04/06/2026
๐ฃ Report: Club Trip Manawatลซ River, 22-24 May 2026 ๐ฃ
Being new to flyfishing, Shaz and myself have watched plenty of videos and spent may hours beside the river trying to learn the art. The May club trip to Dannevirke to fish the Manawatลซ was our first opportunity to get out on the river with experienced flyfishers and learn directly from the best.
Five of us made the trip up for the weekend with myself and Shaz joined by Strato, Phil and Jarek. We stayed at the Dannevirke Domain in a small A-Frame style bunk chalet. The groundsman Tony was very proud and excited about his smoker that could easily fit two whole cows.
We took the Friday off work and headed up early, meeting Strato at the campground around noon. Strato had headed up earlier to scout and have a quick fish himself. We were excited to hear he had had a successful morning of fishing using green woolly buggers. A promising start to the weekend, even if nothing landed was over 2lb. Strato generously lent Shaz one of his rods and we followed him off to the first of many fishing spots.
We settled on a stretch of river that had some good spots for both nymphing and downstream wet lining. I started with the nymphs and after being pointed in the right direction, I got some early excitement with a quick tug on my line after only a few casts. While nothing was hooked, this was the first time a fish had decided that one of my nymphs looked appealing enough to take a bite. Shortly after this Strato got one hooked and handed the rod over to Shaz to get some experience reeling a fish in. It was a good fight, but ultimately the fish broke off when it saw the net, a common theme of the weekend to come. I had my first taste of success and managed to hook and land my first trout ๐ฅusing the fly, a nice looking rainbow. ๐With this early success we headed back to the campground and meet up with Phil. He had also fished on his way up and managed to land a few small rainbows and one good sized brown. Jarek would not be joining us until the following evening.
The weather all weekend was wonderful, clear skies and no wind.๐ The fishing on Saturday was rather slow. We spent the first half of the day at a spot new to Strato. There was no interest in the nymph, so after a good fight with a sunken tree I switched to the wet line. Strato had been using the wet line with the green woolly buggers ๐ from the start, he landed one good sized rainbow with a number of others striking but quickly getting off. The culprit was determined to be a hook with no barb. ๐ช We tried a few other spots with no success until late in the afternoon. Here we had a good run with Strato landing quite a few small rainbows. While I didnโt land anything myself, I had multiple strikes and one good fight with a large brown who got off the hook upon seeing my net. ๐๐
Jarek joined us later having spent the day fishing some of his preferred spots. Like the rest of us, it had been a slow day but with some success stories to share. While the fishing may have been slow, that didnโt bring the mood down around the dinner table with many stories, laughing and lots of good food starting with S such as sausages stew, soup, etc.
A final fish on the Sunday morning was also slow with no strikes for myself. Shaz had a bit more success with a few nudges but nothing getting hooked. The highlight of the morning was Strato landing a 3lb rainbow Jack. ๐ฃ Later in the afternoon he found some success with excellent numbers of fish.
The fishing may have been slow, but it was an excellent weekend all round. The weather was perfect ๐and the company excellent. We felt welcomed and supported by experienced flyfishers who helped guide us to landing our first fish. We are looking forward to many more club trips in the future. ๐
~ Thomas
