Fly Fishing Downunder late 2009

Come Fly With Me!

Although I have been fly fishing for 41 years, I had never done so outside of New South Wales, Australia until four years ago.

My good friends, Garry and Merrie Bott, convinced me to fly to New Zealand with Garry and his mate Col for a fortnight of trout stalking in the South Island.

People will tell you that Australia has good fly fishing and to an extent this is quite true. However, trout fishing here is not always consistent. Australia simply doesn't have the scope New Zealand offers and there can be long flat periods without a catch for a number of reasons.

In contrast, New Zealand has so very many rivers and lakes. They are also extremely fertile to inverterbrate life! The pristine, clean water is a delight to experience.

If you have a good background in fly fishing, polaroiding in particular, you can easily do it yourself, rather than incurring the expense of hiring professional guides.

Research can be readily obtained from books, maps, DVD's and other experienced fly fishermen of New Zealand waters. This will easily suffice for you to have an enjoyable, prolific fishing adventure in the land of the Long White Cloud.

New Zealand trout are by no means stupid but there are such a lot of them. They are also generally bigger than their Australian counterparts.

Overseas fishing trips don't need to be expensive if you hire older model cars and seek cheap air fares and budget accommodation.

I have now been fly fishing to New Zealand on four occasions in the past four years, three times to the South Island and once to the North Island.

God willing, I plan to visit the fly fishing Mecca of the world at least once a year for as long as I am capable of boarding an aircraft.

If you ever have the opportunity, "come fly with me"! You won't regret it.

Fly Fishing New Zealand March 2010

Pay Less to Fish More!

During those annoying times between fishing trips, I work as a financial planner in Tamworth, New South Wales.

It is a basic principle of money management that if you spend less, you can save more.

But my wife, one of the most highly qualified financial planners in Australia, has a completely different angle on this whole ‘spending less’ notion.

Ever since she earned her first babysitting dollar at the tender age of ten, Merrie’s lifelong philosophy has always been that you spend less so that you can buy more!

What does all this have to do with my addiction for fly fishing?

It’s simple. I spend as little as possible on each of my fishing flings across the ditch in order that I can go more often!

Another fiscal fallacy my wife detests is the mantra “you pay for what you get”.

On more than one occasion, a passenger has paid as much as six times what I did to put their bum on the seat next to mine! We didn’t pay the same yet we basically got the same.

OK, the cardiologist on the flight from Sydney to an outer Hawaiian Island did get meals, drinks, a blanket and movies for his $3,000 return airfare whereas I was denied such necessities of life on my miserly $525 ticket. Of course, I could have forked over a few bucks more and added these same services as a pre-paid package. Alternatively, I could have bought any individual service I desired once I was on board the plane. Any way you look at it, I would still have been in the enviable position of being able to purchase at least four (probably five) tickets for the price of his one!

Apart from cashing in frequent flyer points (a misnomer as they are really frequent shopper points nowadays), my cheapest return airfare from Sydney to New Zealand in 2009 was $175 return. This price included a 20 kg baggage allowance and all taxes (except for the NZ$25 departure tax collected at Christchurch airport).

Turning to accommodation, our choices vary from simple riverbank camping at one end of the spectrum to luxury resort dwelling at the other.

On my most recent fishing foray to the South Island, my wife “strongly suggested” we stay for a week in a three bedroom, two bathroom apartment (sleeps 8) in central Queenstown. You can easily find the joint quoted on internet at approximately NZ$350 per night. I am too embarrassed to print what we actually paid, but you would be right to assume that the entire week cost us less than one night at the publicly available rate.

Now Wife Management is an art I am yet to perfect, but admittedly this resort did work out extremely well, especially considering the torrential rain at that time. If it was too wet to fish, there was no alternative but to watch the footy on Foxtel. Such a happy co-incidence!
So now I know exactly what is meant by that slogan: “A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work”!

The third biggest trip expense is car hire. The various rent-a-wreck companies only charge a fraction of the price of the big name companies. And considering some of the ‘roads’ upon which we actually drive these vehicles in pursuit of those elusive trophy trout, who wants to hire a pristine new car that would easily show off every scratch?

So what do I typically pay for a two week fishing trip from Sydney to the Land of the Long White Cloud?

My share of the airfares, accommodation, car hire and fuel should not exceed $800, according to She Who Must Be Obeyed. Under $500 really brings a smile to her face. Over $1,000 elicits more than a frown.

Uh-oh! Those voices in my head are telling me to go fly fishing again. What the heck, at these prices, fly fishing is decidedly cheaper than therapy!