Owen River Lodge is situated on New Zealand’s South Island and specialises in offering guests a five star service whilst fishing one of the world’s finest sight fishing destinations for large wild brown trout. The 2019 / 2020 season has just finished and it has been one to remember. As predicted in April, it was an extraordinary season and one for the books.

New Zealand, Owen River Lodge, fly fishing

Despite some superb trout fishing, the season was by no means an easy one. Much of this was due to tough weather conditions throughout. The start of the season was very wet, which led to a lot of flooding in our backcountry rivers. This was then followed by a very dry summer.

New Zealand, Owen River Lodge, fly fishing

What made up for the poor weather was that it was a mouse year. This was one of the most impressive mouse years we have seen. This season the long standing lodge records were broken several times over. Despite many great days and some huge fish, there were still a few especially memorable experiences in the season.

New Zealand, Owen River Lodge, fly fishing

Almost unheard of was three guests each landing and double figure brown in the same day. Peter smashed the lodge record with a monstrous brown of 14.5lb. In total (with a short season) our sensational guides guided our guests to 32 double figure browns this season, an extraordinary achievement and one I doubt will ever be broken.

New Zealand, Owen River Lodge, fly fishing

Although we have had to close the season early, the upside is that there’s a good chance many of these rodent eating monsters will still be double digit trout next season.

For more information on fly fishing in New Zealand and Owen River Lodge please contact Peter McLeod or call our office on +44(0)1980 847389.