TVP ponders

1. Focus on a niche in a big market

NZ offers a huge variety of fishing types and locations. You can literally spend months chasing wild brown trout and rainbows in the lakes, rivers and estuaries of North and South Island. Whether you are a worm fisherman or a dry fly purist there is something for everyone. So you need to carefully chose your location and time of year to suit your fishing preferences. You can do some market research at Fish & Game New Zealand. We wanted to sight fish crystal clear rivers for the elusive brown trout ("salmo trutta" ) using dry fly or nymphing techniques. The region of Southland in the South Island offers world class fishing of this type with rivers such as the Mataura and the Oreti. We chose to set up base camp in Mossburn, a 2 hour drive from Queenstown, in the heart of this region with easy access to a wide variety of fishing to suit all skill levels. November is spring in NZ so the rivers are generally affected by some snow melt, and the weather can be unsettled. The trade off is that the fish have received less attention from visiting anglers since the season only commences in October and you gain first mover advantage.

2. Pick the right team

You need a balance of experience, skills, shared vision, and enthusiasm in any high performance team. Our team comprised Allan Aaron (newbie fly fisherman); Mike Zimmerman (reasonably experienced and on his 4th fishing venture to NZ); and John Murray (experienced with multiple ventures in NZ and Scotland). We quickly established the need for a local advisory board and recruited the talented Chris Dore. Chris offers a first class guiding service around Southland, and most importantly is full of enthusiasm and knowledge of the local conditions. If you are entering a new market you need this local expertise. Allan was also encouraged to do some background work on his casting skills, attending a course in Sydney prior to the trip. It's also worth checking out Sexyloops for some excellent online help on casting.

3. Be flexible and adapt your plans

We had planned our market entry for months and thought we had all the angles covered. However as the famous Scottish poet Robbie Burns once said:

The best-laid schemes of mice and men gang aft a-gley

We had not counted on external factors such as the NZ weather! Ideal fishing conditions are light winds, moderate temperatures, and a little overcast. Well, we had 3 solid days of cold, strong, north westerly winds blowing straight down the major rivers. This makes it very difficult to sight fish, and to cast upstream. There was also no insect hatch of any description and all the fish were lying tight and deep. Well you don't just give up! You change tactics - in this case we exploited Chris's knowledge of the region to pick out backwaters and sheltered spots; used weighted nymphs and shorter lines etc.

Roadblocks are inevitable in any new venture, and you have to use the team to figure a way round these on the fly. Offroad, heading for a secret spot in a river somewhere, we almost killed our venture with this unexpected mishap.

However good teamwork and a bit of heavy lifting enabled us to escape with nothing more than
a slightly dented ego for our inimitable guide.

4. Learn from your experience and try again

Although our venture was not a 10 bagger return (we only caught 3 fish), we all had a great time and learned much from the experience. Allan managed to catch his first trout on the fly, a lovely 3 pound brown. Like any great entrepreneur he has caught the bug, and will return with the rest of the team, in pursuit of the next big fish.