Introduction…

[Mike Wilkinson]

Well I joined the board a while ago and I don’t think I even got around to introducing myself yet??? I reside in Central Otago, New Zealand with my wife and two sons. We live in Cromwell on the shores of Lake Dunstan, so I do a lot of still water fishing here and really enjoy heading into Southland to catch up with mates and fish the small streams that abound. I actually joined to see some photos that Stu Hastie had posted from a trip to Lake Ota awhile back. I love to tie flies and started a blog a while back to share my flies and fishing experiences on the lake and trips to the south.
I have started a wee tying project for fun… I’m planning to tie my way through a book “Tying Emergers” by Jim Schollmeyer & Ted Leeson.
I love emergers and favor them to full dries most of the time. A bit different here in NZ, no real match the hatch situations so generic patterns work all year round but I just love to tie, I probably don’t even fish half the stuff I tie…
Here’s an intro pic to my project..

Ooops… I need to post something normal first before I link a pic …

Ok so picture to come….

Cheers
Mike

[Tim Angeli]

Welcome Mike.  Looking forward to seeing some of your flies here.  I’ve been on a bit of an emerger vibe this year, so I’m keen to see what you come up with.

[Mike Wilkinson]

Thanks Tim, I was the one who made the fly swap box for the cottage! I normally do the bulk of my tying during winter but it’s been a slightly funny season, not a lot of time on the water. I think if I hadn’t been up to Ota for the week with Simon and Grieg back in December, I’d have gone insane by now. it’s the thoughts of a week in April at the cottage keeping me sane right now.

[Chris Beech]

I’m right there with you on emergers! This is a modified shaving brush that has worked well for me the last few years. I sometimes put an orange foam post in there for visibility but my eyes seem to have improved lately.

Small fush by NZ standards though.

Best Regards,

Beechy

[Mike Wilkinson]

Nice Chris… not all NZ fish are monsters.
Well I’ll see if I can post a picture then…

And a link to my blog…

http://evolutionofaflyfisher.wordpress.com/

Something I like in my emergers I fish is a lot CDC, I tend to prefer it for my still water fishing…
I go towards deer hair when the river is a bit faster moving.
The wide variety of patterns from the book sure gets you thinking about tying and trying different flies.

[Mike Wilkinson]

Well I have been back at the vice with a few more flies, I will need to try and break away shortly to top up my April fly box in preparation for my end of season trip to Southland.
I made the mistake of clearing my tying space and reorganizing things, shifted stuff into different draws and boxes in an effort to be more organized… now I can’t find things.
Here’s the space before the tidy up…
My man cave… I may have to chuck a few things back across the desk so I can find things again.
Here’s one from the last batch an Emerging Dun originator Oliver Edwards.
I’m mucking around with a better holder for my photos to try and stop the focus on the cork! I can see myself heading to my brothers after I’ve done the project to re-shot the whole lot with his camera and macro lens  🙂

[Mike Wilkinson]

Been back at the vice and updated my blog with progress… I think I need to take more time and set up some lighting on the next series of shots. It’s funny browsing back over the photos and seeing the different lighting from batch to batch  🙂

Also a couple of flies after having a play for a local flyswap…

[C.B. Crumpler]

Those are looking great. Nicely done.

[Mike Wilkinson]

I’ve been a little slow on project of late, got side tracked with a fly swap and sorting boxes for April fishing in Southland, NZ.
I have added a couple of flies on the blog.. and couple for down south…

[Mike Wilkinson]

[Tim Angeli]

I love those CDC emergers Mike.

[Mike Wilkinson]

Thanks Tim, it’s always a good time, Southland in April… mostly for catching up with good mates!

[Mike Wilkinson]

The hatches never really came on for my trip south… hoping when I go down for the last week in April, the hatches will be in full swing. The flies all caught fish just had to tie few more nymphs while there.
I have been back at the vice to continue my project, this is probably my favorite from the latest batch…

You can see the rest on my blog…
http://evolutionofaflyfisher.wordpress.com/

Now to tie a few more flies for Southland

[Jeff Smith]

Those CDC flies are really cool. I’m just putting the finishing touches to an article I’m writing about CDC flies. There is an incredible amount of potential wrt tying with CDC.

[Mike Wilkinson]

I’m just back from 4 days fishing the mayfly hatches on the Mataura in Southland… the hatches were a little light but a wee CDC dun did the business. There was a day when the normal parachute profile was ignored but a CDC compara dun was accepted. I like CDC in still slow waters for that gentle movement.

[anonymous]

Welcome!

[Author]

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