Post by macmad on Aug 2, 2007 17:41:13 GMT
I'm heading home for Christmas and want to have a crack at the Salmon in the Waitaki and Clutha rivers. 
Very few people use fly rods for Salmon there largely because the rivers are very fast and deep: The Waitaki is usually between 250 and 400 cumecs while the Clutha average is about 600 cumecs. The most common set up is a large spinner with an ounce weight a metre up the line.
I've bought an Airflo depthfinder which has a sink rate of around 12 inches per second as well as a standard sinking line, hopefully this will get deep enough.
I would appreciate some advice about patterns that are likely to be worth a shot and also whether I should add quite a bit of weight to the flies or rely on the sinking line
I've tied up some gold bodied Willie Gunns on 2 inch copper tubes.
These rivers are fed by glaciers so are always cold and have a blue milky tinge. With that thought in mind I've tied up quite a few Ice Maidens.
Silver Doctors might also be worth a crack - there will be quite a few sea trout around too so silver bodied flies might work.
Is there anything else that you would suggest? I'm not going to have my tying gear with me so have to tie everything I'm going to try before I leave.
Very few people use fly rods for Salmon there largely because the rivers are very fast and deep: The Waitaki is usually between 250 and 400 cumecs while the Clutha average is about 600 cumecs. The most common set up is a large spinner with an ounce weight a metre up the line.
I've bought an Airflo depthfinder which has a sink rate of around 12 inches per second as well as a standard sinking line, hopefully this will get deep enough.
I would appreciate some advice about patterns that are likely to be worth a shot and also whether I should add quite a bit of weight to the flies or rely on the sinking line
I've tied up some gold bodied Willie Gunns on 2 inch copper tubes.
These rivers are fed by glaciers so are always cold and have a blue milky tinge. With that thought in mind I've tied up quite a few Ice Maidens.
Silver Doctors might also be worth a crack - there will be quite a few sea trout around too so silver bodied flies might work.
Is there anything else that you would suggest? I'm not going to have my tying gear with me so have to tie everything I'm going to try before I leave.