Aug 20, 2019
Where Do We Stand With Year of the Mouse (Part 3 of 3)
In Part 1 of this series we generally covered The Year of the Mouse
In Part 2 we wrote about actions taken place to prevent it in 2019/2020
So, where do we stand? Should anglers plan on a Year of the Mouse happening?
Our take is that if there is an explosion of rodents, the result will be larger-than-normal football shaped fish. Opportunistic brown trout will gorge on mice during the night and from personal experience... it is truly something special to experience.
You won't know unless you are there. If you place yourself in a position to be in New Zealand during this time you will feel privileged to actually experience its happening.
The time to fish in 2019/2020 in our opinion would in the late season. This is March and April- after the trout have had the Spring and Summer months to pig out on mice. We can make no promises, but keep in mind that this is an event that happens about every six to seven years. It requires a few concurrent events.... but when these come together, it’s something to behold.
So, if you are interested to fish in New Zealand this may be a really good time to visit. Why wait? Unless you have found the fountain of youth or are confident that your casting abilities will be that much better in six of seven years... why not take the opportunity now to seize the chance?
Worst case scenario: The Year of the Mouse doesn't happen and you are stuck in New Zealand casting to world-class trout anyway.
The Best of New Zealand Fly Fishing will be canvassing the fishing lodges for up to date info on the rodent populations they are seeing. We will feature lodges and areas that hopefully have minimum impact from DOC and increase your chance to cast to trophies. For now the latest in concentration from the government is...
Per DOC: Priority sites for predator control include Kahurangi, Abel Tasman, Arthur’s Pass, Westland, Mt Aspiring and Fiordland national parks, the Catlins and Whirinaki. The program includes more than 66,000 ha of trapping with the remainder (more than 900,000 ha) aerial 1080 operations.
We hope you give us a call or an email soon!
And thanks for reading.
Contact us to plan and book your NZ fly fishing adventure.