Team Tuesday - Meet Matt Jones
Upon being asked by Matt (Wilson) to produce a little write up about me I jumped at the chance not realising how ridiculously difficult it is to write a somewhat “modest” article about myself for others to get in the know about who I am, so here goes.
Basically my name is Matt Jones and I’m an 18 year old fly nut from Christchurch, New Zealand. I was immersed into this fly fishing thing since I was a toddler accompanying my father as he fished the lowland streams in Canterbury for Brown Trout. When I was around eight years old I was handed a fly rod and never looked back, even though for a while I was lacking necessary forearm strength and by the end of summer the grass was higher than my head, not to mention I got my tits wet every time I had to cross a stream.
I’m not 100% on why I love fly as much as I do. I do quite enjoy sight fishing remote as water using terrestrial patterns larger than size 8, watching greedy Rainbows peel of the bottom to demolish that little piece of foam and fur I prepared in the vice earlier. It’s pretty hard to explain to someone that’s never fly fished how insane it is, so those of you that have fly fished will understand and those who haven’t, you don’t know what you’re missing out on!
My goals with fly fishing would be to pretty much seek bigger and more badass fish, saltwater especially. Kingfish are certainly on the cards, along with some more tropical species like Bone’s, GT’s, Permit etc. This was brought on from my pursuits of fly fishing for Kahawai on outgoing tides at the Canterbury river mouths, where you are not just fighting the fish but also a ripping 100+ cumec river mouth. That gets you deep into backing really fast then add a 6wt rod to that and you’ve got one hell of a recipe for fun!
Apart from the Kahawai some of my favourite experiences have come from fishing big rivers and lake for feisty Bows and Browns using large stimulator dries. Lakes on a windy days are the sickest thing out, no-one else is around because it’s “too windy” and there is no such thing as an elegant take when the waves are a metre high! I also love to target sea-run Browns in the salt water at the mouths and tidal areas of Canterbury’s braided rivers, fly fishing the surf at night makes for some exciting action!!
I’ve recently acquired a full time position working at the Complete Angler in Christchurch which is giving me a heap of learning to do as far as working with the pro’s like Darian Shaheen, Charles Smith and Malcolm Bell, no doubt I’ll pick up a few useful tips of them!