Waikato Regional Lake Championships – Lake Maraetai.

With a number of regular competitors abroad on holiday and a few members seemingly suffering from “Post Whakamaru Hydro Lakes Trauma” it was a smaller than usual field of ten anglers that competed for this trophy.

Nonetheless, there were several previous winners in the field, and it was a typically tightly contested event with the results in the balance right up to the end.
At the end of the first day, the lead was tied between Phil Connor and Brendan Lyon with Johnny Bell and Neil Hirtzel close behind but the final session was decisive seeing Johnny push his way past Brendan to snatch second, with a top score of four fish but Phil demonstrate his consistency with a three fish haul, meaning he had a podium position in each session and a total of just six session points.

Phil, who is a member of the New Zealand Silver Flies Development Squad this year, has been working on his loch style game diligently, including a year’s sabbatical in Scotland under the tutelage of some top anglers there. On this occasion, he was just back from a shorter trip to Scotland, only landing at 2am the day before the competition but did not let that put him off.
Phil said “I am really stoked to come away with this win. I fished it last year and missed a number of opportunities which cost me, so I was keen to have another shot at it this year so really happy I could get across the line - I think the main thing with Maraetai is being mentally prepared to grind out fish and continue to do the small things right so when you eventually do get a take you are able to convert. I landed all the fish hooked this weekend which obviously goes a long way in a low numbers competition.

For the majority of the weekend, I fished an 18ft leader with two flies on a DI5 sweep. Most fish came very close to the bank and, in the areas I targeted, I found that landing your flies within 5-10ft of the bank when possible was key. On drifts where we were approaching shoreline, I made an effort to put as many casts as I could close to the bank at a number of different angles to cover as much water as possible.
I also thought the 3.5mm tungsten on my point fly attracted the attention of these fish cruising the shoreline as most fish came in the first few strips after the fly landing. My most successful pattern was a black marabou dubbing loop style fly - they don’t really have a name, but you can see it in the photo I have provided.
Thanks to my boat partners Tim, Paul and Lance. Each partner had good ideas during their captaincy regarding location which was helpful as I was running out of options at times. Also, thanks to Manic Tackle Project - I was using their 7wt Primal Raw which I won in the pairs comp and has since become my favourite loch style rod and it was the perfect match for the big browns that Lake Maraetai holds.

Organiser, Tim Rich once dubbed “Mr Maraetai”, commented “I would like to thank all the anglers for competing in a sporting and jovial manner making for a very enjoyable event but especially Peter Scott and Paul Dewar for ensuring we had sufficient numbers for the competition and the latter for helping with the scoring.