Angling Report: March 2003 Lake Brunner Fly Fishing Report

7th - 10th March

Summer continues hot and dry, no appreciable rain since 20th Feb. Rivers very low and crystal clear. Lake temperature is 21.4C in some bays, 18.9C in the middle of the lake! The Bailey team land 7 fish on the first day along the lake shore, but it is not easy by any means. 

	Whitney Bailey holds up a fine 6 lb female brown in prime summer condition. This fish, laying in 1ft of water in a fast and skinny Ahaura River riffle, snapped up the chance of a #12 red Humpy!
	Alison Bailey, with another nice fish. This one was 4.5 lbs, took a #14 Gold-ribbed Hares Ear in fast water cascading into a deep pool.

The four days are repetitions of each other - hot and sunny.

13th - 14th March

The fine weather continued unabated, and the 13th was another nice day, although cloud cover increased and the forecast promised rain the following day. the barometer slipped a notch or two.... 

	Sharon Tamiya holds up her first Lake Brunner brown, landed 4 for the day.
	Richard Tamiya poses with his first Lake Brunner brown trout. his wife out-fished him 4 to 2 on the first day, he evened the score a little on the second day.

The 14th was dull, drizzle in the morning and rain threatened all day. Air temperatures remained mild, but still cooler than the water temperature by 3 degrees! The lake dropped from 20.4C to 18.9C by morning of 15th, due to cloud cover, south-west wind, and slightly lower air temperature. 

16th - 22nd March

Fred N Sutler (here for a week with his father a few weeks previously in December 2002) returned with his son Nathan, and workmate Tore Hadward for another week. The fine weather continued relentlessly - very warm & cloudless days. 

Tore achieved his goal of his first fish on a fly rod on the first day! Like many who have fished a lot with spinning gear, Tore struggled to master the fly rod. His one perfect cast of the day was rewarded by a trout which accepted the fly as soon as it hit the water!

Extremely difficult conditions - a total of 17 fish for the week, but hard work. Lake very warm, rivers at record low levels made fishing very challenging indeed. We were forced to become nocturnal, fishing the river mouths after dark. 

Fred N Sutler looms out of the darkness, clutching a nice brown trout.

Fred had brought over his "belly-boat" and afforded us a great deal of amusement - Nathan kept referring to him as the "Titanic" but Fred got the last laugh, landing 3 good fish within a few minutes on the first night mission, for a total of 8 that particular evening off the Orangipuku River mouth.

Here's another guy who does his best work in the dark... Nathan Sutler holds up the result of another nocturnal foray to the Orangipuku River mouth.

Angling Report: March 2003 Lake Brunner Fly Fishing Report

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