Taihape's Small Streams

Taihape's Russel Anderson is a well known guide and fly tier. I had a great day fishing with Russell along with Gareth Jones the Sales Director for Airflo in early April. Russell took us to one of his favourite creeks just out of Taihape and introduced us to his spider pattern (which is sold commercially by Umqua). After catching a handful of fish I was happy to kick back and watch Gareth line up fish after fish.

Gareth is a truly outstanding angler. We were testing the new tactical trout Ridge lines from Airflo but I was more interested in seeing how Gareths rods were performing, he fished an 8'8" Scott G2 #4. The little rod had plenty of power to handle even the biggest fish whilst also having the perfect action for delicate presentations. All of the fish we came accross seemed well programmed to sip down Russells Spiders. It was a great day, I had never fished the area before and once again I learnt a lot watching a master at work.

Straight after this trip I ordered a Scott G2 and started working on the agency for New Zealand, I've also loaded a fly box full of Russells Spiders.