I have been over there several times and to be honest I dont think you need a guide to be successful. We just bought a guide book and found fish in virtually every river we fished.

ahk, ive never been over there so the place is definately new to me, done a fair bit of bush bashing and freshwater fishing in the southwest, so I could potentially handle going out on my own. Where abouts did you do most of your fishing in NZ?

Send a pm to terboz123, he'll have the good oil.

Hi Keith, are you going to fish fly or spin?

If fly fishing always good to get advise/guide to put you on fish, if it is spin then go alone, plenty of fish, and remember to have a flick under any bridge that is over water you encounter.January February are good months to fish in NZ, good weather and plenty of hungry fish. if you are in the south island, it is around the main run of salmon that time of year, so well worth packing a good 6-8 kg outfit.

happy to give you more help and spots to hit, just send me a PM.

Maxx

Mate last time I went I spent the whole of Feb in the Sth Island. Its not hard to find fish and practically every river you stop and look at you will see fish, the water is crystal clear in most of them. We only fly fished though so im not sure how they respond to lures in such clear water. The only rivers we blanked in were the Nevis (a trophy river) and the Von as it wasnt flowing, everywhere else we caught plenty up to 10lbers too.

 as far as I can recall bring any line, felt based waders etc back into Oz due to the weird algae that infects their streams .......we fished the Tongariro with a guide as absolute rank amateur fly fishers and still hooked up to massive fish, didn't actually land any but hell it was fun 

Hi,

Been to the South Island to flyfish twice, in January and February. Although I caught plenty of fish and some big guns both times, it can be hard to find the right spot sometimes. Also rivers change after each winter. The weather is not as predictable as it is over here and you can be caught out by tons of rain or snow, even in "summer". Best rivers I fished were at Omarama (Ahuriri River), and the Mataura River south of Queenstown. If you want to spare yourself the guessing and avoid dissapointment (it can happen), then go with a guide. Try Stu in Athol: http://www.stusflyshop.com/

You can bring back line, flies, rods etc, but they must be clean and dry and customs will most likely give it a wash in alcohol. No felt boots allowed in NZ. Remember to wash all your gear before moving to another river system to prevent the spread of the Didymo algae.

Cheers

Chris

There maybe some info here that will help you out.

http://bestfishingwebsites.com.au/listing-category/travel-charters-guides-nz/