet. Catching fish doesn’t actually factor into it in the bigger picture now, does it?