We were pleased to receive another booking from Casey Mattson for the Australian Women’s Fly Fishing Team needing some practice stalking some Tongariro fish that are feistier fatter and fitter than they can find across the ditch. Strange really as the NZ Brown trout were pinched from Tasmania about 140 years ago. They are preparing for the World Champs in Canada later in 2023.

Charley on left & Katherine on right crossing the Koura Street swingbridge.

Two other keen ladies – photo above who had not visited NZ before – joined her team and arrived a day early. So they bailed me up to sweetly interrogate me about where, how, when, why, etc. Charley confessed her lack of experience in casting on such a big river and limited basic local knowledge. I thought it was unusual to hear Aussies acknowledge any limitations although I also suspected I could detect a pommie accent? Something smelt fishy…  

As they were staying for a week I suggested a brief tiki tour around the local access points to familiarise them. It was really a conspiracy to escape the motel laundry duties, but someone has to do it. They were thrilled with the scenery and the Tongariro River’s one-hundred-year-old angler access tracks and historic pools that Kiwi’s take for granted.  

To speed up their learning curve I loaned them a kids comic book above which TRM use as homework for fly fishing novices to try to answer all their questions… Then I checked google to discover Charley is a qualified casting instructor and runs her own successful trout guiding business in Victoria… No wonder she is so successful – she sucked me in completely with a delightfully dry sense of humour that only trout fishos would understand…

The next day the Tongariro was flooded (flowing at 70 cumecs when they closed off the Poutu Canal) and had numerous tiny earthquakes so Casey took them over to the Wanganui River where they fine tuned their big river style casting with the results in the photos.

TRM are thrilled to have these “bonza Aussi sheilas” staying here and experiencing NZ river fishing around Turangi as there are not enough Kiwi women embracing the joys of fly fishing. 

I love the enthusiasm in “My Story” pinched from Charley’s website:

Why fly fishing? It’s a question I often ask myself when I see my reflection in the water

Why is it I love dressing in unflattering waders to spend hours on end waving a rod around in the hope of catching a fish? The answer is simple: fly fishing helps me make sense of the world.

Nearly three decades ago as a kid, I learned the best way to deal with stress was to grab my rod and head into the English countryside to chase wild trout for hours on end. Fly fishing took me away from my troubles and to a place where I felt totally at peace.

Today, I still get that same childish sense of adventure and excitement when I head out and immerse myself in the wilderness waist deep in water. Whether it’s in the UK, Argentina or Australia, fly-fishing takes me into inspiring environments and switches on the part of my mind where the beautiful stuff lives. Alone and free from digital distraction, fly fishing has taught me focus, patience, and to never lose hope because you just never know when luck might bite. And this is a gift that I’d love to share with anyone who’s keen to learn